Warthogs are common visitors to African farmland where they can cause crop damage. Welfare-positive coexistence approaches protect both warthog welfare and farmer livelihoods.
Warthog welfare is threatened by snaring and hunting in response to crop damage conflicts. Snared warthogs may survive for days in severe distress before dying or being discovered. The indiscriminate nature of snaring also catches non-target species including leopards and wild dogs. Community-based approaches that provide compensation for crop losses and support crop protection methods — fencing, trenches, deterrents — reduce the economic motivation for lethal warthog control. Maintaining warthog populations as prey for recovering large predator populations also has ecological welfare value.