IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Croes, B.; Buji, R.; van Dalen, J.; de Iongh, H. | |
| Livestock-carnivore conflicts: results of an inventory around B‚nou‚ National Park, Cameroon | |
| 2008 Conference Proceeding | |
The proximity of lion home ranges to populated areas along the borders of the B‚nou‚ National Park, illustrated recently by GPS data of two of four GPS_GSM collared lions, suggests that occasional livestock predation by lions is likely. To investigate the status of the carnivore-livestock problem around the Park, structured interviews were conducted of 109 household heads in 19 villages along the western border of the park. These revealed that livestock depredation is a relatively unimportant cause of livestock loss, especially compared to disease. Carnivores were generally perceived as relatively low-nuisance wildlife when compared to olive baboon, patas monkey and elephant. Most carnivore attacks on livestock took place during the wet season, mainly by smaller carnivores, particularly 'wild cats', and to a lesser extent by spotted hyena. The wild cat group probably includes genuine African wild cats and African civet, but may be dominated by feral housecats. These small carnivores most frequently target poultry. Spotted hyenas cause significantly less financial damage than wild cats through predation of goats, sheep and chickens usually by entering enclosures; however, spotted hyenas were perceived equally damaging as wild cats. Larger carnivores, such as lion and leopard, rarely take cattle and small ruminants, lions mostly during the dry season when livestock grazes away from villages without protection. However it should be mentioned that only resident farmers were interviewed, work with nomadic herdsmen is still ongoing. Despite the small financial impact of livestock losses through carnivores, poaching and poisoning to deliberately kill carnivores were mentioned on several occasions, and probably occurs on a more regular basis. An observed decrease of lion, leopard, wild dog and spotted hyena by locals in the area over the past decade is a likely result of such practices. |
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