Ecology Department, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Ecology and Conservation of Amazonian Vertebrates Research Group, Federal University of Amapá, Macapá, Amapá, Brazil.
PeerJ. 2022 Mar 25;10:e13185. doi: 10.7717/peerj.13185. eCollection 2022.
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.
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.
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.
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.
农作物种植是世界上最广泛的土地利用活动之一，耕地面积持续增加。许多脊椎动物以农作物为食，这导致了农田中人与野生动物冲突的增加。农作物受损会损害当地社区的经济，并以多种形式对负责的脊椎动物进行报复，包括狩猎和下毒等致命行为。致命控制可能导致一些物种在当地灭绝，影响生态过程和模式。因此，有必要寻找既能保护当地经济又能保护野生动物的非致命替代品。非洲和亚洲已经进行了相关研究，重点是大象和灵长类动物，并且正在研究一些非致命替代品的有效性，例如基于辣椒的驱虫剂和蜂巢。然而，中美洲和南美洲在这方面的研究非常少。本综述的目的是评估中美洲和南美洲脊椎动物对农作物造成损害的现有知识，并指出未来的研究方向。
我们通过在 Web of Science、Scopus 和 Google Scholar 上进行系统搜索，审查了 1980 年至 2020 年间发表的关于中美洲和南美洲及加勒比地区脊椎动物对农作物造成损害的现有科学文献，分析了研究的时间和地理分布、研究中考虑的农作物和脊椎动物物种、使用的农作物保护技术及其有效性。
我们仅检索到 113 篇关于拉丁美洲脊椎动物对农作物造成损害的研究，但随着时间的推移，发表的研究数量呈上升趋势。大多数研究是在巴西、阿根廷、墨西哥和哥斯达黎加进行的。哺乳动物的四个目（啮齿目、食肉目、偶蹄目和灵长目）和鸟类的四个目（雀形目、鸠鸽目、鹦鹉目和雁形目）是最常见的农作物食草脊椎动物群体。最突出的作物是玉米，占研究的 49%。其他值得注意的作物包括水稻、高粱和甘蔗。最常报道的保护作物的方法是通过狩猎或下毒进行致命控制。非致命技术的报道较少。提到使用保护技术的研究中，不到一半表明其有效性，只有 10 项研究通过进行科学实验和报告结果来评估其有效性。
中美洲和南美洲在脊椎动物对农作物的食性研究方面仍然代表性不足。需要进行基于实验的稳健研究，以找到既能最大限度地减少对脊椎动物的伤害，又能有效减少对农作物损害的作物保护技术。在进行这项研究的同时，需要停止栖息地的丧失和破碎化，以防止本地脊椎动物转向农作物作为食物。
