Pervasive livestock depredation involving lions, leopards, and spotted hyenas requires landscape level conservation strategies in Queen Elizabeth National Park

Human-carnivore conflict involving domestic livestock and lion ( Panthera leo ), leopard ( Panthera pardus ), and spotted hyena ( Crocuta crocuta ) are ongoing challenges for safety, economic security, and wildlife conservation in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park. To better understand local human-carnivore conflict, we used a Negative Binomial Generalised Linear Mixed Model to analyse conflict data that occurred between 2015 and 2021 in 11 communities located within the park. Results revealed that human–carnivore conflict is both persistent and spatially pervasive, and that carnivore species, ecological seasons, and study year do not significantly impact conflict frequency, thus suggesting a temporally stable phenomenon rather than one necessarily driven by specific factors throughout the study area. These findings imply that effective human-carnivore conflict prevention and mitigation efforts require broad, consistent strategies across the national park landscape rather than targeted interventions of conflict hotspots, as conflict is not confined to particular agents or seasons. Implementing broad-based conflict prevention and mitigation strategies may prove useful for the conservation of lion, leopard, and spotted hyena in Queen Elizabeth National Park through increased safety measures for people and their livestock, promoting greater tolerance of larger carnivores, and fostering coexistence in a national park that also functions as a mixed-use landscape.