Authors: Lily M van Eeden, Ann Eklund, Jennifer R B Miller, José Vicente López-Bao, Guillaume Chapron, Mikael R Cejtin, Mathew S Crowther, Christopher R Dickman, Jens Frank, Miha Krofel, David W Macdonald, Jeannine McManus, Tara K Meyer, Arthur D Middleton, Thomas M Newsome, William J Ripple, Euan G Ritchie, Oswald J Schmitz, Kelly J Stoner, Mahdieh Tourani, Adrian Treves
Published in: PloS Biology
Abstract
Carnivore predation on livestock often leads people to retaliate. Persecution by humans has contributed strongly to global endangerment of carnivores. Preventing livestock losses would help to achieve three goals common to many human societies: preserve nature, protect animal welfare, and safeguard human livelihoods.
Between 2016 and 2018, four independent reviews evaluated >40 years of research on lethal and nonlethal interventions for reducing predation on livestock. From 114 studies, we find a striking conclusion: scarce quantitative comparisons of interventions and scarce comparisons against experimental controls preclude strong inference about the effectiveness of methods.
For wise investment of public resources in protecting livestock and carnivores, evidence of effectiveness should be a prerequisite to policy making or large-scale funding of any method or, at a minimum, should be measured during implementation.
An appropriate evidence base is needed, and we recommend a coalition of scientists and managers be formed to establish and encourage use of consistent standards in future experimental evaluations.
van Eeden LM, Eklund A, Miller JRB, López-Bao JV, Chapron G, Cejtin MR, Crowther MS, Dickman CR, Frank J, Krofel M, Macdonald DW, McManus J, Meyer TK, Middleton AD, Newsome TM, Ripple WJ, Ritchie EG, Schmitz OJ, Stoner KJ, Tourani M, Treveset A (2018) Carnivore conservation needs evidence-based livestock protection, PLOS Biology PDF DOI
Applied ecology and conservation research group 