Guard Dogs to Protect Sheep Grazing in Fenced Pastures Against Wolf: a New and Still Challenging Practice

Potet, Baptiste; Moulin, Charles‐Henri; Meuret, Michel

doi:10.4000/rga.8855

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…(Breitenmoser et al 2005;van Bommel and Johnson 2012). The number of livestock needing protection is an important factor determining how many dogs are needed (van Bommel and Johnson 2012;Potet et al 2021). Therefore, running more livestock without increasing LGDs to maintain a suitable ratio of stock to dogs is likely to see a decrease in effectiveness of protection.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Still a good dog! Long-term use and effectiveness of livestock guardian dogs to protect livestock from predators in Australia’s extensive grazing systems

Bommel

Johnson

2023

Wildlife Res.

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Context Livestock predation is a significant problem for livestock producers all over the world. Livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) can protect livestock from predators, but little is known about the factors that affect their use over long periods of time. Aims Our aims were to investigate the long-term use of LGDs in Australia and determine whether their effectiveness remained high over time, and to establish the reasons for discontinued use. We also wanted to collect data on the fate of LGDs, and how using LGDs affected the use of other methods for predation control. Last, we wanted to estimate the rate at which the use of LGDs is spreading through word-of-mouth. Methods We re-contacted participants from a previous survey of LGD users in Australia and interviewed them about their long-term experience. We were able to include 82% (112) of the original participants, a mean of 8.9 (±0.08) years after the first survey. Key results Half of all original participants were still using LGDs, and in most cases the effectiveness of LGDs had not changed since the first survey. The main reason for ceasing use of LGDs was a change in business that made the dogs unnecessary, followed by unwanted behaviour of dogs, and problems with neighbours. Most LGDs that died prior to old age were euthanised, fell victim to lethal predator control, or were killed by wildlife. Farmers with LGDs reduced other forms of predation control. Informal information transfer among farmers is leading to a net increase in the use of LGDs in Australia. Conclusions LGDs can remain an effective predator control method in Australia with long-term use, and their use is spreading. However, a substantial number of livestock producers experience difficulties in properly training and managing LGDs, leading to failure of the method in some cases and presumably limiting uptake. Implications Given the effectiveness of LGDs for predation management and the many advantages gained by their use, Australia could greatly benefit from programs by government or management agencies both to promote uptake of LGDs and to reduce the incidence of problems by providing farmers with advice and information on best-practice management.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Still a good dog! Long-term use and effectiveness of livestock guardian dogs to protect livestock from predators in Australia’s extensive grazing systems

Bommel

Johnson

2023

Wildlife Res.

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“…Goat pastures are very rarely protected with herd protection measures due to their small size. In addition, goats find protection in the midst of 2 Livestock depredation by wolves can be reduced by using herd protection measures (Khorozyan & Waltert, 2019;Linnell et al, 2012;Potet et al, 2021), such as livestock guardian dogs (Andelt & Hopper, 2000;Smith et al, 2000;Van Bommel & Johnson, 2012) and electrified fences (Hansen & Leitinger, 2018). The purchase and maintenance of fencing material and dogs is expensive and time-consuming (Moser et al, 2019).…”

Section: Alpine Summer Farm Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wolves' contribution to structural change in grazing systems among swiss alpine summer farms: The evidence from causal random forest

Mink

Loginova

Mann

2023

J Agricultural Economics

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The return of wolves to Swiss mountains and the damage they cause to sheep and goat herds in the region have raised concerns about a consequent wave of farm closures. In this paper, we examine the relationship between wolf attacks and the decline of Alpine summer farms, a specific high‐altitude farm type. We collected farm structure data and monitoring data on wolf attacks between 2004 and 2021 and analysed them using a causal random forest method, enabling a detailed analysis of the relation between wolf attacks and the number of different types of Alpine summer farms at a regional level. The results show that the farming systems are unaffected by incidental and infrequent wolf attacks, but that a high number of wolf attacks in a region is related to faster decrease in number of grazing systems where sheep are most vulnerable to such attacks. In contrast, systems that allow for better herd protection tend to show an increase in areas with frequent wolf attacks.

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Conflicts between agriculture and biodiversity conservation in Europe: Looking to the future by learning from the past

Lécuyer

Alard

Calla

et al. 2021

Advances in Ecological Research

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Guard Dogs to Protect Sheep Grazing in Fenced Pastures Against Wolf: a New and Still Challenging Practice

Cited by 3 publications

References 16 publications

Still a good dog! Long-term use and effectiveness of livestock guardian dogs to protect livestock from predators in Australia’s extensive grazing systems

Still a good dog! Long-term use and effectiveness of livestock guardian dogs to protect livestock from predators in Australia’s extensive grazing systems

Wolves' contribution to structural change in grazing systems among swiss alpine summer farms: The evidence from causal random forest

Conflicts between agriculture and biodiversity conservation in Europe: Looking to the future by learning from the past

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