The part of livestock and pets in wolf diet in Lithuania

Abstract

Since wolves cause substantial damage to livestock, farmers demand that the wolf population be reduced. Environmental non-governmental organisations are opposed to this idea, therefore social tensions in the society are rising. The patterns of damage done to livestock were investigated by using data registered in the Biological Diversity Database (BDD) of the State Service for Protected Areas under the Ministry of Environment in the period from 1 January 2019 to 1 December 2021. Wolf diet was analysed by examining the stomach content of hunted wolves and the content of collected scats (n = 132). During the analysed period, 1139 cases of wolves attacking livestock were submitted to the BDD. Twenty-eight cases of wolves attacking dogs were submitted to BDD from 1 January 2019 to 1 December 2021. A total of 1167 animals were killed in 2019; 1279 animals were killed in 2020, and 875 animals were killed in 2021 (before 1 December). During the three years analysed, wolves most frequently attacked sheep (60.1–67.4% of cases annually). In accordance with the data gathered from analyses of the contents of wolves’ stomach and scats, remains of domestic animal were found in 6.82% of all samples.