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Notes
Other sources of conflict include human predation, the spread of disease, and competition with people over wild prey. See H. Kruuk, Hunter and Hunted: Relationships between Carnivores and People (2002); Y. Guan et al., Isolation and Characterization of Viruses Related to the SARS Coronavirus from Animals in Southern China, 302 Science 276–278 (2003); J. Ginsburg, Setting Priorities for Carnivore Conservation: What Makes Carnivores Different? in Carnivore Conservation 498–523 (J. L. Gittelman et al. eds., 2001).
M.O. Ogada et al., Limiting Depradation by African Carnivores: The Role of Livestock Husbandry, 17 Cons. Biol. 1–10 (2003).
B.N. Sacks et al., Territoriality and Breeding Status of Coyotes Relative to Sheep Predation, 63 J. Wildlife Mgmt. 593–605 (1999).
The Tasmanian wolf (Thylacinus cynocephalus) and the Falkland Island fox (Dusicyon australis). See R. Woodroffe, S. Thirgood, & A. Rabinowitz, The Impact of Human–Wildlife Conflict on Natural Systems, in People & Wildlife: Conflict or Coexistence? 1–12 (R. Woodroffe, S. Thirgood, & A. Rabinowitz eds., 2005).
A.Treves & K.U. Karanth, Human–Carnivore Conflict and Perspectives on Carnivore Management Worldwide, 17 Cons. Biol. 1491–1499 (2003).
Successes have frequently been tenuous and narrowly applicable. Reviews of mitigation strategies can be found in People and Wildlife: Conflict or Coexistence? (R. Woodroffe, S. Thurgood, & A. Rabinowitz eds., 2005), hereinafter People and Wildlife (2005).
R.M. Cowling & A. Wilhelm-Rechmann, Social Assessment as a Key to Conservation Success, 41 Oryx 135–139 (2007).
Treves & Karanth, supra note 5.
Quantification is problematic because perceived loss is widely considered to overestimate documented loss. G.S.A. Rasmussen, Livestock Predation by the Painted Hunting Dog Lycaon pictus in a Cattle Ranching Region of Zimbabwe: A Case Study, 88 Biol. Cons. 133–139 (1999). The costs of deterrence strategies may also be confounded with other efforts. L.G. Frank, Living With Lions: Carnivore Conservation and Livestock in Laikipia District, Kenya. Mpala Research Center, Nanyuki, Kenya, 1998.
J.R.A. Butler, The Economic Costs of Wildlife Predation on Livestock in Gokwe Communal Land, Zimbabwe, 38 Afr. J. Ecology 23–30 (2000); P.A. Lindsey et al., The Cost Efficiency of Wild Dog Conservation in South Africa, 19 Cons. Biol. 1205–1214 (2005).
This two-step approach has had several applications in different countries. For example, if livestock attacks by predators tend to occur non-randomly and in certain situations or patches, farmers may be able to reduce losses by addressing the particular conditions where conflict is high. In Laikipia, Kenya, hyaenas were more likely to attack small stock herds at night in bomas, or corrals, with thin walls and no domestic dogs. R. Woodroffe et al., Livestock Husbandry as a Tool for Carnivore Conservation in Africa's Community Rangelands: A Case-Control Study, 16 Biodiv. & Cons. 1245–1260 (2007).
The quotation appears in P.J. Nyhus et al., Bearing the Costs of Human-Wildlife Conflict: The Challenges of Compensation Schemes, in People and Wildlife (2005), supra note 6, at 107–121. A description of wolf recovery in the western U.S. can be found in E.E. Bangs et al., Status of Gray Wolf Restoration in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming, 26 Wildlife Soc. Bull. 785–793 (1998).
Africa largely avoided the megafaunal extinctions of the late Pleistocene that resulted in the loss of the biggest carnivore species of North America and Europe.
The average person earns $156 per month in sub-Saharan Africa (Gross National Income, Purchasing Power Parity rates, 2007 World Bank data) with even lower incomes expected in rural areas. Similarly, 50.3% of people there earn less than $1 per day, which is a higher proportion than any other region measured in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. A population growth rate of 2.47% from 2000–2005 is also higher than any other continent in the United Nations Population Division Database. The 62% adult literacy rate is lower than any other region measured in the Millennium Development Goals. Data on poverty, education, and population growth are available from the World Resources Institute, http://earthtrends.wri.org, which is collated from the listed sources.
High illiteracy means that conservation methods that are effective in the developed world but depend on literacy may not be transferable. Low incomes mean that when predators cause economic loss, even rare attacks can have a large financial and emotional impact. Population growth is discussed within the main text.
R.B. Martin, The Rule of Law and African Game, and Social Change and Conservation Misrepresentation—A Reply to Spinage, 33 Oryx 89–97 (1999); C.A. Spinage, Social Change and Conservation Misrepresentation in Africa, 32 Oryx 265–276 (1998).
A. Balmford et al., Conservation Conflicts Across Africa, 291 Science 2616–2619 (2001).
22M. Selebasto, S.R. Moe, & J.E. Swenson, Do Farmers Support Cheetah Acinonyx jubatus Conservation in Botswana Despite Livestock Depradation? 42 Oryx 430–436 (2008).
23M. Schiess-Meier et al., Livestock Predation—Insights from Problem Animal Control Registers in Botswana, 71 J. Wildlife Mgmt. 1267–1274 (2007).
24L. Van Bommel et al., Factors Affecting Livestock Predation by Lions in Cameroon, 45 Afr. J. Ecology 490–498 (2007).
25B.D. Patterson et al., Livestock Predation by Lions (Panthera leo) and Other Carnivores on Ranches Neighboring Tsavo National Parks, Kenya, 119 Biol. Cons. 507–516 (2004).
26F. Mizutani, Impact of Leopards on a Working Ranch in Laikipia, Kenya, 37 Afr. J. Ecology 211–225 (1999).
27J.M Kolowski & K.E. Holekamp, Spatial, Temporal, and Physical Characteristics of Livestock Depradations by Large Carnivores along a Kenyan Reserve Border, 128 Biol. Cons. 529–541 (2006).
28Ogada et al., supra note 2; Woodroffe et al., supra note 23.
29L.L. Marker, M.G.L. Mills, & D. Macdonald, Factors Influencing Perceptions of Conflict and Tolerance toward Cheetahs on Namibian Farmlands, 17 Cons. Biol. 1290–1298 (2003).
30T. Ott, G.I.H. Kerley, & A.F. Boshoff, Preliminary Observations on the Diet of Leopards (Panthera pardus) from a Conservation Area and Adjacent Rangelands in the Baviaanskloof Region, South Africa, 42 Afr. Zoology 31–37 (2007).
31T. Holmern, J. Nyahongo, & E. Roskaft, Livestock Loss Caused by Predators Outside Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, 135 Biol. Cons. 518–526 (2007).
32B.M. Kissui, Livestock Predation by Lions, Leopards, Spotted Hyenas, and Their Vulnerability to Retaliatory Killing in the Masai Steppe, Tanzania, 11 Animal Cons. 422–432 (2008).
33Rasmussen, supra note 9.
34Butler, supra note 10.
For example, coyote research in the United States. Sacks et al., supra note 3.
R. Woodroffe et al., The African Wild Dog: Status Survey and Action Plan (IUCN, 1997), at 166.
Wild dogs are highly social canids that typically live in packs of 4–8 adults with one reproductive pair. J.H. Fanshawe, L.H. Frame, & J. Ginsberg, The Wild Dog—Africa's Vanishing Carnivore, 25 Oryx 137–146 (1991). Pack size, which can occasionally exceed 40 individuals, is critical to reproductive success and single pairs or even small groups rarely raise pups to adulthood. F. Courchamp & D.W. Macdonald, Crucial Importance of Pack Size in the Africa Wild Dog Lycaon pictus, 4 Animal Cons. 169–174 (2001). Exclusive territories of 400–1500 km2 are higher than would be expected by body size or prey abundance and are likely due to predation by and competition with larger carnivores. J.L. Gittleman, Carnivore Life History Patterns: Allometric, Phylogenetic, and Ecological Associations, 127 Am. Naturalist 744–771 (1986); M.G.L. Mills & M.L. Gorman, Factors Affecting the Density and Distribution of Wild Dogs in the Kruger National Park, 11 Cons. Biol. 1397–1406 (1997); S. Creel & N.M. Creel, Limitation of African Wild Dogs by Competition with Larger Carnivores, 10 Cons Biol. 526–538 (1996).
Understanding how wild dogs can persist outside parks and reserves is fundamental to avoiding extinction for the entire species, including populations within protected areas. Carnivores that range widely are more likely to go extinct in reserves due to edge-associated mortality. R. Woodroffe & J.R. Ginsberg, Edge Effects and the Extinction of Populations Inside Protected Areas, 280 Science 2126–2128 (1998). And humans do indeed cause a high proportion of wild dog deaths, even in protected areas (61% of adult mortality in protected areas). R. Woodroffe, J.W. McNutt, & M.G.L. Mills, African Wild Dog Lycaon Pictus (Temminck, 1820), in Canids: Foxes, Wolves, Jackals, and Dogs. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan (C. Sillero-Zubiri, M. Hoffman, & D.W. Macdonald eds., IUCN/SSC Canid Specialist Group, 2004), at 174.
Rasmussen, supra note 9; Woodroffe et al., Livestock Predation by Endangered African Wild Dogs (Lycaon pictus) in Northern Kenya, 124 Biol. Cons. 225–234 (2005).
R. Woodroffe et al., Tools for the Conservation of African Wild Dogs: Do We Know Enough? What More Do We Need to Know? (Report of the Workshop on Research for Conservation of the African Wild Dog, IUCN Canid Specialist Group and Wildlife Conservation Society, Kruger National Park, South Africa, 2005).
Since the intent is to describe the context and constraints under which the project was undertaken and how research questions and results eventually emerged within a broader network of government and non-governmental institutions, there is more emphasis in what follows on research methods and challenges than data analysis. Data and interpretation will be presented elsewhere.
The Fauna Conservation Act was first enacted by the Bechuanaland Protectorate Government in 1961 and later revised by the national parliament in 1967 and amended in 1978. It was replaced as Botswana's primary legislation governing wildlife resource management by the 1992 WCNPA. M. Tjibae and I.K. Theophilus, Analysis of Problem Animal Control and Compensation Scheme, in Department of Wildlife and National Parks and Kalahari Conservation Society, Conservation and Management of Wildlife in Botswana: Strategies for the Twenty-First Century (Gabarone, Botswana, 1997), hereinafter DWNP and KCS (1997).
Id.
Act No. 28 of 1992, Part IV–V, Section 17–19, Subsection 4–6, Sixth and Seventh Schedule. Potential Livestock Predators Only: Protected Species: Brown Hyena, Cheetah, and Wild Dog; Partially Protected Species: Leopard and Lion; Game Animals: Spotted Hyena and Black-Backed Jackal. (Republic of Botswana, Wildlife Conservation and National Parks Act [Government Printer, 1992]).
A 1993 amendment revoked the ability of livestock producers to sell killed predators as a trophy item if the predator had merely threatened to cause livestock damage.
Department of Wildlife and National Parks and Kalahari Conservation Society, National Predator Strategy, Botswana (Gabarone, Botswana, 2002) at Appendix 1b, hereinafter National Predator Strategy (2002).
Act No. 28 of 1992, Part IX, Section 46, Subsection 4–6. “Subsection 4: The minister may pay compensation or arrange compensation to be paid to any person—(a) whose livestock is killed by lion, leopard, cheetah, brown hyaena, crocodile, baboon, monkey or jackal, and it is established that such animal escaped into a game reserve or national park before it could be killed; or (b) who kills an elephant which has damaged his property, where the trophy of such elephant is delivered in accordance with the provisions of subsection (2), and where the ownership of such trophy remains with the Government in accordance with the provisions of subsection (3) (b). Subsection 5: No compensation shall be payable for damage to property caused by any animal, where the person suffering such damage has a right in terms of this section to kill such an animal, but fails without reasonable cause to do so. Subsection 6: The minister may, by notice in the Gazette, determine rates of compensation to be paid in respect of claims made under the provisions of this section, where he considers such claims and such rates to be justified.” (Republic of Botswana, Wildlife Conservation and National Parks Act [Government Printer, Gabarone, 1992]).
For example, the wildlife species eligible for compensation changed from a general list of livestock predators in 1992, to all wildlife species that cause any kind of property damage in 1993, to a much shorter list of dangerous animals in 1996 and was later broadened in 2005 to include some extinction-prone species. In addition, original conditions for compensation, such as establishing that the animal “escaped into a game reserve or national park before it could be killed,” or that the person suffering damages must fail at killing the animal with “reasonable cause to do so,” have been discarded. The agency responsible for verifying compensation claims is the Problem Animal Control (PAC) Division, Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP), which is housed within the Ministry of Environment and Wildlife. In the experience of the author, DWNP officers were unable to articulate the objectives of the compensation program or how shifting goals have resulted in implementation changes. The ambiguity of the program's purpose was also expressed in interviews with livestock producers who had received compensation for wildlife damages. Some farmers thought the compensation program was intended to increase tolerance of predator attacks while others saw it as a welfare program or agricultural subsidy for ailing farmers.
Tjibae & Theophilus, in DWNP and KCS (1997), supra note 26.
Id. See also Kalahari Conservation Society and Chobe Wildlife Trust, Proceedings, Workshop on the Present Status of Wildlife and Its Future in Botswana (Mokolodi Nature Reserve, Botswana, 1995).
Department of Wildlife and National Parks and Kalahari Conservation Society, Report of Proceedings of the National Technical Predator Management and Conservation Workshop in Botswana (Maun, Botswana, 2001).
National Predator Strategy (2002), supra note 30.
The Botswana Predator Conservation Trust, http://www.bpctrust.org/, was founded in 1989 as a research program for wild dogs in the Okavango Delta and is now one of Africa's longest running predator projects. The trust has now expanded to include research on all of Botswana's large carnivores and, as part of its mission, promotes conservation solutions through rigorous scientific inquiry.
17,492,000 ha. Source: World Resources Institute, http://earthtrends.wri.org
7,904,800 ha. Source: World Database on Protected Areas, http://www.wdpa.org
3.09 people/km2. Source: The World Bank, Data and Statistics http://web.worldbank.org
0.28 people/km2. Source: Botswana Central Statistics Office, http://www.cso.gov.bw. Comparably, neighboring countries like Zimbabwe and South Africa must craft conservation strategies with population densities 11–13 times higher than Botswana.
Like elsewhere in the species’ range, wild dogs occur at low densities in Ghanzi District and were roughly estimated at 1/500 km2. Woodroffe et al., supra note 20. Local attitudes are generally antagonistic toward predators and lethal control of wild dogs is reportedly widespread and in proportion to opportunity. Z. Parr, People and Predators: Causes of Conflict and Potential Solutions within Livestock Keeping Communities in Ghanzi District, Botswana (unpublished paper, Department of Anthropology, University College London, 2002). Wild dogs as a major livestock predator would distinguish the Ghanzi area from other African systems. This possibility is suggested by interviews conducted by other independent researchers (Moses Selebatso, pers. comm.) as well as unpublished government data on livestock depredation. For example, local PAC officers report five times more depredation incidents due to wild dogs (15% of Ghanzi's total) when compared to the national average (3%).
Ghanzi District's largest protected area, the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, is connected to 16 multi-use Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) and two other Game Reserves, which in total comprise approximately 155,000 km2 of wilderness.
M. Russel & M. Russel, Afrikaners of the Kalahari: White Minority in a Black State 17 (2009). A small number of Batawana people and pastoralists from other groups raised livestock in Ghanzi before the Afrikaners arrived, but inefficient wells restricted them to a few favorable sites. The Tawana primarily lived in more productive rangeland farther north in Ngamiland and other ethnic groups, like the Barolong and Hereros, immigrated into Ghanzi to escape taxation in the east and persecution in the west, respectively. There were also English-speaking farmers among the early settlers, most notably Thomas Hardbattle who emerged as one of the first owners of large cattle herds in Ghanzi. Several English-descended families still farm in Ghanzi, including the Hardbattles. Hunter gatherer cultures persist in Ghanzi and are described under many names, including San, Bushman, and Basarwa.
By one account: “The cattle … roamed in great herds across the veld … There was no sense of property. If you found out about your cattle at another place you had to go and fetch them.” “Everyone's cattle roamed freely, and calved unsupervised on the veld.” In the dry winter months cattle became tractable, forced to come in to the kraals and to water near the wells and boreholes, but in the summer after rain when the pans filled they frequently became very wild and uncontrollable. In their grazing they followed the spasmodic and highly localized rainfall. Id. at 29.
Other policies that encouraged fencing include the 1975 Tribal Grazing Land Policy that created large fenced commercial ranches as well as European Union-subsidized beef exports which led to thousands of kilometers of veterinary cordon fences dividing the country. Initiated in the 1950s with new construction to the present day, cordon fences are intended to reduce disease transmission between wildlife and cattle. The fences have been effective at restricting targeted wildlife species and wildebeest and hartebeest populations have decreased approximately 95% over the past four decades in central Botswana. Proposed explanations for this collapse include the veterinary fences serving as barriers to seasonal water sources, as well as over-hunting and over-grazing by domestic stock. C.R. Thouless, Large Mammals Inside and Outside Protected Areas in the Kalahari, 53 Trans. R. Soc. S. Afr. 245–255 (1998).
The economy has continued to grow as the tourism industry has emerged as the second most important economic contributor and Botswana is now considered a middle income country. In 2006, Botswana ranked fourth in Africa in terms of per capita GDP ($14,300 Purchasing Power Parity dollars), comparable to countries like Romania and Chile. Data available at CIA Factbook, www.cia.gov
This is in stark contrast to other parts of Africa where herding is nearly 100% and is an effective deterrent to predatory attacks. Woodroffe et al., supra note 11.
In Norway, over two million sheep graze freely in mountains and forests occupied by gray wolves (Canis lupus), wolverine (Gulo gulo), brown bear (Ursus arctos), and Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx). J.E. Swenson & H. Andrén, A Tale of Two Countries: Large Carnivore Depradation and Compensation Schemes in Sweden and Norway, in People and Wildlife (2005), supra note 6, at 323–339. Similarly, most livestock in North America are unguarded and carnivore populations recovering from the end of state-sanctioned eradication campaigns have forced controversial and costly efforts to mitigate conflict.
Technical solutions to deter predation, such as alarms, toxic livestock collars, and flagging, have yielded limited results with most methods rendered ineffective due to behavioral habituation by predators.
The full suite of the area's large predators is considered to include lions (Panthera leo), leopards (Panthera pardus), cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), and brown hyenas (Hyaena brunnea), in addition to the smaller but common livestock predator, the black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas). More rarely, spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) occur on the Ghanzi farms.
Wildlife Management Area and Controlled Hunting Area, GH-11.
Participating farmers identified themselves as belonging to 12 tribes or ethnic groups, including (in order of frequency) Mokgalagadi, Mosarwa, Mongologa, and Moherero. The northern Ghanzi farms are predominantly owned by Afrikaners and British expatriates.
For example, a majority of commercial farmers could not give a precise number of how many cattle they owned or subsequently lost.
Previous negative experiences with an individual researcher resulted in several commercial ranchers disappointed and uninterested in research and conservation efforts, even after that individual had left the community.
Pro-active disease management varied widely in the Okwa Valley. Many owners did not invest in any form of preventative care or treatment, but relied exclusively on annual vaccination programs provided by the government.
Use of guard dogs for small stock was common, but not universal.
Livestock producers who participated in the study varied in their use of protective corrals, known as kraals in southern Africa. Some farmers kraaled their cattle at night, while others kraaled their cattle during the day. Many cattle did not return daily to the kraal, particularly in the wet season. New born calves were often kept in kraals, but farmers differed on when the calf would join its mother on the range with some farmers never kraaling the calf. Goats and sheep were always kraaled at night and, like cattle, kids and lambs were typically kraaled while adults grazed during the day, but not always.
The “months of data collected” varied between farms and was on average less than the 12-month study period because people who were able to provide data on livestock numbers were not always present during the study's twice-monthly visits.
Births and purchases exceeded sales, deaths, and disappearances.
A. Dickman & S.M Durant, Cats, Cows and Communities: Investigating Human–Large Carnivore Conflict around Ruaha National Park, Tanzania (paper delivered at the 21st annual meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 2007).
In addition to the desired consistency of survey responses, employing a local livestock producer occasionally led to sensitive information on the illegal killing of predators and other wildlife. An outsider conducting the research, either foreign or someone more closely associated with the Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks, on his/her own would likely not have had access to that type of information.
S. Thirgood, R. Woodroffe, & A. Rabinowitz, The Impact of Human–Wildlife Conflict on Human Lives and Livelihoods, in People and Wildlife (2005), supra note 6, at 13–26.
S. Fritts et al., Wolves and Humans, in Wolves: Behavior, ecology, and conservation 289–316 (L.D. Mech & L. Boitani eds., 2003).
Ogada et al., supra note 2.
Woodroffe et al., supra note 23.
Fritts et al., supra note 64.
Cowling & Wilhelm-Rechmann, supra note 7.
Rasmussen, supra note 9.
Ranks were summed using the Borda count method, in a scoring system similar to the one used in baseball MVP vote tallies.
The six factors were identified in conversations with livestock farmers as the primary drivers of farm productivity.
Despite efforts, an active burrow where a wild dog pack was raising a litter—which would produce the most realistic opportunity to immobilize and collar a wild dog—was never located. Marking wild dogs was further complicated by government policy that required veterinarians to be present during immobilizations. Such well-intentioned policy is difficult to reconcile when sightings were extremely rare and remotely located.
In 18 months of related field work, the project team saw live wild dogs three times in the grazing area, or an estimated 1 sighting for every 6 months of effort and 5,000 km driven. Given these constraints, establishing working relationships with livestock producers with regular contact to follow up on reported attacks was considered the most accurate method to feasibly collect data on livestock depredations.
Camera traps and spoor transects were also unsuccessful methods to collect even presence/absence data on a species that occurs at such low densities.
Ogada et al., supra note 2.
1Graduate Group in Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
2The author thanks Adrianna Muir, Paul Haverkamp, Margaret Swisher, and Geoffrey Wandesforde-Smith for helpful revisions to earlier versions of this article. The Botswana Department of Wildlife and National Parks provided access to government compensation records. Dr. J.W. McNutt and Lesley Boggs of the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust helped with the development of methods. Research support came from the National Science Foundation, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the UC Davis African Studies Committee.