Gauge baiting, shooting and trapping success by dead dogs

摘要

In his 25 year career managing and researching wild dogs Dr Lee Allen has watched landholders grapple with the problems associated with protecting their livestock. "My interest was caught when I encountered repeated anecdotes of high predation rates soon after graziers put out baits," says Allen. "This was often countered by neighbouring properties, where there had been no baiting, reporting nil or very low losses." To find out what was happening the researchers began preg-testing cows before the baits went out and then counted cows with calves in the following muster. "We found very high losses, up to 30%, of calves on some properties," says Allen. "It was obvious that 'small area control', in this case on 2000 square kilometre properties, is counter productive."