Human wildlife conflicts (HWC) represent a global challenge for the conservation of species. We registered all the available scientific publications on this subject from 1983 to 2017, in order to analyze the HWC research performed in Mexico. Our results indicate that this subject has been scarcely studied, with less than half of the studies published in scientific journals. The reviewed documents focus on the description and quantification of damage by wildlife, with a total of 112 species mentioned including birds, amphibians, mammals and reptiles that damage crops, livestock, poultry, and human health. Of these, nine species made up 41% of the total amount of species that were mentioned. We believe that adequate management and resolution of HWC requires the participation and training of groups of multidisciplinary scientists and technicians. Research in Mexico is scarce and recent and is mostly promoted by the conservation programs and strategies implemented by the federal government.

Damage to maize (Zea mays) fields leads to negative attitudes towards wildlife that can affect conservation. In a Biosphere Reserve in central Mexico, local inhabitants perceive that wildlife causes major damage to maize fields. Therefore, we quantified maize damaged by wildlife species and by wind, and we explored whether this was related to the proportion of land-use categories in the landscape surrounding maize fields and the distance from maize fields to the nearest human settlements, water sources and forest patches. We quantified damaged maize plants and cobs in 180 samples from six 100 m2 quadrats in each of 30 maize fields. On average, damage in maize fields was less than 2% and 6.5% of the total maize cobs and plants, respectively. The white-nosed coati (Nasua narica) and the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) were responsible for most of the total damage to maize cobs, while wind was responsible for most of the damage to plants. Classification and regression tree analyses (CARTs) revealed that the highest levels of maize cob damage occurred in maize fields with less agricultural land cover in the surrounding landscape units and with longer distances to the nearest villages. Measured levels of maize damage were lower than the amount of damage perceived by local inhabitants. This human–wildlife conflict should be further addressed in the study area to avoid negative consequences for wildlife conservation.

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deforestation, expansion of the agricultural frontier, urbanization and poor planning in natural resource management. The management of deer species has been shown to have great potential to promote conservation and sustainable use of the ecosystem of which they form part of. Before proposing a management strategy for white-tailed deer in the CBCH, it is necessary to consider the basic characteristics of the species distribution in the area, obtain reliable data on their population density and set policies consistent with management information obtained. This study is an important contribution to the knowledge of the species in temperate forests of the state of Morelos, since there was no investigations with the same species in the same type of habitat. On the other hand, in terms of habitat selection, white-tailed deer preferred the pine-oak forest and cloud forest. The low density of white-tailed deer appears to be related to a set of factors such as land use change, poaching and habitat availability.