The depredation process: Quantifying the mechanisms leading to carnivores encountering, attacking, and killing livestock

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Throughout the global range of most terrestrial carnivores, conflict commonly occurs with humans due to lethal attacks of livestock, known as livestock depredation, by carnivores. This can result in retaliatory killings of carnivores by affected livestock owners, thus leading not only to economic loss among pastoral communities, but also to rapid carnivore declines. Global hotspots of human-carnivore conflict occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, where financial loss for pastoralists and carnivore declines are of particular concern. Indeed, a recent study estimated that across the range of the lion (Panthera leo), the depredation of a single cattle calf would represent an average loss of 59% of annual per capita income. Moreover, the most recent IUCN assessments for the lion, the leopard (Panthera pardus), the striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena), the brown hyena (Parahyaena brunnea), and the African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) all state that one of the primary causes of decline is direct killing due to conflict with humans.