1,721,347 research outputs found
Seasonality and Recurrence of Depredation and Wolf Control in Western North America
No full textDue primarily to wolf (Canis lupus) predation on livestock (depredation), some livestock
producers and other interest groups oppose wolf conservation, which is an important objective for
large sectors of the public. Predicting depredation occurrence is difficult, yet necessary to prevent
it. Better prediction of wolf depredation also would facilitate application of sound depredation
management actions. In this paper we analyze temporal trends in wolf depredation occurrence
and wolf control, which is employed as a depredation management action. We gathered data from
wolf depredation investigations for Alberta, Canada, from 1982ñ1996 and for Idaho, Montana,
and Wyoming, USA, from 1987ñ2003. We showed that wolf attacks occurred with a seasonal
pattern, reflecting the seasonality of livestock calving, grazing practices, and seasonal variation in
energetic requirements of wolf packs. Seasonal wolf attacks were auto-correlated with lags of one
year, indicating annual recurrence. Cross-correlation analyses indicated that limited wolf control
was rapidly employed as a short-term response to depredation, and was not designed to decrease
wolf depredation at a regional scale or in the long-term. We therefore discovered a recurring
seasonalñannual pattern for wolf depredation and wolf control in western North America.
Ranchers and managers could use our data for focusing investment of resources to prevent wolf
depredation increases during high-depredation seasons
Linear Features, Forestry and Wolf Predation of Caribou and Other Prey in West-Central Alberta
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Linear Features, Forestry and Wolf Predation of Caribou and Other Prey in West-Central Alberta
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Stable Isotopic Analysis to test the effects of development and predation on Caribou decline
No full textEffectiveness of fladry on wolves in captivity
No full textThe technique known as fladry, traditionally used to hunt wolves (Canis lupus) in Eastern Europe and Russia, consists of driving them into a bottleneck formed by 50 × 10-cm red flags hanging from ropes stretched over the ground. The technique also has been used to livetrap wild wolves. The aim of our study was to assess whether 5 captive wolves living in 2 enclosures (120 m2 and 85 m2) also responded to fladry. We found that avoidance was maximal when flags were ≤50 cm apart and their base was at ground level. In these conditions, wolves never crossed red flags (or gray flags of the same brightness) intersecting their usual stereotyped routes (baseline: 4.08 ± 3.11 SD trespasses/min), even when the daily food ration was placed on the other side of them. In contrast, trespasses occurred when inter-flag distances were ≥75 cm or rope heights were ≤25 cm or ≥75 cm. Wolves bit at the uncrossed barriers significantly more than the crossed ones (P<0.02). Our results indicated that: 1) fladry is effective on captive wolves and 2) fladry can be used to confine wolves into limited spaces and to prevent them from accessing food, at least for a brief time. Our study provides additional evidence that this technique has potential for wolf management and to protect livestock from wolf depredation
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