Management and control of wild canids alongside people.

Abstract

Canids command attention in a way that is disproportionate to their number of species or abundance, chiefly because they so frequently and successfully contest human interests. Often they compete with man as predators upon unwillingly shared resources, targeting domestic animals and game. Some of the larger canids may occasionally even maul or kill people. A further reason for canid-human conflict, as explored by Woodroffe et al. (Chapter 6, this volume), is that canids are involved with diseases that can be harmful to people and their domestic animals.
As a result of such conflicts, many canid species have a long history of persecution by man, often well coordinated, at national scale, and state-funded (e.g. African wild dogs Lycaon pictus, Woodroffe 2001). Although some canid species have gone extinct as a result (e.g. Falkland wolf Dusicyon australis, see below), many have been notoriously resilient to widespread and sustained persecution. For instance, coyotes (Canis latrans), jackals, red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), and three Pseudalopex fox species in the southern cone of South America are all thriving despite tremendous hunting pressure for the pelt trade or as targets of eradication campaigns. Other canids currently have an improving conservation status. Of these, several are medium-sized opportunists that have extended their distributions recently, sometimes aided by the removal of larger carnivores (Macdonald and Sillero-Zubiri, Chapter 1, this volume), sometimes due to flourishing in new, manmade environments (there are urban populations of red foxes, coyotes, and even kit foxes Vulpes macrotis). Thanks to changing public opinion, legal protection, and habitat recovery, the Grey wolf (Canis lupus), is returning to areas in Europe and North America where it was long ago hunted to extinction (Wydeven et al. 1995; Breitenmoser 1998). In contrast, other canid species are threatened and restricted in distribution (e.g. Ethiopian wolf Canis simensis, red wolf C. rufus, Darwin's fox Pseudalopex fulvipes, island fox Urocyon littoralis) (see Macdonald and Sillero-Zubiri, Chapters 1 and 23, this volume; Fig. 5.1).
In this chapter we explore why canids frequently find themselves in conflict with humans, and how managers and conservationists have tackled these conflicts. We distinguish approaches based on prevention, deterrence, or removal of individual problem animals and those directed at populations.