Impact of wild prey availability on livestock predation by snow leopards.

ABSTRACT: An increasing proportion of the world's poor is rearing livestock today, and the global livestock population is growing. Livestock predation by large carnivores and their retaliatory killing is becoming an economic and conservation concern. A common recommendation for carnivore conservation and for reducing predation on livestock is to increase wild prey populations based on the assumption that the carnivores will consume this alternative food. Livestock predation, however, could either reduce or intensify with increases in wild prey depending on prey choice and trends in carnivore abundance. We show that the extent of livestock predation by the endangered snow leopard Panthera uncia intensifies with increases in the density of wild ungulate prey, and subsequently stabilizes. We fou

SUBMITTER: Suryawanshi KR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5493907 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature