Landscape Features Associated with Damage to Maize (Zea mays) Fields in Central México: A Comparison of Wind and Wildlife Damage

Abstract

Damage to maize (Zea mays) fields leads to negative attitudes towards wildlife that can affect conservation. In a Biosphere Reserve in central Mexico, local inhabitants perceive that wildlife causes major damage to maize fields. Therefore, we quantified maize damaged by wildlife species and by wind, and we explored whether this was related to the proportion of land-use categories in the landscape surrounding maize fields and the distance from maize fields to the nearest human settlements, water sources and forest patches. We quantified damaged maize plants and cobs in 180 samples from six 100 m2 quadrats in each of 30 maize fields. On average, damage in maize fields was less than 2% and 6.5% of the total maize cobs and plants, respectively. The white-nosed coati (Nasua narica) and the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) were responsible for most of the total damage to maize cobs, while wind was responsible for most of the damage to plants. Classification and regression tree analyses (CARTs) revealed that the highest levels of maize cob damage occurred in maize fields with less agricultural land cover in the surrounding landscape units and with longer distances to the nearest villages. Measured levels of maize damage were lower than the amount of damage perceived by local inhabitants. This human–wildlife conflict should be further addressed in the study area to avoid negative consequences for wildlife conservation.