Effects of wolf mortality on livestock depredations.

ABSTRACT: Predator control and sport hunting are often used to reduce predator populations and livestock depredations, but the efficacy of lethal control has rarely been tested. We assessed the effects of wolf mortality on reducing livestock depredations in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming from 1987-2012 using a 25 year time series. The number of livestock depredated, livestock populations, wolf population estimates, number of breeding pairs, and wolves killed were calculated for the wolf-occupied area of each state for each year. The data were then analyzed using a negative binomial generalized linear model to test for the expected negative relationship between the number of livestock depredated in the current year and the number of wolves controlled the previous year. We found that the number of livesto

SUBMITTER: Wielgus RB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4254458 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature