A United Nations agency has pointed to the use of "guard donkeys" to defend livestock from predators in a programme aimed at lessening human-wildlife conflict.
 Throwing stones at elephants may drive them off - but don't try it. © FAO/Edgar Kaeslin
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The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has released a series of tips in its tool-kit to reduce conflict between humans and wildlife.
Most of the tips centre around Africa, with its high concentration of wildlife and the continent's growing population, many of whom rely on crops for survival.
"Investing in a guard dog is a good way to warn of the approach of predators and keep them away," the FAO said.
"In some parts of Kenya, donkeys are used instead of dogs. They are fearless and can drive even large carnivores away by braying, biting and kicking."
The agency pointed to the effectiveness of pepper spray in deterrring elephants and said farmers might consider a guard donkey if lions, cheetahs or spotted hyenas were a threat to farm animals.
Snakes, it said, were a good deterrent to marauding baboons.
"While the measures suggested may raise a smile, there is nothing light-hearted about the problem they are designed to address," the FAO said.
The agency pointed to growing pressure between wildlife and humans, resulting in a growing thereat to people's lives and livelihoods and to their health from animal-borne diseases.
Competition between humans and wildlife goes back to the dawn of humanity. Fossil records show that the first hominids fell prey to the animals with which they shared their habitats. The famous "Taung skull" found in South Africa in 1924 belonged to a child whom scientists say was killed by an eagle two million years ago.
"But now," says FAO forestry and wildlife officer Rene Czudek, "things may be getting worse, particularly in Africa."
The population of the continent, which has the world's largest reserves of wildlife, is set to double from one to two billion in the next 40 years. Africans will not only be packing more tightly into the cities - they and their crops will also be increasingly pressing up against territory populated by wildlife.
The FAO's human-wildlife conflict mitigation toolkit largely focuses on problem-solving in Africa.
It is designed not only to help protect people, their livestock and their crops from animals but, just as important, to safeguard animals from people.
It suggests policies, strategies and practical tips to make increasingly tight cohabitation safer for everyone.
Wild animals represent the number one problem for Africa's rural populations in terms of personal security and because of the economic damage they can cause.
No global figures are available on crop losses but, says Czudek, "to the family concerned the loss of a patch of maize to raiding elephants can mean the loss of their food supply for a year, the difference between self-sufficiency and being destitute".
Elephants often like to feed on field crops, especially maize and cassava. Chasing a full-grown bull elephant off a property is obviously easier said than done but all elephants have a chink in their armour - they hate chilli pepper.
Exploiting this Achille's heel is the trademarked "Mhiripiri Bomber", a plastic gun which fires ping-pong balls containing a highly concentrated chilli solution that bursts over an elephant's skin on impact. It will send a bull elephant running for cover at over 50 metres.
Also effective is making chilli bricks out of elephant dung and ground pepper, positioning them around the edges of endangered fields and igniting them. The thick, peppery fumes keep elephants away.
Whole fields of chillies may also be planted and grown, keeping elephants away and yielding profits too.
Crocodiles do not have the same Achilles heel and the agency suggestings fencing watering points, as well as ensuring fish stocks are adequate to keep the crocodiles well fed.
Hippos, which, like elephants, are fond of raiding crops by night, may be deterred by shining a strong light in their eyes. But, the toolkit warns, caution should be exercised because they are unpredictable and may charge instead of running off.
Against baboons, one deterrent is a snake in a loaf of bread. Baboons which enter buildings to steal food may be scared off by placing a snake, preferably alive, inside a hollowed-out loaf of bread. When they grab the bread and find the snake inside, they get such a fright they take good care not to return.
The agency said it wanted to to educate farmers and villagers - and also policy makers - to perceive wild animals as an asset rather than as a threat to be eliminated.
"Awareness and training in how people can live better alongside wild animals are fundamental to the use of Human-Wildlife Conflict tools and in building local capacity for conflict prevention and resolution," the FAO said.
"But obviously villagers will only stop seeing wild animals as a nuisance or worse if rural communities receive some tangible advantage from living cheek by jowl with animal populations.
"Paying them a percentage of the revenue derived from tourism would be one way, while payments for the environmental services they provide is another. Compensation for damage to crops, injury or loss of life should also be considered."
"Whatever the specific measures taken, it is important that they are introduced soon, and properly implemented," says Czudek. "The alternative could be the progressive loss of wildlife as we know it across much of Africa - representing a tragic loss to us all."
The conflict tool-kit, currently being tested in southern Africa, was prepared in collaboration with the Agricultural Research for Development Centre, the World Wildlife Fund, the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources, and other partners.
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