Data from: Impact of wild prey availability on livestock predation by snow leopards

An increasing proportion of the world's poor is rearing livestock today, and the global livestock population is growing. Livestock predation by large carnivores and their retaliatory killing is becoming an economic and conservation concern. A common recommendation for carnivore conservation and for reducing predation on livestock is to increase wild prey populations based on the assumption that the carnivores will consume this alternative food. Livestock predation, however, could either reduce or intensify with increases in wild prey depending on prey choice and trends in carnivore abundance. We show that the extent of livestock predation by the endangered snow leopard Panthera uncia intensifies with increases in the density of wild ungulate prey, and subsequently stabilizes. We found that snow leopard density, estimated at seven sites, was a positive linear function of the density of wild ungulates—the preferred prey—and showed no discernible relationship with livestock density. We also found that modelled livestock predation increased with livestock density. Our results suggest that snow leopard conservation would benefit from an increase in wild ungulates, but that would intensify the problem of livestock predation for pastoralists. The potential benefits of increased wild prey abundance in reducing livestock predation can be overwhelmed by a resultant increase in snow leopard populations. Snow leopard conservation efforts aimed at facilitating increases in wild prey must be accompanied by greater assistance for better livestock protection and offsetting the economic damage caused by carnivores.

当今全球贫困人口饲养家畜的比例持续攀升，全球家畜存栏总量亦不断增长。大型食肉动物捕食家畜以及由此引发的报复性猎杀，已成为日益突出的经济与保护议题。针对食肉动物保护及减少家畜被捕食问题，一项常见建议是提升野生猎物种群数量，其核心假设为食肉动物将转而取食这些替代食物。但家畜被捕食的风险，可能随野生猎物数量增加而降低，也可能加剧，具体取决于食肉动物的猎物选择偏好及其种群丰度的变化趋势。我们的研究证实，濒危物种雪豹（Panthera uncia）对家畜的捕食强度，会随野生有蹄类猎物的密度升高而增强，随后趋于平稳。我们在七个研究点位估算得到的雪豹种群密度，与作为其首选猎物的野生有蹄类密度呈显著正线性相关，而与家畜密度未显现出明确关联。此外，模型模拟结果显示，家畜被捕食的概率随家畜密度升高而增加。我们的研究结果表明，提升野生有蹄类种群数量有助于雪豹保护，但这会加剧牧民面临的家畜捕食困境。野生猎物数量增加本可降低家畜捕食损失的潜在益处，可能会因雪豹种群随之扩张而被完全抵消。因此，旨在通过增加野生猎物种群开展雪豹保护的举措，必须配套完善的家畜防护措施，并对食肉动物造成的经济损失予以补偿。