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posted by cmn32480 on Sunday September 04 2016, @01:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the untangling-the-food-web dept.

The Center for Biological Diversity reports via Common Dreams

Killing predators such as wolves, mountain lions and bears in order to protect livestock may have intuitive appeal, but a rigorous review of multiple studies that was published today shows little or no scientific support that it actually reduces livestock losses. In fact, in some cases it even leads to increases in livestock loss. These conclusions directly counter the reasoning behind the common practice of killing predators in response to livestock depredations--as carried out by the secretive federal program, Wildlife Services, and many state game agencies.

"This study [paywalled] shows that not only is Wildlife Services' annual killing of tens of thousands of wolves, coyotes, bears, bobcats, cougars, and other animals unconscionable--it's also ineffective", said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Our government should ground the aerial snipers, pull the poisons and remove the steel leghold traps in response to these findings."

The unexpected finding that carnivore killings can increase depredations is likely based on disruption of the predators' social dynamics--namely, by removing dominant animals that maintain large territories, these killings release sub-adult animals that are less-skilled hunters and thus more likely to target domestic animals.


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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday September 04 2016, @11:44PM

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Sunday September 04 2016, @11:44PM (#397566) Homepage Journal

    Indeed. You'd basically want a variation on a sheep dogs but trained to harass rather than herd. You'd need to ride out and bother the cattle on roughly a daily basis though. I wouldn't trust the dogs to do their job sufficiently without overdoing it minus supervision.

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