WOLF PREDATION RISK ON CATTLE FARMING SYSTEMS IN PORTUGAL

STUDENT SEMINAR IN BIODIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION

Livestock predation by large carnivores is one of the most common causes of human-wildlife conflict worldwide and its effective management is a key element for the conservation of these species. Wolf predation on bovine cattle occurs in several rural societies of the world and is of particular concern given the high socio-economic value of this livestock species. Furthermore, the reduced vigilance and protection measures associated with the current extensive rearing systems of these animals hinders the management of the wolf-cattle conflict, namely in areas were wolf had been absent for a long time and is recently recolonizing. In Portugal the wolf cattle damage figures are among the highest’s documented worldwide, both in terms of number of affected animals and compensation values, and are becoming increasingly relevant in recent times. In this seminar we will present a study that evaluates the influence of different husbandry practices on wolf cattle predation risk, based on enquiries to extensive cattle farms distributed through wolf distribution area in Portugal. We used the farming system framework to group farms with similar typology, in order to deal with the inter-correlation of the different husbandry procedures of livestock farms and, simultaneously, to get the necessary level of generalization at the time of making best practices recommendations. Results will be discussed in order to identify best solutions to prevent and mitigate conflicts between cattle breeders and wolf.

Virgínia Pimenta is a fourth year PhD student under the Doctoral Program “Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution” at the University of Porto and a member of the Applied Ecology (APPLECOL) group in CIBIO-InBIO (PI: Pedro Beja). She is supervised by Pedro Beja (CIBIO-InBIO) and Luigi Boitani (University of Rome “La Sapienza”) with a thesis project entitled “Human-carnivore conflicts: risk assessment of wolf predation on livestock in Portugal and its management implications".

Image credits: Inês Barroso