title: Conflict Misleads Large Carnivore Management and Conservation: Brown Bears and Wolves in Spain.
abstract: Large carnivores inhabiting human-dominated landscapes often interact with people and their properties, leading to conflict scenarios that can mislead carnivore management and, ultimately, jeopardize conservation. In northwest Spain, brown bears Ursus arctos are strictly protected, whereas sympatric wolves Canis lupus are subject to lethal control. We explored ecological, economic and societal components of conflict scenarios involving large carnivores and damages to human properties. We analyzed the relation between complaints of depredations by bears and wolves on beehives and livestock, respectively, and bear and wolf abundance, livestock heads, number of culled wolves, amount of paid compensations, and media coverage. We also evaluated the efficiency of wolf culling to reduce depredations on livestock. Bear damages to beehives correlated positively to the number of female bears with cubs of the year. Complaints of wolf predation on livestock were unrelated to livestock numbers; instead, they correlated positively to the number of wild ungulates harvested during the previous season, the number of wolf packs, and to wolves culled during the previous season. Compensations for wolf complaints were fivefold higher than for bears, but media coverage of wolf damages was thirtyfold higher. Media coverage of wolf damages was unrelated to the actual costs of wolf damages, but the amount of news correlated positively to wolf culling. However, wolf culling was followed by an increase in compensated damages. Our results show that culling of the wolf population failed in its goal of reducing damages, and suggest that management decisions are at least partly mediated by press coverage. We suggest that our results provide insight to similar scenarios, where several species of large carnivores share the landscape with humans, and management may be reactive to perceived conflicts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Conservation Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fernández-Gil
authors.affiliation: Department of Conservation Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Naves
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås, Norway.
authors.forename: Andrés
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ordiz
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biología de Organismos y Sistemas / UMIB, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Quevedo
authors.affiliation: Department of Conservation Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Eloy
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Revilla
authors.affiliation: Department of Conservation Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Delibes
mesh_terms: D065136:Animal Culling; D000818:Animals; D060435:Carnivory / Q000502:physiology*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D005260:Female; D005843:Geography; D058751:Livestock; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011235:Predatory Behavior; D013030:Spain; D001503:Ursidae / Q000502:physiology*; D019596:Wolves / Q000502:physiology*