Dissatisfaction with Veterinary Services Is Associated with Leopard (Panthera pardus) Predation on Domestic Animals

PLoS One. 2015 Jun 26;10(6):e0129221. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0129221. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Human-carnivore conflicts challenge biodiversity conservation and local livelihoods, but the role of diseases of domestic animals in their predation by carnivores is poorly understood. We conducted a human-leopard (Panthera pardus) conflict study throughout all 34 villages around Golestan National Park, Iran in order to find the most important conflict determinants and to use them in predicting the probabilities of conflict and killing of cattle, sheep and goats, and dogs. We found that the more villagers were dissatisfied with veterinary services, the more likely they were to lose livestock and dogs to leopard predation. Dissatisfaction occurred when vaccination crews failed to visit villages at all or, in most cases, arrived too late to prevent diseases from spreading. We suggest that increased morbidity of livestock makes them particularly vulnerable to leopard attacks. Moreover, conflicts and dog killing were higher in villages located closer to the boundaries of the protected area than in distant villages. Therefore, we appeal for improved enforcement and coordination of veterinary services in our study area, and propose several priority research topics such as veterinarian studies, role of wild prey in diseases of domestic animals, and further analysis of potential conflict predictors.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Animals, Domestic*
  • Biodiversity
  • Conservation of Natural Resources
  • Ecosystem
  • Humans
  • Iran
  • Livestock
  • Panthera*
  • Predatory Behavior*

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Mohammed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund (IK, MS, AKH, AG, http://www.speciesconservation.org/, project No. 12255025) and Erasmus Mundus/ALRAKIS (IK, http://www.alrakis.eu/, projects No. 2011-2577 and No. 2012-2733). Currently, IK and MW receive funding from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (http://www.humboldt-foundation.de/, project No. 1151598), MS from Erasmus Mundus/SALAM (http://portal.uw.edu.pl/en/web/salam/, project No. 2013-2437-001-001-EMA2), and AG from German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD, https://www.daad.de, project No. A/11/96604) and Panthera Kaplan Graduate Awards (http://www.panthera.org/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.