Living with wolves
There are a number of simple changes you can make to your farming practices to reduce the vulnerability of your livestock to wolves. Each is likely to have a minimal effect alone but combining as many as is practical will increase the success.
MAINTAIN BEST HUSBANDRY PRACTICES
If livestock die whilst out in pasture, the carcass may attract wolves to the livestock and lead to depredation. A study on sheep farms in Sweden in 2009 found that after a depredation, the risk of being attacked by wolves again was 55 times higher over the following year. 60% of repeat depredations occurred within 5 weeks of the initial event. The researchers believed that this was because wolves returned to the pasture to feed on carcasses that were unprotected or hadn't been removed.
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Prompt removal of any material that is likely to attract wolves may therefore help to dissuade wolves from entering your land.
© Red Wolf Recovery Program | Flickr
CHANGE WHERE LIVESTOCK ARE PASTURED
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You can manage the risk of wolf depredation by reducing the amount of time that vulnerable livestock spend in high-risk areas. Using herding or fencing to control the movement of livestock can reduce the likelihood of encounters, and fencing suitable to contain livestock is cheaper and easier to set up than anti-predator fencing.
Depredation by wolves is higher in forest or densely-vegetated areas, closer to wolf dens, and farther from human settlements.
Where possible, keep livestock close to buildings, away from areas of wolf activity and in the open during the day.
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Wolves live in packs which occupy a large territory. Reducing the area over which livestock are spread will mean fewer packs have access to the herd. It also means that wolves are less likely to encounter any livestock when travelling across their territory, or will encounter wild prey such as deer first. However, avoid grouping the livestock into a single large herd as this may make them more vulnerable.
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The presence of wild prey will attract wolves to pastures - an assessment of cattle pastures in the northwest of the US in 2005 found that the presence of elk in pastures was the most important factor in determining the level of depredation. Excluding wild prey from livestock pastures will make wolves less likely to be attracted to the land, and could have other benefits such as reducing competition for forage or disease transmission.
CHANGE WHEN LIVESTOCK ARE PASTURED
Monitoring has shown that most wolf depredation of livestock takes place at night when there is less human presence. Enclosing livestock overnight is an ancient practice against predators, and should significantly reduce losses to predators and provide peace-of-mind if it is a feasible option for your operation. Night-time enclosures must be secure against any predator entering to be effective - anti-predator/electric fencing is recommended.
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Calves/lambs are the most vulnerable to predation by wolves. They should be kept in the safest pastures or indoors until at least 6 months old as wolves almost exclusively prey on calves under this age. In many situations the calving/lambing season can also be artificially adjusted. Structuring this so that new-borns are as old as possible before releasing to pasture could also minimise depredation - birthing in autumn just before confinement leaving the entire winter for safe growth of young would be the most extreme but effective strategy. Synchronising the birthing season with neighbouring properties will prevent wolves from moving from one farm to another as livestock are born.
Wolf depredation is highest in late summer, as wolf pups grow large enough to leave their denning sites and the pack becomes more mobile. Minimising the risks or adding more management methods in this period may help to mitigate depredation.
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Vulnerability of livestock to wolves also depends of the life-cycle of wolves' wild prey. For example, deer fawns are typically born from May to June in the US so wolves prey less on livestock at this time. Timing the periods when livestock are most vulnerable, e.g. birthing season, to coincide with the highest levels of natural prey can reduce wolves' need to consume livestock. However, once wild fawns are large enough to become less vulnerable wolf depredation on livestock may increase.
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These changes to when and where livestock are pastured could easily be combined for a compromise strategy, such as using the highest-risk pastures at the lowest-risk times of year if all land must be used.
© Tambako the Jaguar | Flickr
SWITCH BREEDS OR SPECIES
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Some livestock are more vulnerable to wolves than others - for example, cattle are less vulnerable than sheep or goats due to their large size. Switching to farming cattle could reduce your livestock losses significantly, and this would offset the increased cost per head of cattle death.
Different breeds of livestock may also be naturally better at fending off predators or more protective of their young. Breeds more aggressive to predators may be better in areas with wolves and are not necessarily more aggressive to humans. Traditional breeds are often more suited to free-range grazing where predators occur.
For instance, research on Venezuelan ranches showed that buffalo are far less predated than cattle as they display defensive behaviour. The researchers suggested that keeping a small number of buffalo in the same pastures as cattle could reduce overall livestock death whilst compromising on the lower value of buffalo meat.
Breeds that are easier to herd may also make implementing other control strategies easier.
EMPLOY HERDERS OR RANGE RIDERS
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Shepherding has been a traditional method of protecting livestock across the world for thousands of years. Herders keep the livestock grouped together and can direct them away from areas with the highest depredation risk. The presence of humans also repels predators from the immediate area, and if an attack is still made, a rider or herder can interrupt and chase off the animal. Having a constant presence among the livestock allows factors such as the animals' health and the movements of wolves to be closely monitored and better understood.
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Herding dogs may be useful to assist riders.
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The Tom Miner Basin range rider program
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Local ranchers Malou Anderson-Ramirez and Hilary Zaranek-Anderson began the program just outside Yellowstone National Park in 2013. A few riders are hired every summer to patrol livestock herds in the area.
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“The objective is very simple. You go out and check cattle.”
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As well as minimizing depredation, riders help ranchers to keep a closer eye on the health of their herds and respond to problems more rapidly.
© Lousie Johns
REACTIVE MANAGEMENT
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The risk of further wolf depredation is much higher in the 5 weeks or so immediately after an initial kill (see above). By focusing the management techniques discussed on this website in this most hazardous period, you can save on costs of having them in place constantly, while still having a meaningful effect on wolf depredation.
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RECOMMENDED:
Linnell, John & Odden, John & Kaczensky, Petra & Swenson, Jon. (1996). Strategies for the Reduction of Carnivore - Livestock Conflicts: A Review. Norwegian Institute for Nature Research Oppdragsmelding. 443.
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OTHER:
Karlsson, J., & Johansson, Ö. (2009). Predictability of repeated carnivore attacks on livestock favours reactive use of mitigation measures. Journal Of Applied Ecology, 47(1), 166-171. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2009.01747.x
Read it here (requires institutional login)
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Bradley, E.H., & Pletscher, D.H. (2010). Assessing factors related to wolf depredation of cattle in fenced pastures in Montana and Idaho. Wildlife Society Bulletin, [Online]. 33 (4), 1256-1265. http://dx.doi.org/10.2193/0091-7648%282005%2933%5B1256%3AAFRTWD%5D2.0.CO%3B2
Read it here (requires institutional login)
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Hoogesteijn, R., & Hoogesteijn, A. (2008). Conflicts between cattle ranching and large predators in Venezuela: could use of water buffalo facilitate felid conservation?. Oryx, 42(01). http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0030605308001105