Thesis
Mortality of range livestock in wolf-occupied areas of Washington
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
2016
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/105676
Abstract
Large carnivore management is greatly influenced by human-carnivore conflict including both actual and perceived threats. For wolves (Canis lupus), livestock depredations are one of the most important and controversial sources of conflict. However, the extent of wolf depredation on livestock is difficult to quantify accurately because detecting livestock carcasses shortly after cause of death is challenging, especially in remote landscapes where range sheep (Ovis aries), cattle (Bos taurus), and wolves most often interact. To more accurately estimate losses at a population level of range livestock in wolf occupied areas, I radio-tagged 588 calves in 10 cattle herds and 176 sheep in 1 flock to determine cause-specific mortalities in Washington over 2 grazing seasons. I detected 1 sheep and 1 calf death, but no wolf kills during telemetry monitoring, despite all herds having spatial overlap with wolves. Our results indicated that losses due to wolves were not above 0.81% for cattle or 1.6% for sheep within pack territories in the Washington population. Though acute impacts of wolf depredations can occur and be detrimental to individual livestock operators, our results suggest that those severe events were rare and that overall depredation losses were very low in wolf-occupied areas of Washington.
Metrics
13 File views/ downloads
25 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Mortality of range livestock in wolf-occupied areas of Washington
- Creators
- Jeffrey Alex Brown
- Contributors
- Robert B. Wielgus (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Environment, School of the (CAHNRS)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525278201842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis