The Tail Wagging the Dog: Positive Attitude Towards Livestock Guarding Dogs Do Not Mitigate Pastoralists’ Opinions of Wolves or Grizzly Bears
While the re-establishment of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) and wolves (Canis lupus) in the American West marks a success for conservation, it has been contentious among pastoralists. Coincidentally, livestock guarding dogs (LGDs; Canis familiaris) have been widely adopted by producers of domestic sh...
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ftutahsudc:oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:wild_facpub-4028 2023-05-15T15:51:08+02:00 The Tail Wagging the Dog: Positive Attitude Towards Livestock Guarding Dogs Do Not Mitigate Pastoralists’ Opinions of Wolves or Grizzly Bears Kinka, Daniel Young, Julie K. Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. 2019-10-08T07:00:00Z application/pdf https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/wild_facpub/3029 https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4028&context=wild_facpub unknown Hosted by Utah State University Libraries https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/wild_facpub/3029 https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4028&context=wild_facpub Copyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact the Institutional Repository Librarian at digitalcommons@usu.edu. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PDM CC-BY Wildland Resources Faculty Publications Livestock guarding dogs attitude wolves grizzly bears conservation Other Animal Sciences text 2019 ftutahsudc 2022-10-27T17:21:17Z While the re-establishment of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) and wolves (Canis lupus) in the American West marks a success for conservation, it has been contentious among pastoralists. Coincidentally, livestock guarding dogs (LGDs; Canis familiaris) have been widely adopted by producers of domestic sheep (Ovis aries) in the United States to mitigate livestock depredation by wild carnivores. We surveyed pastoralists to measure how experience with and attitudes towards LGDs related to attitudes towards livestock predators, and found positive responses regarding LGDs and negative responses regarding wolves and grizzly bears. The more respondents agreed that LGDs reduce the need for lethal management (p < 0.01) and prevent the spread of disease (p < 0.05), the more positive their opinion of wolves in the wild. Regarding wolves and livestock, respondents who disagreed with the statements that “LGDs do more harm than good” (p < 0.05) or “reduce the need for lethal management” (p < 0.001), were more likely to express more negative opinions of wolves. While results pertaining to a reduced need for lethal management may suggest LGDs have some ability to increase tolerance for wolves, the causal order of these effects is difficult to discern. A more positive attitude for wolves to begin with may predict more optimistic attitudes about the capacity of LGDs to reduce human–wildlife conflict. We found almost no support for the opinion that LGDs do more harm than good, even though attitudes towards wolves were generally negative. Respondents with up to 10 years’ experience using LGDs had more negative attitudes towards grizzly bears (p < 0.01) and respondents with more than 10 years’ experience using LGDs had the most negative attitudes towards grizzly bears (p < 0.001). Thus, while experience was the greatest predictor of attitudes towards grizzly bears, attitudes towards wolves were most correlated with the belief that LGDs offset the need for lethal management of carnivores. These results suggest that LGD ... Text Canis lupus Ursus arctos Utah State University: DigitalCommons@USU |
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Utah State University: DigitalCommons@USU |
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Livestock guarding dogs attitude wolves grizzly bears conservation Other Animal Sciences |
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Livestock guarding dogs attitude wolves grizzly bears conservation Other Animal Sciences Kinka, Daniel Young, Julie K. The Tail Wagging the Dog: Positive Attitude Towards Livestock Guarding Dogs Do Not Mitigate Pastoralists’ Opinions of Wolves or Grizzly Bears |
topic_facet |
Livestock guarding dogs attitude wolves grizzly bears conservation Other Animal Sciences |
description |
While the re-establishment of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) and wolves (Canis lupus) in the American West marks a success for conservation, it has been contentious among pastoralists. Coincidentally, livestock guarding dogs (LGDs; Canis familiaris) have been widely adopted by producers of domestic sheep (Ovis aries) in the United States to mitigate livestock depredation by wild carnivores. We surveyed pastoralists to measure how experience with and attitudes towards LGDs related to attitudes towards livestock predators, and found positive responses regarding LGDs and negative responses regarding wolves and grizzly bears. The more respondents agreed that LGDs reduce the need for lethal management (p < 0.01) and prevent the spread of disease (p < 0.05), the more positive their opinion of wolves in the wild. Regarding wolves and livestock, respondents who disagreed with the statements that “LGDs do more harm than good” (p < 0.05) or “reduce the need for lethal management” (p < 0.001), were more likely to express more negative opinions of wolves. While results pertaining to a reduced need for lethal management may suggest LGDs have some ability to increase tolerance for wolves, the causal order of these effects is difficult to discern. A more positive attitude for wolves to begin with may predict more optimistic attitudes about the capacity of LGDs to reduce human–wildlife conflict. We found almost no support for the opinion that LGDs do more harm than good, even though attitudes towards wolves were generally negative. Respondents with up to 10 years’ experience using LGDs had more negative attitudes towards grizzly bears (p < 0.01) and respondents with more than 10 years’ experience using LGDs had the most negative attitudes towards grizzly bears (p < 0.001). Thus, while experience was the greatest predictor of attitudes towards grizzly bears, attitudes towards wolves were most correlated with the belief that LGDs offset the need for lethal management of carnivores. These results suggest that LGD ... |
author2 |
Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. |
format |
Text |
author |
Kinka, Daniel Young, Julie K. |
author_facet |
Kinka, Daniel Young, Julie K. |
author_sort |
Kinka, Daniel |
title |
The Tail Wagging the Dog: Positive Attitude Towards Livestock Guarding Dogs Do Not Mitigate Pastoralists’ Opinions of Wolves or Grizzly Bears |
title_short |
The Tail Wagging the Dog: Positive Attitude Towards Livestock Guarding Dogs Do Not Mitigate Pastoralists’ Opinions of Wolves or Grizzly Bears |
title_full |
The Tail Wagging the Dog: Positive Attitude Towards Livestock Guarding Dogs Do Not Mitigate Pastoralists’ Opinions of Wolves or Grizzly Bears |
title_fullStr |
The Tail Wagging the Dog: Positive Attitude Towards Livestock Guarding Dogs Do Not Mitigate Pastoralists’ Opinions of Wolves or Grizzly Bears |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Tail Wagging the Dog: Positive Attitude Towards Livestock Guarding Dogs Do Not Mitigate Pastoralists’ Opinions of Wolves or Grizzly Bears |
title_sort |
tail wagging the dog: positive attitude towards livestock guarding dogs do not mitigate pastoralists’ opinions of wolves or grizzly bears |
publisher |
Hosted by Utah State University Libraries |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/wild_facpub/3029 https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4028&context=wild_facpub |
genre |
Canis lupus Ursus arctos |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus Ursus arctos |
op_source |
Wildland Resources Faculty Publications |
op_relation |
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/wild_facpub/3029 https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4028&context=wild_facpub |
op_rights |
Copyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact the Institutional Repository Librarian at digitalcommons@usu.edu. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
PDM CC-BY |
_version_ |
1766386194736742400 |