Bear-Baiting May Exacerbate Wolf-Hunting Dog Conflict

Peer reviewe

Comparison of best performing models explaining trends in wolf depredation on bear-hunting dogs in the Wisconsin and Michigan, USA, by Akaike’s information criterion & weight.

*<p>Encounter = the ratio of bear hunting permits sold per wolf (see methods). Numbers in parenthesis under explanatory factors are <i>p</i>-values for the five best-performing models.</p>a<p>AIC_C is Akaike’s information criterion, corrected for small sample size.</p>b<p>ΔAIC_C is AIC_C for the model of interest minus the smallest AIC_C for the set of models being considered. We only considered models with ΔAIC_C ≤2.</p>c<p>W is the Akaike’s weight of each model. The ratio of one model’s weight to another estimates how many times more support the data provide for that model over the other.</p

Logistic regression analysis of the probability of wolf depredation on hunting dogs in relation to time since training with bait in Wisconsin and Michigan, USA.

<p><i>Note</i>. NA = not applicable.</p

Wolf conflict and the duration of bear-baiting in the upper Great Lakes region, USA.

<p>Predicted probability of a wolf depredation on bear-hunting dogs (<i>y-axis</i>) versus the number of days since training with bait began (<i>x-axis</i>) in Wisconsin (<i>upper line</i>) and Michigan (<i>lower line</i>). Each point represents a day since training with bait began in Wisconsin (<i>closed symbols</i>) and Michigan (<i>open symbols</i>). Note that open symbols for Michigan are offset from (0) and (1) probability so as to not overlap symbols for Wisconsin. The odds of a depredation event occurring in Wisconsin were 3.57× greater than the odds in Michigan; a relative depredation risk 2.12–7.22× greater in Wisconsin.</p

Wolf conflict timing and bear hunting in the upper Great Lakes region, USA.

<p><i>Lower panel</i>: cumulative wolf depredations on bear-hunting dogs (<i>y-axis</i>) each month (<i>x-axis</i>) from 1980–2010 in Wisconsin (<i>closed bars</i>) and Michigan (<i>open bars</i>). <i>Upper panel</i>: General timing of bear-baiting, training, and hunting regulations (<i>y-axis</i>) in each state; <i>x-axis</i> and bar symbols are the same as in lower panel. In Wisconsin there is a pre-training baiting period of ∼2.5 months that does not exist in Michigan and baiting in Michigan begins ∼4 months later than in Wisconsin.</p

Distinct wolf conflict patterns in the upper Great Lakes region, USA.

<p>Poisson log-linear relationship between annual totals of wolf depredation (i.e. kill or injury) on bear-hunting dogs (<i>y-axis</i>) and annual estimates of wolf abundance (<i>x-axis</i>) in Wisconsin (1990–2010; <i>closed symbols</i>) and Michigan (1996–2010; <i>open symbols</i>).</p