Predator control should not be a shot in the dark

By A. Treves, Miha Krofel, J. McManus. 2016

250 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Livestock owners traditionally use various non-lethal and lethal methods to protect their domestic animals from wild predators. However, many of these methods are implemented without first considering experimental evidence of their effectiveness in mitigating predation-related threats or avoiding ecological degradation. To inform future policy and research on predators, we systematically evaluated evidence for interventions against carnivore (canid, felid, and ursid) predation on livestock in North American and European farms. We also reviewed a selection of tests from other continents to help assess the global generality of our findings. Twelve published tests – representing five non-lethal methods and 7 lethal methods – met the accepted standard of scientific inference (random assignment or quasi-experimental case-control) without bias in sampling, treatment, measurement, or reporting. Of those twelve, prevention of livestock predation was demonstrated in six tests (four non-lethal and two lethal), whereas counterintuitive increases in predation were shown in two tests (zero non-lethal and two lethal); the remaining four (one non-lethal and three lethal) showed no effect on predation. Only two non-lethal methods (one associated with livestock-guarding dogs and the other with a visual deterrent termed “fladry”) assigned treatments randomly, provided reliable inference, and demonstrated preventive effects. We recommend that policy makers suspend predator control efforts that lack evidence for functional effectiveness and that scientists focus on stringent standards of evidence in tests of predator control.

Subfields: Ecology, Small Animals

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ec9b7bb5420829a171beb1d451752429c2a4ba18

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology

In Small Animals

Citations in the corpus

Evolutionary and ecological traps for brown bears Ursus arctos in human‐modified landscapes (2018, background): “…agricultural stakeholders can be involved in management policies to ensure implementation of husbandry practices that limit potential conflicts, e.g. proper storage of attractants, grazing of cattle in lower risk areas and improved livestock protection (Northrup et al. 2012b, Treves et al. 2016).”
Golden jackal expansion in Europe: a case of mesopredator release triggered by continent-wide wolf persecution? (2017, unknown): “Experiences from past and existing lethal programs indicate limited effectiveness of lethal methods for reducing mesopredator abundance, as well as being costly (Berger, 2006; Stoyanov, 2013; Kapota, 2014; McManus et al., 2015; Minnie et al., 2016; Treves et al., 2016).”