The Wolf Preservation Blog

The following information is provided by “The Wolf Almanac” by Robert Busch (1995 edition).

“According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “wolf predation of livestock–sheep, poultry, and cattle–does occur, but it is uncommon enough behavior in the species as a whole to be called aberrant.”

Many studies have shown that ninety-nine percent of all farmers and ranchers in wolf territory will not be bothered by wolves.  Of over 7,000 farmers in northern Minnesota, where over 1,700 wolves inhabit the area, only an average of twenty-five ranchers per year suffered verified predation from wolves between 1975 and 1989.  In Canada, only one percent of 1,608 wolf scats collected in Manitoba’s Riding Mountain National Park contained remnants of livestock. 

In one study in Spain, half of all the “wolf kills” that were investigated were found to be caused by feral dogs.  According to William J. Paul of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where wolf predation on livestock does occur, “most losses occur in summer when livestock are released to graze in open and wooded pastures.”

In many cases, preventative farming practices would eliminate predation.  The Alberta Fish and Wildlife Division recommends the following animal husbandry practices in wolf habitat:

• cattlemen should check their herds regularly.
• only healthy and non-pregnant cows should be sent to pasture.
• livestock should be removed from pasture as early as possible in the fall.
• carrion should be buried or removed as soon as possible. (In one Minnesota study by the U.S. and Wildlife Service, 63 percent of 111 farmers surveyed either left dead livestock in place or just dragged it to the edge of the woods.)
• grazing leases on remote public lands should be phased out.ranchers should keep animals out of remote pastures after dusk and pen them in corrals where they can be watched.

Other measures include the use of  battery-operated flashing highway lights in animals corrals and fladry.  Livestock guard dogs and electric fences have also some potential in reducing predation.  In Ontario, biologists are experimenting with painting sticky substances on the backs of sheep, which seems to deter predators.  The European practice of using shepherds to guard livestock is also worthy of consideration, as is diversionary feeding, or providing alternative food sources.

It is politically crucial that compensation be paid to farmers who do suffer wolf predation.  The existence of compensation schemes goes a long way toward improving ranchers’ attitudes toward wolves.  It is also crucial that payment be prompt;  Portugal, when payments were delayed, farmers took to setting poisoned carcasses on the edges of woods to register their complaint.”