Abstract
The threat that wolves (Canis lupus) pose to hunting dogs is one reason why Finnish hunters have negative attitudes towards wolves and one of the potential motivations for the illegal killing of wolves. During 2010–2017, wolves killed an average of 38 dogs (range 24–50) per year in Finland. Most of the attacks (91%) were directed at hunting dogs during the hunting season. To decrease the risk of attacks, the last seven positions (one position per hour) of GPS-collared wolves were accessible to the public with a 5 × 5 km resolution during the hunting seasons (from August 20th to February 28th) of 2013/2014 (from September 2nd onwards), 2015/2016, 2016/2017 and 2017/2018. The link was visited more than 1 million times in 3 of the 4 seasons. Fatal attacks on dogs occurred on 17% of the days during the hunting seasons of our study (n = 760 days). Both the attacks and visits peaked in September–November, which is the primary hunting season in Finland. According to the general linear model, the number of daily visits to the website was higher on days when fatal attacks occurred than on other days. Additionally, season and the number of days passed from the first day of the season were significantly related to the daily visits. Visits were temporally auto-correlated, and the parameter values in the model where the dependent variable was the number of visits on the next day were only slightly different from those in the first model. A two-way interaction between season and attack existed, and the least squares means were significantly different in 2017/2018. The change in daily visits between consecutive days was related only to the number of days from the beginning of the season. We examined whether this kind of service decreased dog attacks by wolves. Wolf attacks were recorded in 32% of the wolf territories, where at least one wolf had been collared (n = 22). However, within the territories without any GPS-collared wolves, the proportion of territories with wolf attack(s) was significantly higher than those elsewhere (50%, n = 48). Although public information decreased the risk of attacks, it did not completely protect dogs from wolf attacks and may in some cases increase the risk of illegally killing wolves. The most remarkable benefit of this kind of service to the conservation of the wolf population might be the message to the public that management is not overlooking hunters’ concerns about wolf attacks on their dogs.
Highlights
IntroductionLarge carnivores and humans are often in conflict due to carnivore damage to livestock (Ciucci and Boitani 1998; Dahle et al 1998; Kaczensky 1999; Madhusudan and Karanth 2002; Treves et al 2002; Madhusudan 2003; Musiani et al 2003; Polisar and Eisenberg 2003; Gunther et al 2004; Frank et al 2006; Iliopoulos et al 2009; Inskip and Zimmermann 2009; Olson et al 2015a; Montalvo et al 2016)
The number of daily visits was positively related to the recent occurrence of fatal attacks by wolves on dogs during the hunting season, the number of wolves with an active collar, and the number of days passed from the day when the link was opened (Table 1)
Our results provided evidence that temporary and recent wolf location information might decrease the risk of attacks on hunting dogs
Summary
Large carnivores and humans are often in conflict due to carnivore damage to livestock (Ciucci and Boitani 1998; Dahle et al 1998; Kaczensky 1999; Madhusudan and Karanth 2002; Treves et al 2002; Madhusudan 2003; Musiani et al 2003; Polisar and Eisenberg 2003; Gunther et al 2004; Frank et al 2006; Iliopoulos et al 2009; Inskip and Zimmermann 2009; Olson et al 2015a; Montalvo et al 2016). Damage from large carnivores often generates displeasure and frustration (Bisi and Kurki 2008) and may fuel the illegal killing of carnivores (Liberg et al 2012; PohjaMykrä and Kurki 2014; Olson et al 2015b; Suutarinen and Kojola 2017). Protection, including better hunting management, reintroductions and habitat recovery after abandonment, wolves, bears and Eurasian lynxes experienced a continentwide recovery in the first half of the twentieth century, which has led to conflicts in many countries in Europe and North America (Breitenmoser 1998; Chapron et al 2014)
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