H-W CONFLICTS

Tackling the coexistence challenge

Research Pathway: Human-Wildlife Conflicts

Agreement bewteen Servicio de Ecopatología de Fauna Salvaje (SEFaS-UAB), and Ayuntamiento de Barcelona. Period: Since 2014.

Although urbanisation is a well-known cause of biodiversity loss, not all the animal species avoid urban areas and humankind. On the contrary, synurbic species (i.e., species adapted to urban environments) take advantage of urban environments and manage to thrive even better than in their natural habitats. Wildlife presence in or even colonisation of urban habitats entails a series of adaptions (e.g., behavioural, ecological, nutritional), as well as the appearance of new conflicts, hazards and risks derived from the closer interaction with humans.

Welcome to the H-W CONFLICTS project. We aims at producing scientific knowledge on wildlife in urban environments, to provide a sound basis for a scientific-oriented management approach. The topics covered include population dynamics, disease surveillance and monitoring, ecology, management, social aspects, capture and welfare, among others.

Our hypothesis is…

“The negative impacts of wildlife on urban environments would be attenuated through mathematic modelling, wildlife management programmes, citizen awareness campaigns and the adaptation of the urban landscape”

Network

To achieve such a complex a multifactorial objective, the participation and involvement of researchers, institutions and stakeholders is essential. Up to eleven groups from six national and three foreign research institutions collaborate to pursue the goal. The collaboration of stakeholders, such as the Federació Catalana de Caça, hunting associations, private companies and enterprises, animal right associations, and citizens is crucial to achieve our objectives.

The participating administrations include:

Moreover, the WE&H is a member of the EUROBOAR platform, aimed at sharing results and constructing collaborative knowledge on wild boar at European scale.

Feral pigeons are one of several species that are extremely well adapted to our cities because they find in buildings habitats similar to the cliffs where they live in the wild. Our research team also work evaluating management measures oriented to control their populations.