Agridea Study: Livestock Guardian Dogs Work

An Agridea study confirms that livestock protection with dogs works well. The measure effectively protects farm animals from predators.

Editorial team Wild beim Wild — 21 July 2022

Despite a clear increase in wolf attacks in 2021, livestock protection with dogs is working “principally well” according to the national agricultural centre Agridea. A recent investigation shows that in the case of larger incidents, livestock protection requirements were frequently not being met.

Last year, the number of alpine pastures that recorded kills despite officially deployed livestock guardian dogs tripled to 22. On 14 of these pastures, three or more farm animals — typically sheep — were killed. Nine of the pastures are located in Graubünden, two each in Valais and Ticino, and one in St. Gallen. Agridea examined the livestock protection measures on these alpine farms.

The finding: only on every third alpine pasture investigated were the conditions in place for an effective deployment of dogs. On two out of three pastures, livestock guardian dogs were present, but did not have the conditions necessary to carry out their work successfully.

On these pastures, “herd management appears to have been the major challenge,” conclude Agridea’s livestock protection experts. Most kills were attributed to herds spread over too wide an area, rather than to any failure on the part of the dogs. Federal requirements regarding herd containment were frequently not met.

The extensive investigation identified two main reasons for this shortcoming: either the shepherds’ work was not sufficiently professional, or the terrain made compact herd management difficult or even impossible. Poor weather conditions, such as fog, also had a negative impact.

Commitment pays off

Where those responsible for the alpine pastures made efforts to improve conditions following initial attacks, this generally paid off. On four pastures, replacing unmotivated shepherds, acquiring additional dogs, or adopting more consistent herd management led to a rapid and marked reduction in wolf kills.

Agridea did not examine more closely the eight alpine pastures on which only one or two animals were killed. The report notes that individual kills can occur even in herds with guard dogs. Agridea interprets the low number of animals killed as a sign that livestock protection was fundamentally working on these alpine pastures.

More wolves, same number of kills

According to Agridea, 297 livestock guardian dogs were deployed on Swiss alpine pastures last year, seven times more than 20 years ago. A further 170 dogs were on pastures, on farms, or in training.

Although the number of wolves increased by just over half last year to between 140 and 150, the number of livestock killed by the large predator (867) remained roughly stable. The majority of animals taken were sheep and goats, along with four calves and 17 cattle.

On average, each wolf killed around six animals. As the Group Wolf Switzerland reported at an earlier point in time, that is five times fewer kills per wolf than during the initial phase of the wolf's return. Around the turn of the millennium, just six wolves were killing over 200 livestock animals. “This positive outcome is without doubt thanks to the expanded livestock protection measures,” the wolf conservation advocates emphasized.

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