A brief overview of depredation

(by Steph Harlock)

Depredation of livestock is, of course, the main cause for concern in any habitat occupied by a wolf population. In countries where wolves occur, governments employ a variety of management strategies; In some the wolf is hunted without restriction by shooting, trapping or poisoning, in others licences for hunting are issued and in many places governments now compensate farmers for livestock losses. In France, for example, where there are around 30 wolves, the farmers are still keen to shoot them despite the fact that the government does compensate them for losses. In the USA, translocation of problem animals out of agricultural areas is often used as a first line reponse whilst in many Eastern European and Asian countries, mass poisoning is still the preferred method of control.

Spain has no wild uninhabited places and wolves cause damage to livestock throughout their range there. The main method of control in Spain is by hunting adults and killing cubs at the den and whilst the rural and urban public disagree over wolf kill figures, control of the wolf population is left to hunters and restricted by quotas set by regional governments. In many regions governments promote insurance or pay damage compensation. Damage is unequally distributed and the disproportion is due to the fact that in some areas, livestock graze for several months of the year with hardly any surveillance by the shepherds, whereas most sheep in the more intensively agricultural areas are watched over by day and locked up at night.

The Mongolian grey wolf Centre initiated a survey in Gobi Gurvan Saikhan National Park during 2000 and 2001. The size of the park is an estimated 11,000 square miles. Information was recorded from wolf kills and wolf scat analysis. The study also included interviews and field observations. The free range livestock of the herding families in the park are mainly sheep and goats primarily protected by herders during the spring as the young are more vulnerable to wolves at this time. The results of the scat analysis revealed that 60% of hair found was from livestock, about a third was from wild ungulates and the rest from small mammals. Depredation of livestock is at its highest during summer and autumn. The total cost of livestock lost to wolves is estimated at $27,455 = $183.03 per family, a high proportion of their annual income. At present Mongolia pays no compensation for wolf depredations. A compensation program would help improve the attitudes of herders towards wolves.

In America wolf control and compensation programs represent a large and increasing share of the cost of wolf recovery. Grey wolves are found in three distinct areas of the U.S. In the mid-west they are listed as either threatened or endangered. The population has met recovery goals and may be de-listed during the next few years. In the Northern Rocky Mountains wolves are classified as nonessential experimental populations, apart from the endangered Montana wolves. In the South-west, Arizona and New Mexico, an experimental population of the Mexican wolf are being returned to the wild from captive stocks.

17% of cattle and 30% of sheep in the U.S. live in states with wolf populations. Losses to wolves represent a small fraction of total livestock deaths. In the Northern Rockies from 1997 to 1999 wolf losses amounted to 0.01% (1 in 10,000) of all sheep losses and 0.03% (3 in 10,000) of all cattle losses. Losses are mostly due to coyote predation of sheep, lambing and calving problems, disease and weather.

In parts of the U.S. where endangered species status does not allow lethal control repeated depredations are normally dealt with by translocating wolves to an area away from livestock. In the Rockies equal numbers are translocated and lethally removed for control annually. W.S. budgets estimated that the cost of wolf control totalled nearly $700,000 in 2000. The W.S. agents not only deal with wolf control but capture wolves for monitoring. They test non-lethal methods of depredation control and counsel livestock owners on better husbandry practices. In all wolf states some form of compensation is available to farmers. In the Rockies area, compensated is paid not by the government but by the group 'Defenders of Wildlife'.

Wolf depredation is not a catastrophic problem but neither is it easy to solve. The most encouraging factor at the moment is that in many places, the farmers do at least seem to be willing to agree on some measure of compromise over the problem.