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Characterization of puma–livestock conflicts in rangelands of central Argentina

Livestock predation is one of the major causes of conflicts between humans and pumas (Puma concolor). Using data from interviews with ranchers and kill-site inspections, we characterized puma–livestock conflicts in Villarino and Patagones counties of central Argentinean rangelands. Depredation was c...

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Autores principales: Guerisoli, María de las Mercedes, Luengos Vidal, Estela, Franchini, Marcello, Caruso, Nicolás, Casanave, Emma Beatriz, Lucherini, Mauro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society Publishing 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5749996/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29308228
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170852
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author Guerisoli, María de las Mercedes
Luengos Vidal, Estela
Franchini, Marcello
Caruso, Nicolás
Casanave, Emma Beatriz
Lucherini, Mauro
author_facet Guerisoli, María de las Mercedes
Luengos Vidal, Estela
Franchini, Marcello
Caruso, Nicolás
Casanave, Emma Beatriz
Lucherini, Mauro
author_sort Guerisoli, María de las Mercedes
collection PubMed
description Livestock predation is one of the major causes of conflicts between humans and pumas (Puma concolor). Using data from interviews with ranchers and kill-site inspections, we characterized puma–livestock conflicts in Villarino and Patagones counties of central Argentinean rangelands. Depredation was considered the major cause of livestock losses, and puma attacks were reported in 46.6% and 35.4% of ranches in Villarino and Patagones, respectively. The majority of ranches underwent losses smaller than 1000 USD. The proportion of livestock lost to predation (0.1–10.4%) and financial losses (5.3–1560.4 USD) per ranch/year varied across ranches, and small sheep ranches in Villarino were affected the most. Depredation was recorded only at night and preferentially in grassland with shrubs and cropland habitats. Although nocturnal enclosures appeared to decrease sheep losses, puma hunting was considered the most effective form of reducing depredation and was implemented by most ranchers. Mortality rates were 3.7 and 1.1–1.56 individuals/year × 100 km(2) for sheep and pumas, respectively. Nocturnal fencing, shepherding and spatial separation from predators may efficiently reduce sheep losses. However, the poor association between the intensity of puma persecution and puma-related livestock losses suggests that conflict mitigation in central Argentina is not only about reducing damage but also about increasing tolerance.
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spelling pubmed-57499962018-01-07 Characterization of puma–livestock conflicts in rangelands of central Argentina Guerisoli, María de las Mercedes Luengos Vidal, Estela Franchini, Marcello Caruso, Nicolás Casanave, Emma Beatriz Lucherini, Mauro R Soc Open Sci Biology (Whole Organism) Livestock predation is one of the major causes of conflicts between humans and pumas (Puma concolor). Using data from interviews with ranchers and kill-site inspections, we characterized puma–livestock conflicts in Villarino and Patagones counties of central Argentinean rangelands. Depredation was considered the major cause of livestock losses, and puma attacks were reported in 46.6% and 35.4% of ranches in Villarino and Patagones, respectively. The majority of ranches underwent losses smaller than 1000 USD. The proportion of livestock lost to predation (0.1–10.4%) and financial losses (5.3–1560.4 USD) per ranch/year varied across ranches, and small sheep ranches in Villarino were affected the most. Depredation was recorded only at night and preferentially in grassland with shrubs and cropland habitats. Although nocturnal enclosures appeared to decrease sheep losses, puma hunting was considered the most effective form of reducing depredation and was implemented by most ranchers. Mortality rates were 3.7 and 1.1–1.56 individuals/year × 100 km(2) for sheep and pumas, respectively. Nocturnal fencing, shepherding and spatial separation from predators may efficiently reduce sheep losses. However, the poor association between the intensity of puma persecution and puma-related livestock losses suggests that conflict mitigation in central Argentina is not only about reducing damage but also about increasing tolerance. The Royal Society Publishing 2017-12-06 /pmc/articles/PMC5749996/ /pubmed/29308228 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170852 Text en © 2017 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Biology (Whole Organism)
Guerisoli, María de las Mercedes
Luengos Vidal, Estela
Franchini, Marcello
Caruso, Nicolás
Casanave, Emma Beatriz
Lucherini, Mauro
Characterization of puma–livestock conflicts in rangelands of central Argentina
title Characterization of puma–livestock conflicts in rangelands of central Argentina
title_full Characterization of puma–livestock conflicts in rangelands of central Argentina
title_fullStr Characterization of puma–livestock conflicts in rangelands of central Argentina
title_full_unstemmed Characterization of puma–livestock conflicts in rangelands of central Argentina
title_short Characterization of puma–livestock conflicts in rangelands of central Argentina
title_sort characterization of puma–livestock conflicts in rangelands of central argentina
topic Biology (Whole Organism)
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5749996/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29308228
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170852
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