Facilitating long-term coexistence between people and large carnivores is a persistent, global conservation challenge. Evidence-based decisions to help design and implement programs that promote coexistence between people and carnivores are required. Using a case study approach, we evaluated the effectiveness of conflict mitigation efforts of a community-based program in southwestern Alberta, Canada: the Waterton Biosphere Reserve's (WBR) Carnivores and Communities Program (CACP). The CACP's overall goal is to support coexistence of people and large carnivores through initiatives including reducing livestock loss, damage to stored crops, and safety risks from carnivores by engaging residents in hands-on programming. We used an online survey to assess program participants' general awareness of and motivation to engage in the CACP, safety risks associated with living with large carnivores, and attractant management and deadstock removal programming. We received 116 completed surveys. Survey results indicated that participants felt the CACP effectively reduced conflicts with large carnivores, increased their sense of safety when living with large carnivores, and enabled them to learn skills and gain confidence in using mitigation tools (e.g., bear spray). We also evaluated temporal trends in large carnivore conflicts using occurrence records (i.e., complaint data) from 1999 through 2016. We classified these data into incidents (e.g., situations where carnivores caused property damage, obtained anthropogenic food, killed or attempted to kill livestock or pets) and focussed on incidents related to attractants, including deadstock. We focus our incident review on grizzly bears because most agricultural attractant incidents in the study area are caused by grizzly bears. We used a Chow test to evaluate if the 2009 CACP commencement represented a break point or structural change in the data. Although total reported incidents increased from 1999 through 2016, we show both reported attractant and deadstock-based incidents changed from increasing to decreasing after the CACP implementation in 2009. Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of a contextually specific, community-based approach to addressing human-carnivore conflicts. More broadly, our evaluation and lessons learned provide other conservation organizations with a useful framework for addressing human-carnivore or other wildlife conflicts.
Livestock deaths are an unfortunate reality for livestock producers and dead livestock (i.e., deadstock) disposal options can have implications beyond the ranch itself. In Alberta, Canada, natural disposal (i.e., disposing of the carcass in a manner that allows for scavenging) has increased since the 2003 detection of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Canadian cattle. Prior to BSE, rendering companies removed deadstock for free. However, rendering companies started charging producers to remove deadstock to offset costs associated with new regulatory requirements enacted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which has resulted in increased on-farm natural disposal of deadstock. This increase has ecological implications because deadstock are a major attractant for large carnivores. Carnivores feeding on deadstock are often near other agricultural attractants such as stored grain and feed, silage, and living livestock, which can exacerbate conflict potential and pose a risk to human safety. To help mitigate conflicts associated with deadstock, the Waterton Biosphere Reserve's (a local non-profit) Carnivores and Communities Program (CACP) supported expansion of community deadstock removal efforts beginning in 2009, including reimbursement of on-farm removal costs, bear-resistant deadstock bins, and a livestock compost facility (operational 2013–2014). Here, we present an evaluative case study describing the development, implementation, and results of the deadstock removal program, including the compost facility. We tracked the number of head of livestock removed each year, the number of participating landowners, the average cost per head, and total program costs. We also used an online survey to assess participants' perspectives of the deadstock removal program and future needs. To date, the CACP has removed >5,400 livestock carcasses, representing between 15.1 and 22.6% of available carcasses in the program area, and 67.3% of livestock owners indicated they currently use the deadstock removal program to dispose of deadstock. Average cost to compost an animal was significantly less than other removal methods ($36.89 composting vs. $79.59 non-composting, one-tailed t-test, unequal sampling variances: t = 4.08, df = 5.87, p = 0.003). We conclude by discussing both ecological and social implications for deadstock removal as a conflict mitigation measure and make suggestions for future management considerations.
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