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.

当前，全球贫困人口中从事家畜饲养的比例不断上升，全球家畜存栏总量亦持续增长。大型食肉动物捕食家畜以及由此引发的报复性猎杀行为，正成为兼具经济与保护双重维度的重要议题。针对食肉动物保护与降低家畜被捕食风险的常规建议，是通过提升野生猎物种群规模来实现，其核心假设为食肉动物会将此类资源作为替代捕食对象。然而，家畜被捕食的态势可能随野生猎物数量增加而出现减轻或加剧两种结果，具体取决于食肉动物的猎物选择偏好以及其种群丰度的变化趋势。我们的研究表明，濒危物种雪豹（Panthera uncia）对家畜的捕食强度，会随其偏好猎物——野生有蹄类的种群密度提升而加剧，随后趋于稳定。我们在7个调查点位估算得到的雪豹种群密度，与作为其偏好猎物的野生有蹄类种群密度呈显著正线性相关，而与家畜种群密度未显现出明确关联。同时我们发现，模型模拟得到的家畜被捕食强度会随家畜种群密度上升而升高。本研究结果显示，提升野生有蹄类种群规模虽有助于雪豹保护，但也会加剧牧民面临的家畜被捕食问题。野生猎物种群丰度提升本可在减少家畜被捕食方面发挥潜在益处，但雪豹种群随之增长的效应可能会抵消这些收益。因此，旨在通过扩大野生猎物种群规模来推进雪豹保护的相关举措，必须配套完善家畜防护措施，以及对食肉动物造成的经济损失进行补偿的帮扶政策。