Do husbandry practices reduce depredation of free-ranging livestock? A case study with wolves in Greece

Livestock depredation is the primary driver of wolf-human conflict worldwide, threatening wolf conservation and impacting human livelihoods. Most countries implement relevant compensation programs, which are however rarely accompanied by proactive husbandry practices vetted with scientific research. We investigated the influence of husbandry practices on wolf depredation losses for 70 sheep/goat and 68 cattle herds with quantitative modeling of data from semi-structured interviews of livestock farmers along a livestock damage gradient in NW Greece. Sheep/goat herds were better protected than cattle herds in seven preventive measures and annual losses of sheep/goat livestock units were three times lower than losses of cattle livestock units in our study area. Furthermore, according to national compensation data from Greece, costs paid for cattle have doubled in recent years, whereas they have been cut in half for sheep/goats. Our modeling identified three core preventive measures that significantly reduced wolf depredation risk for both herd types, namely increased shepherd surveillance, systematic night confinement, and an adequate number of livestock guardian dogs (optimal ratio was 3 Greek guardian dogs per 100 sheep/goats and 7 guardian dogs per 100 cattle). Keeping young livestock in enclosures and not abandoning livestock carcasses in pastures were additional effective preventive measures for cattle herds. Our study provides evidence to inform the subsidizing policy put forth in the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union. It can also serve to inform or revise wildlife-livestock conflict mitigation policy in countries challenged with the competing goals of conserving large carnivores while maintaining traditional grazing regimes.