man wildlife conflicts
What is Human-Wildlife Conflict?
Human-Wildlife Conflict is any interaction between wildlife and humans which causes harm, whether it’s to the human, the wild animal, or property. (Property includes buildings, equipment and camps, livestock and pets, but does not include crops fields or fences.)
Some examples of human-wildlife conflict that occur in the Yukon include:
- Foxes, wolves, coyotes, porcupines and bears frequenting residential areas
- Predation on livestock or domestic animals by wildlife
- Ungulate damage to crops and fences
- Flooding caused by beavers
- Wildlife strewing about residential garbage
- Squirrels or bats in home attics
- Birds nesting in undesirable residential locations
- Vehicle/wildlife collisions
While prevention is the best way to avoid human-wildlife conflict, we recognize that sometimes incidents are unavoidable. The Wildlife Act does allow you to kill wildlife in self-defense and, in some cases, in defense of property. Killing of wildlife for these reasons seldom happens in Yukon,
Principles for Preventing Human-Wildlife Conflict:
- Prevention of conflict situations through education, awareness and safe practices is the highest priority.
- Residents, governments, industry and visitors can and should play a role in reducing the potential for human-wildlife conflict.
- Government and non-governmental agencies have limited resources to devote to human-wildlife conflicts, and need to rely on every individual, industry and business to do their part to reduce the potential for conflict.
Principles for Responding to Human-Wildlife Conflict:
- The protection of human life is the highest priority in a human-wildlife conflict situation.
- When responding to human-wildlife conflict occurrences, decisions will be based on the minimum response necessary to achieve the objective of protecting human life and/or property.
- Wildlife is an important aspect of living in Yukon. There are both risks and benefits associated with living in a wilderness environment.
