Camera traps reveal the true culprit behind crop damage in Honduras

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A new study from the Honduran Mosquitia shows how simple, noninvasive technology can help solve one of the most common challenges in wildlife conservation: identifying the species actually responsible for crop damage. The full detailed results have been published in Neotropical Biology and Conservation.

Across tropical landscapes, people living near forests often share the same concern: wildlife entering agricultural fields and feeding on crops. In many cases, these interactions can generate tension between local communities and conservation efforts, particularly when threatened species are perceived as the main culprits.

In the Indigenous Miskitu community of Mavita, in eastern Honduras, local people have long reported losses in their cassava (Manihot esculenta) fields, locally known as yucales. Most residents believed that the damage was caused by Baird's tapir (Tapirus bairdii), an endangered species and the largest terrestrial mammal in Central America. They also suspected that pacas (Cuniculus paca) and armadillos (Dasypus mexicanus) were contributing to crop losses.

To answer this question, researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) installed camera traps equipped with solar-powered motion-activated LED lights around a 10-hectare (25-acre) cassava field located within a mosaic of Caribbean pine forest and tropical rainforest in the Honduran Mosquitia.

The goal was to document which mammals were actually visiting the crops and evaluate whether these light systems could eventually help reduce crop losses.

Over two months of monitoring, the cameras recorded seven mammal species, including tapirs, ocelots, jaguarundis, agoutis, opossums and rabbits.

Contrary to local perceptions, the species most frequently detected interacting with cassava crops was not the tapir, but the Honduran cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus hondurensis)—a species that locals did not even know occurred in their plantations. The cameras also found no evidence that armadillos or pacas were feeding on the cassava.

Meanwhile, tapirs were present in the area but appeared far less frequently than expected.

"Many conservation conflicts begin with assumptions. Without evidence, it is easy to blame large and conspicuous animals. Camera traps allowed us to identify which species were truly interacting with the crops and helped us separate perception from reality," explained lead author Manfred