A review of depredation modelling across terrestrial and marine realms: State of the art and future directions

Depredation has become a major concern worldwide as it jeopardises both socio-economic activities and species conservation. While modelling can help to inform the management of these conflicts, effectiveness may be hampered by the complexity of interactions that depredation generates within socio-ecological systems. Based on a systematic literature review, we summarised current practices and identified major gaps and research priorities for depredation modelling. We found that 74% of reviewed studies used statistical models to quantify depredation levels, identify environmental or anthropogenic factors influencing these levels or assess the effectiveness of specific mitigation measures. Only 8% of studies used models incorporating elements related to the three main entities involved in depredation: human activity, depredating species and depredated resource. Such integrated modelling approaches are however crucial to comprehensively assess management trade-offs. Thus, we highlighted future research priorities to comprehensively model depredation and inform the management of human-wildlife conflicts.