Co-PI: Bruce Schulte (Western Kentucky University)
Senior Personnel: Mark Chambron (Western Kentucky University); Charles Kimwele (University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya)
Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) is a broad term encompassing all negative interactions between humans and wildlife; it stems from expanding human populations and competition for resources. In sub-Saharan Africa, crop-raiding is a widespread and economically damaging form of HWC. A single elephant or herd of bush pigs or buffalo can completely destroy a small farm in a day; in many areas, greater than 90% of farmers experience crop losses from wild life. This innovative project aims to test various aspects of behavioral ecology and the influence of modifying animal behavior on instances of HWC in Africa where wildlife raiding on rural farmsteads occurs.
This research project will target wildlife species that are of particular importance to crop damage (elephants, wild pigs, monkeys, and various hoofstock) and will attempt to use the evolved, adaptive behavioral responses of those species to a broad suite of sensory stimuli (especially sound and odor) to reduce crop loss. Adaptive behavioral responses are those that are inherent in a species and help individuals to survive and/or reproduce. Behavioral responses to various stimuli will be assessed for each target species to develop a set of effective stimuli that elicit responses that are disruptive to foraging or crop raiding. In addition, stimuli will be delivered in ways to reduce habituation by the target species. If/when such stimuli are identified, deterrent devices, including standalone, high-tech scarecrows and training collars will be field tested to determine whether the devices are capable of reducing visits to feeding sites by individuals or if they can modify group feeding behaviors in such a way as to reduce feeding intensity and therefore crop damage.
Broader Impacts: HWC can lead to the decimation of wildlife populations as farmers react to crop damage by killing wildlife or converting wildlife habitat to agriculture. This project will contribute to our fundamental understanding of wildlife biology that is essential for mitigating HWC and for conserving wildlife and functional ecosystems. However, the results from this research project may have the broadest impact on the small shareholder farmer. The intention of this research project is not to prevent all HWC, but to determine if changes in animal behavior can be characterized that may reduce specific, common types of crop damage during growing seasons, that in the long term will increase the yield of small shareholder farmers. Reducing HWC by even a few percentage points by disrupting foraging behaviors of animals at the agricultural-wildlife interface could improve food security in areas of Africa where the spectacular wealth of the wildlife resource contrasts with the often desperate poverty of the subsistence farmers. In addition, this project will train young scientists and community volunteers in the USA and Africa. The project will include both Kenyan and American university students working in partnerships in both cultural and scientific networks and will provide opportunities for American student researchers to work with local African communities. School groups, NGOs, and other interested parties will be able to access products from this project, including a digital library of sounds, behavioral data and engineering schematics of deterrent devices from a public website developed and maintained at the Department of Biology at Western Kentucky University (http://bioweb.wku.edu).
