Livestock depredation by large carnivores in the South Gobi, Mongolia

Abstract

Context Livestock depredation is a major conservation challenge around the world, causing considerable economical losses to pastoral communities and often result in retaliatory killing. In Mongolia, livestock depredation rates are thought to be increasing due to changes in pastoral practices and the transformation of wild habitats into pasture lands. Few studies have examined the interactions between humans and carnivores and even fewer have considered how recent changes in pastoral practices may affect depredation rates. Aim This study aimed to assess the influence of herding practices on self-reported livestock losses to snow leopards and wolves in two communities in South Gobi, Mongolia. Methods In total, 144 herder households were interviewed and an information-theoretic approach was used to analyse the factors influencing self-reported livestock losses to snow leopards and wolves. Key results The majority of self-reported losses to both snow leopards and wolves occurred when herds were left unattended in the pastures. The economic loss associated with livestock losses to snow leopards and wolves amounted to an average loss of US$825 per herder and year. The number of livestock owned by a household and the frequency of shifting campsite had the strongest influence on livestock losses to snow leopards and wolves. Other determinants of livestock losses included frequency of visiting the soum (county) centre. Implications On the basis of the findings, we make recommendations for mitigating the conflict with large carnivores, with focus on guiding future herding practices.

Predation of livestock by puma (Puma concolor) and culpeo fox (Lycalopex culpaeus): numeric and economic perspectives

“…The preference for pumas for rocky and vegetation cover is likely, in addition to the fact that they usually avoid areas inhabited by humans (Dellinger et al 2020). Similar patterns of a positive correlation between ranch size and/or livestock numbers and predator attacks have been widely reported for a large number of predator species both in America (Mech et al 2000;Treves et al 2004;Bradley and Pletscher 2005;Romero-Muñoz et al 2016;Sarmiento-Giraldo et al 2016), as elsewhere (Kaartinen et al 2009;Hanley et al 2018;Mijiddorj et al 2018).…”

“…The single most important variable that may be controlled through management practices is husbandry, whose rate of increase is related to a decrease in the probability of receiving an attack from culpeo foxes. Husbandry and herding have been repeatedly found to reduce predator attacks in previous studies elsewhere (Conover 2002;Treves et al 2002;Treves and Karanth 2003;Ogada et al 2003;Treves et al 2006;Mijiddorj et al 2018;Adhikari et al 2020). Two other variables that were negatively related to the likelihood of fox attacks were livestock biomass and area covered by Bofedales.…”

“…In 6 % of the cases, however, losses by predation reached > 20 % of the stocks. Compared to other case studies, our yearly loss estimate of 1.6 % of the stock to predation was higher than the maximum of 0.59 % reported in France (Stahl et al 2001) as a yearly loss of sheep due to Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) predation, but lower than the 4.6 % combined losses to jaguars (Panthera onca) and pumas on livestock at four sites in Costa Rica (Amit and Jacobson 2017), and even lower than the 10 % herd size losses due to Ethiopian wolves (Canis simensis, Eshete et al 2018) or the 23.9 % losses of livestock due to wolves (Canis lupus) and snow leopards (Panthera uncia) in Mongolia (Mijiddorj et al 2018). A loss of 0.25 to 5.0 % of the livestock was reported in North American and European studies, whereas it tended to be higher (< 1 to ~10 % of the total stocks) in African sites .…”

Issues and Opportunities Associated with Trophy Hunting and Tourism in Khunjerab National Park, Northern Pakistan

“…However, community's perceptions about Snow leopards were less negative compared to wolves, possibly due to conservation programs or awareness-raising in the community about Snow leopards. A study in Mongolia found a similar situation, where the community had stronger negative perceptions on wolves than on Snow leopards [65].…”

Perspectives of traditional Himalayan communities on fostering coexistence with Himalayan wolf and snow leopard

“…Livestock depredation is worsened in our study areas because husbandry is often lax during herding seasons (Suryawanshi et al, ) which, exacerbating the threats, coincide with the breeding seasons of the Himalayan wolf (Feb–Jun) (Werhahn, Kusi, et al, ) and snow leopard (Jan–Jun) (McCarthy et al, ). Our respondents offered suggestions for improving herding practices, such as keeping livestock in larger herds attended by sufficient herders and avoiding known predation hotspots; that these obvious measures are in the villagers' minds, and yet not implemented is a symptom of the cognitive dissonance characteristic of human–wildlife conflict (see also Mijiddorj, Alexander, & Samelius, ). Herders' declared need for training can be met by demonstration of the construction of robust, durable, predator‐proof, livestock corrals used to protect herds at night using locally available stones to build high walls in combination with wire netting especially for the open top (see Jackson & Wangchuk, ).…”