Dog in sheep’s clothing: livestock depredation by free-ranging dogs may pose new challenges to wolf conservation

Livestock depredation is a common cause of human-carnivore conflicts. In Portugal, free-ranging dogs are increasingly abundant and overlap endangered Iberian wolf territories, with reports of livestock depredation. However, the lack of awareness about dogs’ possible role as predators leads to bias against wolves in cases of damages. Our goal was to assess and compare wolf and free-ranging dog’s diet composition at southern wolf range in Portugal, to offer insights on dogs’ predatory role on livestock and its implications for the conservation of an endangered wolf subpopulation. We assessed diet composition from 107 to 95 genetically confirmed wolf and dog scats, respectively, and complemented the analysis with data from 40 attacks on livestock with successful genetic predator assignment. Scat analysis highlighted goats as the most consumed dog prey in all analysed regions, with lagomorphs, small mammals, and wild boars as second most consumed in each region, respectively. Wolves mainly relied on goats and wild boars in the west, whereas in the central region they mostly fed on birds. The dietary overlap between both canids was very high (Pianka’s index O = 0.93), showing potential for competition. Additionally, we found that dogs were the sole predators detected in most attacks (62%). Our findings highlight dogs’ role as predators of livestock, and possibly also wild species, posing a further challenge to wolf conservation. Alongside adequate husbandry practices, we emphasise the need for a stronger enforcement of the legislation on dog ownership and an effective management of the stray population to reduce human-wolf conflict.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL : A data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in P ortugal

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with 26% of all species being includedin the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associatedwith habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mam-mals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion formarine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems func-tionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is cru-cial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS INPORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublishedgeoreferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mam-mals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira thatincludes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occur-ring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live obser-vations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%),bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent lessthan 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrowsjsoil moundsjtunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animaljhairjskullsjjaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8),observation in shelters, (9) photo trappingjvideo, (10) predators dietjpelletsjpine cones/nuts, (11) scatjtrackjditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalizationjecholocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and100 m (76%). Rodentia (n=31,573) has the highest number of records followedby Chiroptera (n=18,857), Carnivora (n=18,594), Lagomorpha (n=17,496),Cetartiodactyla (n=11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n=7008). The data setincludes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened(e.g.,Oryctolagus cuniculus[n=12,159],Monachus monachus[n=1,512],andLynx pardinus[n=197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate thepublication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contrib-ute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting onthe development of more accurate and tailored conservation managementstrategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite thisdata paper when the data are used in publications.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mammals in Portugal: a data set of terrestrial, volant, and marine mammal occurrences in Portugal

Mammals are threatened worldwide, with ~26% of all species being included in the IUCN threatened categories. This overall pattern is primarily associated with habitat loss or degradation, and human persecution for terrestrial mammals, and pollution, open net fishing, climate change, and prey depletion for marine mammals. Mammals play a key role in maintaining ecosystems functionality and resilience, and therefore information on their distribution is crucial to delineate and support conservation actions. MAMMALS IN PORTUGAL is a publicly available data set compiling unpublished georeferenced occurrence records of 92 terrestrial, volant, and marine mammals in mainland Portugal and archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira that includes 105,026 data entries between 1873 and 2021 (72% of the data occurring in 2000 and 2021). The methods used to collect the data were: live observations/captures (43%), sign surveys (35%), camera trapping (16%), bioacoustics surveys (4%) and radiotracking, and inquiries that represent less than 1% of the records. The data set includes 13 types of records: (1) burrows | soil mounds | tunnel, (2) capture, (3) colony, (4) dead animal | hair | skulls | jaws, (5) genetic confirmation, (6) inquiries, (7) observation of live animal (8), observation in shelters, (9) photo trapping | video, (10) predators diet | pellets | pine cones/nuts, (11) scat | track | ditch, (12) telemetry and (13) vocalization | echolocation. The spatial uncertainty of most records ranges between 0 and 100 m (76%). Rodentia (n =31,573) has the highest number of records followed by Chiroptera (n = 18,857), Carnivora (n = 18,594), Lagomorpha (n = 17,496), Cetartiodactyla (n = 11,568) and Eulipotyphla (n = 7008). The data set includes records of species classified by the IUCN as threatened (e.g., Oryctolagus cuniculus [n = 12,159], Monachus monachus [n = 1,512], and Lynx pardinus [n = 197]). We believe that this data set may stimulate the publication of other European countries data sets that would certainly contribute to ecology and conservation-related research, and therefore assisting on the development of more accurate and tailored conservation management strategies for each species. There are no copyright restrictions; please cite this data paper when the data are used in publications

Environmental field conditions and sampling effort affect the molecular identification success of livestock predators

For centuries, wolf depredation on livestock has triggered human–wildlife conficts throughout Europe. Free-ranging dogs, however, are increasingly abundant and may also act as predators of livestock herds. This calls for combined eforts aimed at identifying the causes of depredation events and optimizing the procedures towards predators’ identifcation. Here, we analysed 56 livestock depredation events in central Portugal, an area where confict between wolves and human populations takes place. We estimated the mean minimum sampling efort (number of swabs) required to detect at least one potential predator and examined how extrinsic factors (i.e. time, meteorological conditions and vegetation cover) drive sample deg radation and predator identifcation success. Free-ranging dogs were the only putative predator detected in most attacks (66%). Results indicate that a minimum of three swabs are needed to detect at least one predator, but using at least four would substantially increase the detection rate. We found that the longer the interval between an attack and sample collection and the higher the local humidity, the lower is the probability of identifcation success. On the other hand, higher tempera tures and precipitation levels seem to be associated with a higher probability of success. The unexpected positive efect of precipitation may be linked to specifc environmental contexts (i.e. higher precipitation levels in colder weather may still favour sample conservation). As identifcation success depends on time and weather conditions, the time span between a depredation event and sample collection should be reduced whenever possible, and sufcient samples should be collected to ensure an adequate detection successinfo:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio