van Houdt, S. and Traill, L.W. orcid.org/0000-0001-5704-108X (2022) A synthesis of human conflict with an African megaherbivore; the common hippopotamus. Frontiers in Conservation Science, 3. 954722. ISSN 2673-611X
Abstract
The common hippopotamus is an extant African megaherbivore that is relatively understudied by scientists and underfunded by conservation organisations. Conflict with people, however, is a major concern given the danger that hippos pose to human life. Moreover, very little is known about human–hippo conflict (HHC), and experimental fieldwork on mitigation methods has hardly been conducted. Here we conduct an exhaustive review of the primary and grey literature outlining how the conflict between people and hippos arises, the impacts of conflict on both human communities and hippo populations, and all known intervention measures. Our review highlights the effectiveness of barriers around crops, riparian buffer zones (that exclude cattle and crop planting), and payments for environmental services as tools to mitigate HHC. This study also highlights the knowledge gaps in HHC research, particularly the spatial scale of HHC, the lack of field experimental research on deterrents, and a paucity of knowledge on outcomes of projected climate change and HHC.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 van Houdt and Traill. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
Keywords: | Africa; hippopotamus; conflict mitigation; human wildlife conflict; freshwater ecology |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Biological Sciences (Leeds) > School of Biology (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 18 Jul 2023 10:07 |
Last Modified: | 18 Jul 2023 10:07 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Frontiers Media |
Identification Number: | 10.3389/fcosc.2022.954722 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:201657 |