Crop damage by vertebrates in Latin America: current knowledge and potential future management directions

Abstract

Background Crop farming contributes to one of the most extensive land use activities in the world, and cropland areas continue to rise. Many vertebrate species feed on crops, which has caused an increase in human-wildlife conflicts in croplands. Crop-feeding damages the economy of local communities and causes retaliation against the responsible vertebrates in several forms, including lethal practices such as hunting and poisoning. Lethal control may cause the local extirpation of some species, affecting ecological processes and patterns. Therefore, it is necessary to find non-lethal alternatives that can protect both local economies and wildlife. Research has been conducted in Africa and Asia, focusing on elephants and primates, and the effectiveness of some non-lethal alternatives, such as chili-based repellents and beehives, is being investigated. However, there has been very little research on this topic in Central and South America. The goal of this review is to assess the current knowledge on crop damage by vertebrates in Central and South America and indicate future research directions. Survey methodology We reviewed the available scientific literature reporting crop damage by vertebrates in Central and South America, and the Caribbean, published between 1980 and 2020, through systematic searches on Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar. We analyzed the temporal and geographical distributions of the studies, the crops and vertebrate species these studies considered, the crop protection techniques used, and their effectiveness. Results We retrieved only 113 studies on crop damage by vertebrates in Latin America, but there was an increasing trend in the number of studies published over time. Most of the studies were conducted in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Costa Rica. Four orders of mammals (Rodentia, Carnivora, Artiodactyla, and Primates) and four orders of birds (Passeriformes, Columbiformes, Psittaciformes, and Anseriformes) were the most common groups of crop-feeding vertebrates. The most prominent crop was corn, which was featured in 49% of the studies. Other notable crops include rice, sorghum, and sugarcane. The most reported method for protecting crops was lethal control through hunting or poisoning. Non-lethal techniques were found to be less prevalent. Less than half of the studies that mentioned the use of protection techniques indicated their effectiveness, and only 10 studies evaluated it by performing scientific experiments and reporting their results. Conclusions Central and South America is still underrepresented in research on vertebrate crop-feeding. There is a need for experimentation-based robust research to find crop protection techniques that minimize harm to vertebrates while effectively reducing damage to crops. While this is being studied, habitat loss and fragmentation need to be halted to prevent the native vertebrates from turning to crops for food.

Long-Term Camelid Husbandry and Agricultural Intensification in the Southern Nasca Region, Peru: Insight from Faunal Isotopes

“…This could represent deer browsing in fields near Upanca (e.g., Cormie and Schwarcz 1994). Such a pattern has been observed among archaeological (Emery et al 2000) and modern (Can-Hernández et al 2019;Flores-Armillas et al 2020;Hermira and Michalski 2022) deer elsewhere in the Americas.…”

“…This suggests that cervids may have been obtaining some of their food by grazing in Nasca fields, some with fertilized C 3 and others with unfertilized C 4 plants. Although deer are extirpated in the region today, deer field grazing and crop damage are well known in other areas of Latin America (Can-Hernández et al 2019;Flores-Armillas et al 2020;Hermira and Michalski 2022). Unfortunately, we did not have enough older cervid samples to evaluate this behavior before the Nasca period.…”

Host sweet host: Rodent communities support similar ectoparasite diversity regardless of anthropogenic disturbance

“…This was the case in our study, with Sigmodon and Rattus only being found in disturbed sites. Both genera are associated with human agricultural activities (Hermira & Michalski, 2022) and have been identified as reservoirs of multiple zoonotic diseases carried by ectoparasites, such as Lyme disease (Lee & Williams, 2006; Rodríguez‐Rojas et al., 2020; Roque & Jansen, 2014). Of the two synanthropic rodent species found at the disturbed sites, only S .…”

“…This was the case in our study, with Sigmodon and Rattus only being found in disturbed sites. Both genera are associated with human agricultural activities (Hermira & Michalski, 2022) Ramalho-Ortigao & Gubler, 2020).…”

Surviving in the Amazon Arc of Deforestation: richness and defaunation of mammals in priority protected areas of the Brazilian Midwest

“…In addition to causing extensive habitat loss, the expansion of large-scale monoculture crops in the Amazon Arc of Deforestation region, where the two parks are located, may be contributing to increased hunting of T. pecari(Lima et al 2019). Like in other areas of the Amazon and Cerrado, these animals are often hunted in retaliation for crop consumption and damage(Rosa et al 2021;Hermira and Michalski 2022). This frequent use of agricultural areas by peccary ocks may also explain the low frequency of records of the species in protected areas, impacting its detectability and ecological role in its natural habitat(Fragoso, 1998; Magioli et al 2021).…”