Rancher adaptations to wolf depredation in western Montana

With the recovery of gray wolves (Canis lupus) to the Northern Rocky Mountains, wolf depredations on domestic cattle are an ongoing concern for all stakeholders in wolf management. Because these events can occur in clusters, one ranch or a group of ranches may experience disproportionately high levels of depredation. Thus, reducing depredation risks on ranches that have experienced repeated depredation events may greatly reduce depredation in the long term. This research examined what management tools ranchers who have experienced repeated losses to wolves are utilizing to reduce the risk of further depredations, how they evaluate the efficacy of management tools, and why they choose certain management tools over others. All 18 ranchers interviewed were utilizing some combination of lethal and non-lethal tools to prevent further depredations. Ranchers were in agreement that eliminating problem wolves as soon as possible was critical for addressing both the imminent and future threats. Of non-lethal tools, the majority of ranchers spent more time with range cattle (either personally or with a hired range rider), removed livestock carcasses that could attract wolves, and paid more attention to wolf and other wildlife activity on the landscape. In descending order of significance, biological effectiveness, economic and temporal efficiency, and cultural acceptability were the three main lenses that ranchers used to evaluate the overall efficacy of risk abatement tools. Ranchers who perceived an available tool as effective were more likely to be already implementing that tool or express interest in implementing it in the future. Conversely, ranchers who perceived an available tool as ineffective were less likely to be implementing it. Range riding was the only exception to this general rule as ranchers implemented it broadly, but perceived it as largely ineffective at deterring wolves from preying on cattle. The reasons why ranchers perceive certain management tools as more effective than others are sourced in historical forces, individual experiences with depredation, and differences in their individual histories and personalities. It was beyond the scope of this research to adequately analyze the latter. However, this research suggests that managers and funders should focus their resources on research and development of risk abatement tools that ranchers perceive as effective and are therefore more likely to implement on a broad scale.