New paper: Impact of livestock guardian dogs on livestock predation in rural Mongolia
Zoe Lieb
Much like subsistence farmers the world over, Mongolian herders depend directly on their herds for food, materials, and income. Consequently, any loss of livestock through predation from wild carnivores (including wolves, foxes, snow leopards, and birds of prey) is a major challenge. With a lack of non-lethal mitigation methods currently available to them, herders in Mongolia frequently manage conflict with predators with retaliatory hunting, negatively impacting populations of wild predators. Livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) are an increasingly popular non-lethal means worldwide for discouraging livestock predation. However, empirical evaluations of the efficacy of using LGDs in contemporary landscapes are rare throughout Asia. Evaluating these human–wildlife conflict prevention strategies are especially important in areas used to produce globally traded commodities, such as cashmere in the case of Mongolia. We implemented longitudinal structured interview-based surveys to evaluate the use and effectiveness of LGDs as a conflict mitigation strategy for semi-nomadic herders in three locations across Mongolia. Sixteen herders in Nomgon, Ömnögovi, Undur-Ulaan, Arkhangai, Khustain Nuruu National Park area, and Gorkhi Terelj National Park area were surveyed between 2015 and 2019, throughout the process of receiving and training LGDs. Our analysis suggested herders experienced a significant reduction in the annual losses of livestock to predation after receiving LGDs (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, Z = −3.329, p = .001, n = 16), including when accounting for background predation rates. Consequently, we consider LGDs likely to be a viable method for livestock protection alongside the conservation of predators in Mongolia, and potentially elsewhere in Asia. We finish by exploring important considerations should this approach be used more intensively throughout the country and beyond.
Robin Rigg
The latest issue of Carnivore Damage Prevention News (CDPnews) is now
available, featuring articles from 3 continents. Skilled and experienced
shepherds are often essential for effective protection of livestock in
many situations, so there is also an interview with a graduate of one of
Europe’s growing number of shepherd schools.
Issue 22 can be downloaded from the CDPnews website (www.cdpnews.net):
http://www.protectiondestroupeaux.ch/fileadmin/doc/International/CDP_and_General_Infos/CDPNews22_July2021.pdf
Best wishes,
Robin
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Robin Rigg BA MSc.
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Chief Editor
Carnivore Damage Prevention News
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Predseda / Chairman
Slovak Wildlife Society
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P.O. Box 72, Belanská 574/6
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Robin Rigg
Dear all,
We recently published a new issue (no. 23) of Carnivore Damage Prevention News (CDPnews), focused on horses. It includes a review of wolf predation on horses worldwide; methods of protecting horses from wolves in Germany; and the impact of wolf predation on free-ranging horses in Iberia. It can be downloaded now from the CDPnews website:
Robin Rigg
Dear all,
The recently published issue 24 of Carnivore Damage Prevention
News (CDPnews) completes the topic of horses, which we focused on
in issue 23, and also looks into the role of donkeys and llamas as
livestock guardians. These and all past issues of CDPnews, as well
as other language versions and our current Instructions for
Authors, can be downloaded from our website (www.cdpnews.net).
We would like to invite you to take the opportunity to participate in our Readers' Survey which will help guide planning for the content, style and format of future issues. The survey can be completed online until the end of this month here:
https://forms.gle/781wLssM21vRwrZJ8
Robin
-- Robin Rigg BA MSc. --------------------------------------- Chief Editor, CDPnews (www.cdpnews.net) Carnivore Damage Prevention News --------------------------------------- Predseda / Chairman Slovak Wildlife Society Spoločnosť pre výskum, vzdelávanie a spolužitie s prírodou (SWS) --------------------------------------- P.O. Box 72, Belanská 574/6 Liptovský Hrádok 033 01 Slovakia tel. +421-907-446714
Rio Heriniaina
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People & Wildlife e-group
A joint initiative of the WildCRU (University of Oxford) and the IUCN SSC Human-Wildlife Conflict Task Force to create a forum for human-wildlife conflicts and solutions.
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