Research overview: intentional and unintentional feeding driving felid conflict

Direct provisioning, whether intentional feeding of wildlife or unintentional access to pet food, livestock and garbage, can habituate felids to people and escalate conflict. This overview synthesises research on how food conditioning alters carnivore behaviour, reduces wariness and increases dangerous proximity, drawing on cases across urban-edge felids. It examines management responses including securing attractants, public education against feeding, and the difficulty of reversing habituation once established. The synthesis frames the control of anthropogenic food access as a frontline coexistence strategy, since the behavioural pathway from food subsidy to bold, conflict-prone animals is well documented across carnivores near human settlement.