Abstract
Large carnivores are among the most controversial group of species to conserve in our modern and crowded world. The deeply rooted hostility to large carnivores in human societies is well known and is mainly driven by depredation on livestock. Lethal control (defined as the legal, permitted or government-approved killing of individuals) has always been considered as a prime choice for management of large carnivores. However, contrary to non-lethal options for reducing damages on livestock, such as fencing or guarding dogs, the removal of individuals can trigger complex responses in large carnivore populations. Unexpected consequences beyond the direct reduction of population size or removal of problem individuals can emerge (e.g. infanticide, breeding failure, depensatory mortality), and it is therefore critical to understand the limits and the consequences of the use of lethal control, as well as whether it reaches the desired management goals (e.g. reducing depredations). In this project, we propose to shed light on the scale and consequences of lethal control through three questions that we expect will inform the debate on the pros and cons of lethal management worldwide: 1) What is the extent of the use of lethal control in today´s large carnivore management? 2) What are the consequences of lethal control from the predator´s point of view? 3) What are the consequences of lethal control from the manager´s point of view?
Sweden