Research overview: seasonal and temporal patterns in big-cat conflict

This overview reviews research on when big-cat conflict peaks, examining seasonal and diel patterns in depredation and attacks across systems. It synthesises findings that conflict often rises during periods of wild-prey scarcity, livestock calving, crop-guarding seasons, monsoon cover, or when herds move to forest-edge pastures, and that attacks cluster at particular times of day linked to predator activity and human exposure. The literature connects temporal patterns to husbandry timing, harvest cycles, and prey availability. The survey frames understanding temporal dynamics as practically valuable, enabling time-targeted interventions, intensified guarding, restricted grazing, or warnings during high-risk windows, and improving the efficiency of conflict mitigation by concentrating effort when and where attacks are most likely.