Human-animal clashes on rise

As human populations expand and climate change alters natural habitats, encounters between people and wild carnivores are becoming increasingly common, leading to a rise in conflicts that often end in tragedy for both sides.

In the wake of a series of predator attacks on hikers and park rangers in the US, Ally Hirschlag delves into the reasons why animals attack humans in the wild, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

Keri Bergere was on a Saturday afternoon bike ride with friends along the heavily forested Tokul Creek trail near Fall City, Washington, when two cougars suddenly crossed their path. One vanished into the woods, but the other quickly turned back, lunging at the 60-year-old woman and dragging her off her bike. "We didn't have a chance to confront them or scare them away," her friend, Annie Bilotta, recounted to a local news station.

The young cougar latched onto Bergere’s face, refusing to release its grip for 15 agonizing minutes. Her friends tried everything: they struck the cougar with sticks, dropped a 25-pound (11.4kg) boulder on its head, and stabbed it with a small knife, while Bergere fought back, poking it in the eyes and mouth. When the cougar finally loosened its grip momentarily, Bergere managed to escape. Her friends then pinned the animal down with a bike until help arrived. Although Bergere survived, she sustained severe, permanent nerve damage to her face.

In Haines Junction, Yukon, Vanessa Chaput was out for a run with her dog when she encountered three grizzly bears. As a Kaska woman familiar with apex predators, Chaput knew to keep her distance, she told APTN News. However, when her dog broke free from its leash, one of the bears charged at her, sinking its jaws into her head. Fortunately, Chaput was wearing a claw clip that broke in the bear’s mouth, startling it enough to release her. Her dog's barking then diverted the bear’s attention long enough for her to escape to the highway and call for help. Chaput was left with puncture wounds along her arm, a broken bone, nerve damage, and torn triceps.

Neither Bergere nor Chaput did anything to provoke these attacks; they are classified as unexpected encounters, where carnivores and humans cross paths, triggering defensive behavior in the animals. Chris Servheen, a retired grizzly bear recovery coordinator for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, says this is the most common type of bear attack he's observed. "Usually, the bear tries to knock the person down or neutralize them because it's afraid and then runs away," he explains.

While Servheen notes that bears involved in such attacks are rarely removed or euthanized, both the cougar and the grizzly bear in these incidents were put down. As human-wildlife conflicts escalate due to expanding human populations and resource shortages driven by climate change, such outcomes may become increasingly common, potentially undermining long-term conservation efforts. Already, human-wildlife conflict has contributed to the decimation of wolf populations in Europe and the United States, as well as the extinction of tiger subspecies in the southern hemisphere.

"There's a lot of attention around these attacks, but in reality, the number of incidents is very low," says Vincenzo Penteriani, a researcher with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). A 2023 study co-authored by Penteriani found that between 1950 and 2019, there were 5,089 large carnivore attacks worldwide. Only 32 per cent of those attacks resulted in human fatalities, with two-thirds of the deaths caused by large cats such as lions and cougars.

There are three other common drivers of carnivore-human attacks, some of which are more preventable than others. Natural aggression-based conflicts, such as those involving mothers protecting their young or animals guarding a food source, can often be avoided if people keep their distance from these animals and their food.

However, when carnivores begin to associate humans with easy access to food, the situation becomes more complicated. As they become increasingly reliant on food found at campsites or in trash bins, they lose their natural fear of humans, leading to more frequent and dangerous encounters. This often results in the animal being euthanized. "A fed bear is a dead bear," says Servheen, referencing a common saying among biologists and conservationists.

Predatory or predation-related attacks are quite rare, accounting for only 17 per cent of attacks in North America since 1955. These occur when a carnivore perceives a human as prey and hunts them as they would any other food source. A recent example is the mountain lion that killed a 21-year-old and severely injured his brother in El Dorado County, California—the first predatory attack of its kind in the state in 20 years.

Then there are animal attacks triggered by people attempting to take photos with them or feeding them in natural settings like national parks. These encounters often end with the animals being euthanized as a precaution. "Eventually, that animal becomes habituated to people, and [then] bad things happen to the animal. And the folks who initially wanted to make that connection don't necessarily realize that," says Christine Wilkinson, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley, California, who studies coyote-human conflicts.

Penteriani's team, after analyzing 75 years' worth of carnivore-human attacks, believes that 50 per cent of these incidents could have been avoided if humans had reacted differently. A 2017 study co-authored by Penteriani found that engaging in risky behaviors around large carnivores significantly increases the likelihood of an attack.

Two of the most common risky behaviors include leaving children to play outside unattended and walking an unleashed dog, according to the study. Wilkinson notes that 66 per cent of coyote attacks involve a dog. "[People] end up in a situation where their dog is being chased, or their dog chases a coyote, or maybe they're walking their dog near a den that's marked, and the coyote wants to escort them away," she explains.

Penteriani's research indicates that large carnivore attacks have steadily increased from 1950 to 2019, though this may be partly due to increased reporting of wildlife-human conflicts. Several factors contribute to this trend. For one, carnivore conservation and population recovery efforts have been highly effective in recent decades. "The population of grizzly bears is five times what it was 40 years ago in the lower 48 states," says Servheen.

However, urban sprawl in high-income countries is a more concerning factor. Servheen points out that people moving from cities into the countryside often lack the knowledge or take the time to learn how to coexist with wildlife. This ignorance leads to careless behavior, such as using non-animal-proof trash bins, which can condition carnivores to see humans as a source of food, ultimately turning them into threats.

Experts also believe that climate change contributes to the escalation of human-carnivore conflicts, though the precise relationship is still being studied. "As finite resources become scarcer, carnivores and people are coming into more frequent contact, which could lead to more conflict," says Jen Miller, international program specialist for the US Fish & Wildlife Service. She notes an increase in lion attacks in western India during a drought, where lions and people were forced to rely on the same dwindling water sources.

Climate change is also impacting hibernation patterns, especially in the northern hemisphere. Servheen explains that shorter winters and reduced snow coverage may cause bears to emerge from hibernation earlier, before their usual food sources like insects and plants are available. "As they descend into valleys in search of food, they encounter more populated areas," he says.

In the Arctic, warming temperatures and melting ice are driving polar bears into human-occupied areas in search of sustenance. For example, in August, two polar bears killed a worker at a remote Arctic radar station in Canada's Nunavut Territory, although the exact cause of the attack remains unclear.

Penteriani's research suggests that the likelihood of human-carnivore conflicts is higher in low-income countries with vast rural landscapes and farmlands. "In the Global South, working landscapes often overlap with carnivore habitats like forests and savannahs, increasing the chances of encounters," explains Wilkinson.

These regions typically have larger and more widespread carnivore populations. Since local communities often depend on agriculture and livestock for survival, their interactions with carnivores are more frequent, setting the stage for a vicious cycle of conflict that often leads to more animal deaths than human ones.

"Violence—both retaliatory and preventative killing of wildlife—can become the only option for livestock producers trying to sustain their livelihoods or feed their families in some areas," says Feldman.