Movements of livestock guarding dogs in relation to wild dog exclusion fencing and wild dogs: an application of remote GPS logging technology

Abstract

In areas where livestock and wild dogs overlap, predation of livestock is a significant economic and psychological burden on producers. To reduce the frequency and severity of attacks on livestock, some landholders are using livestock protection animals to supplement or replace traditional lethal control techniques. Neighbours often question the movement of these large, free-roaming dogs to rural environments already affected by attacks from wild dogs. How maremmas and wild dogs interact and use space and resources near livestock, their movements in relation to dog exclusion fencing, potential threats to maremmas of adjacent wild dog control measures, behavioural variation between individual maremmas and interactions between maremmas and sheep have interest and application to livestock managers. We address the first four of these questions by monitoring wild dogs and maremmas in the Northern Tablelands of NSW where we fitted commercial GPS/ satellite or GPS/ VHF collars to 6 wild dogs, and GPS collars to 6 maremmas. Locational data are presented and analysis and interpretation problems are discussed. Later in 2010, 12 maremmas and 20 sheep will be collared to investigate the final question.