Science & Society
Biodiversity Conservation Requires Management of Feral Domestic Animals

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The proliferation of feral domestic animals (FDAs) has been favored by human-induced landscape changes, a world population becoming increasingly urban, and by inappropriate management of domestic animals. Here, we describe the impact of FDAs and the opposing views in societies that affect the decision-making process and management actions. We provide general recommendations for the participatory management of this emerging threat to biodiversity and rural ecosystems.

Section snippets

FDAs in the Anthropocene

The loss of biological diversity is one of the severe global environmental problems of our age – the Anthropocene – during which human activities have become a force of global geophysical change [1]. Well-known human-induced factors affecting biodiversity in the Anthropocene include habitat loss, overhunting, nutrient and agrochemical pollution, climate change, and alien species [2]. Less known and underestimated is the growing effect of domestic animals, and especially the ones that become

Ecological Consequences of the Proliferation of FDAs

When domestic animals are unattended, abandoned, or poorly managed, they can become independent from human care and roam free in rural areas (see definition in next section and Figure 1). FDAs have a negative impact on biodiversity in both developed and developing countries [5]. Recorded environmental impacts of FDAs in rural areas include soil erosion (e.g., feral pigs) and overgrazing (e.g., feral horses and cattle); disease transmission to people (e.g., by epidemics of rabies driven by feral

From Domestic Animals to FDAs in the Anthropocene

The process of becoming feral (Figure 1), typically occurs when well-managed livestock and pets (Stage I) cease to be controlled and are either abandoned or lack proper care and management (Stage II). Before becoming completely feral, domestic animals often go through an intermediate stage in which they roam free, either temporarily or permanently. As FDAs begin to reproduce freely in the wild and become independent of humans, they cause a wide range of negative impacts on biodiversity and

Have We Forgotten to Manage FDAs?

A major characteristic of the Anthropocene is that humans are increasingly living in urban areas; current projections for the mid-21st century point to 70% of the world population becoming urban [12]. Correlated with this increasingly urbanized world is the growing number of pets, and the abandonment of unwanted animals both within cities outskirts and rural areas 8., 13.. Both livestock and pets are sources of FDAs, which are characterized by rapid reproduction, adaptive social learning and

Recommendations for Management of FDAs

Our specific recommendations to address the effects of FDAs, following adaptive management principles, are: (i) to identify sources of FDAs and assess, case by case, their detrimental ecological effects on biodiversity and ecosystem composition, structure and function; (ii) to estimate the sociocultural and economic effects that FDAs have when they impact local biotas and rural livelihoods; (iii) to raise community awareness of the negative impacts of FDAs to gain support for management

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the editor and reviewers who contributed with their comments and suggestions to this article. We also thank Prof Iain Gordon and Prof Gerardo Ceballos who revised previous versions of this manuscript. Ms Ana Muñoz, Mr Jerry Laker and Constanza Arevalo helped with editing the figure and audio, and proofreading. This work was partially funded by Fondecyt (Project number: 1120969) and Centre for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (CIIR: Project 15110006).

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