Dataset Information

Commensal in conflict: Livestock depredation patterns by free-ranging domestic dogs in the Upper Spiti Landscape, Himachal Pradesh, India.

ABSTRACT: In human-populated landscapes worldwide, domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are the most abundant terrestrial carnivore. Although dogs have been used for the protection of livestock from wild carnivores, they have also been implicated as predators of livestock. We used a combination of methods (field surveys, interview surveys, and data from secondary sources) to examine the patterns and factors driving livestock depredation by free-ranging dogs, as well as economic losses to local communities in a Trans-Himalayan agro-pastoralist landscape in India. Our results show that livestock abundance was a better predictor of depredation in the villages than local dog abundance. Dogs mainly killed small-bodied livestock and sheep were the most selected prey. Dogs were responsible for the majority of livestock losses, with losses being comparable to that by snow leopards. This high level of conflict may disrupt community benefits from conservation programs and potentially undermine the conservation efforts in the region through a range of cascading effects.

SUBMITTER: Home C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5595737 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Commensal in conflict: Livestock depredation patterns by free-ranging domestic dogs in the Upper Spiti Landscape, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Home Chandrima C Pal Ranjana R Sharma Rishi Kumar RK Suryawanshi Kulbhushansingh R KR Bhatnagar Yash Veer YV Vanak Abi Tamim AT

Ambio 20170110 6

In human-populated landscapes worldwide, domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are the most abundant terrestrial carnivore. Although dogs have been used for the protection of livestock from wild carnivores, they have also been implicated as predators of livestock. We used a combination of methods (field surveys, interview surveys, and data from secondary sources) to examine the patterns and factors driving livestock depredation by free-ranging dogs, as well as economic losses to local communiti ...[more]

PMID: 28074403

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Project description:Human-carnivore conflicts over livestock depredation are increasingly common, yet little is understood about the role of husbandry in conflict mitigation. As shepherds and guarding dogs are most commonly used to curb carnivore attacks on grazing livestock, evaluation and improvement of these practices becomes an important task. We addressed this issue by studying individual leopard (Panthera pardus) attacks on sheep and goats in 34 villages near Golestan National Park, Iran. We obtained and analyzed data on 39 attacks, which included a total loss of 31 sheep and 36 goats in 17 villages. We applied non-parametric testing, Poisson Generalized Linear Modelling (GLM) and model selection to assess how numbers of sheep and goats killed per attack are associated with the presence and absence of shepherds and dogs during attacks, depredation in previous years, villages, seasons, ethnic groups, numbers of sheep and goats kept in villages, and distances from villages to the nearest protected areas. We found that 95.5% of losses were inflicted in forests when sheep and goats were accompanied by shepherds (92.5% of losses) and dogs (77.6%). Leopards tended to kill more sheep and goats per attack (surplus killing) when dogs were absent in villages distant from protected areas, but still inflicted most losses when dogs were present, mainly in villages near protected areas. No other variables affected numbers of sheep and goats killed per attack. These results indicate that local husbandry practices are ineffectual and the mere presence of shepherds and guarding dogs is not enough to secure protection. Shepherds witnessed leopard attacks, but could not deter them while dogs did not exhibit guarding behavior and were sometimes killed by leopards. In an attempt to make practical, low-cost and socially acceptable improvements in local husbandry, we suggest that dogs are raised to create a strong social bond with livestock, shepherds use only best available dogs, small flocks are aggregated into larger ones and available shepherds herd these larger flocks together. Use of deterrents and avoidance of areas close to Golestan and in central, core areas of neighboring protected areas is also essential to keep losses down.

Project description:Human-carnivore conflicts and retaliatory killings contribute to carnivore populations' declines around the world. Strategies to mitigate conflicts have been developed, but their efficacy is rarely assessed in a randomized case-control design. Further, the economic costs prevent the adoption and wide use of conflict mitigation strategies by pastoralists in rural Africa. We examined carnivore (African lion [Panthera leo], leopard [Panthera pardus], spotted hyena [Crocuta crocuta], jackal [Canis mesomelas], and cheetah [Acinonyx jubatus]) raids on fortified (n = 45, total 631 monthly visits) and unfortified (traditional, n = 45, total 521 monthly visits) livestock enclosures ("bomas") in northern Tanzania. The study aimed to (a) assess the extent of retaliatory killings of major carnivore species due to livestock depredation, (b) describe the spatiotemporal characteristics of carnivore raids on livestock enclosures, (c) analyze whether spatial covariates influenced livestock depredation risk in livestock enclosures, and (d) examine the cost-effectiveness of livestock enclosure fortification. Results suggest that (a) majority of boma raids by carnivores were caused by spotted hyenas (nearly 90% of all raids), but retaliatory killings mainly targeted lions, (b) carnivore raid attempts were rare at individual households (0.081 raid attempts/month in fortified enclosures and 0.102 raid attempts/month in unfortified enclosures), and (c) spotted hyena raid attempts increased in the wet season compared with the dry season, and owners of fortified bomas reported less hyena raid attempts than owners of unfortified bomas. Landscape and habitat variables tested, did not strongly drive the spatial patterns of spotted hyena raids in livestock bomas. Carnivore raids varied randomly both spatially (village to village) and temporally (year to year). The cost-benefit analysis suggest that investing in boma fortification yielded positive net present values after two to three years. Thus, enclosure fortification is a cost-effective strategy to promote coexistence of carnivores and humans.

Dataset Information

Commensal in conflict: Livestock depredation patterns by free-ranging domestic dogs in the Upper Spiti Landscape, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Publications

Commensal in conflict: Livestock depredation patterns by free-ranging domestic dogs in the Upper Spiti Landscape, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Similar Datasets

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