Effectiveness of non-lethal predator deterrents to reduce livestock losses to leopard attacks within a multiple-use landscape of the Himalayan region
Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 2020 papers
Abstract
Lethal measures are widely adopted by local communities and governments to manage human-wildlife conflicts. Such measures lead to large scale decline of carnivore populations globally with trophic cascades on ecosystems and questionable impacts on human-wildlife conflicts. Mitigating human-carnivore conflicts through non-lethal measures will protect endangered predators and secure livelihoods. However, information on the effectiveness of such measures are extremely limited and hence cannot be applied in developing scientific evidence. Further to develop human-carnivore coexistence models, it is important for local community members, biologists and wildlife managers to actively participate in conservation programs. We evaluated the response of a non-lethal visual deterrent (i.e. fox lights) to deter leopard attacks on livestock within a multiple-use landscape of western Himalaya through community engagement. We monitored 16 experimental sites and 17 control sites within 27 villages and recorded data on livestock depredation by leopards between April 2018 to April 2019. A multivariate analysis was conducted to determine the influence of landscape predictors and animal husbandry practices on livestock depredation by leopards within the vicinity of human settlements. We found that visual deterrents discouraged common leopards to predate on livestock (cows and goats). We also demonstrated that community based conservation initiatives are successful in mitigating human-carnivore conflicts within large semi-natural landscapes. We suggest developing site specific coexistence strategies and adopting non-lethal measures to safeguard carnivores, livestock and humans within shared landscapes.
Related Papers
- → Big cats at large: Density, structure, and spatio‐temporal patterns of a leopard population free of anthropogenic mortality(2019)60 cited
- → Genetic identification of carnivore scat: implication of dietary information for human–carnivore conflict in the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal(2012)13 cited
- → Differential accumulation of large mammal remains by carnivores and humans during the Middle Stone Age in the Eastern and Western Cape, South Africa(2020)8 cited
- → Threats to Site Occupation of Carnivores: A Spatiotemporal Encroachment of Non-native Species on the Native Carnivore Community in A Human-dominated Protected Area.(2021)6 cited
- The sustainability of leopard panthera pardus sport hunting in Niassa Reserve, Mozambique.(2012)