Carnivore Ecology and Human-Wildlife Conflict studies

Introduction

The temperate forests and agricultural landscapes of southern Chile's Araucanía region support a diverse guild of native mesocarnivores — including the güiña (Leopardus guigna), the world's smallest wildcat in the Americas, the culpeo fox (Lycalopex culpaeus), the gray fox (L. griseus), the Molina's hog-nosed skunk (Conepatus chinga), and the lesser grison (Galictis cuja) — alongside the puma (Puma concolor) as the sole large predator. A sustained programme of research led by Nicolás Gálvez, Cristian Bonacic, and colleagues has generated a coherent body of work examining how these species navigate an increasingly human-dominated landscape, and what drives the conflict between people and predators that threatens their persistence. This review synthesises findings across four interrelated themes: the activity patterns of mesocarnivores and the disruptive role of free-roaming domestic dogs; the drivers of predator killing by rural residents; the broader context of human-wildlife conflict across the Andean region; and the emerging threat of feral domestic animals to biodiversity conservation.

1. Mesocarnivore Activity Patterns and the Impact of Land-Use Intensification

Gálvez et al. (2021, Journal of Mammalogy) conducted the most comprehensive assessment to date of how anthropogenic landscape change affects the temporal behaviour of the mesocarnivore guild in Araucanía agricultural landscapes. Over 23,373 camera trap nights across 145 sampling units distributed along a gradient from intensive central valley agriculture to less-disturbed Andean valleys, the study recorded 21,729 independent detections of focal species including the güiña, both fox species, skunk, grison, free-roaming dogs, and domestic cats.

The güiña and skunk were primarily nocturnal, while both fox species showed cathemeral (intermittent 24-hour) activity, and domestic dogs were predominantly diurnal. As land-use intensification increased — measured through declining forest cover, increasing fragmentation, and greater land ownership subdivision — nocturnal mesocarnivores showed a reduction in diurnal and crepuscular activity, while cathemeral species shifted toward nocturnality but only when in sympatry with competitors. These shifts constrict temporal niche breadth, potentially reducing fitness through reduced access to diurnal prey and time available for key behavioural activities such as territorial roaming and reproduction.

The most striking finding concerned free-roaming domestic dogs. Both fox species displayed activity peaks systematically opposing those of dogs, and the gray fox showed significant shifts toward higher nocturnal activity when in sympatry with dogs in highly fragmented landscapes — strong evidence of active avoidance behaviour. At the same time, the domestic cat (Felis catus) showed high activity overlap with the güiña (Δ = 0.83), raising concerns about competition for prey and interspecific disease transmission, including feline immunodeficiency virus and feline leukemia virus. The authors conclude that suppressing the free-roaming and unsupervised activity of domestic dogs is among the most critical management actions available to mitigate the impacts of intensification on native mesocarnivores.

2. Drivers of Predator Killing by Rural Residents

Gálvez et al. (2021, Frontiers in Conservation Science) addressed one of the most politically sensitive dimensions of carnivore conservation: the illegal killing of protected predators by rural residents. Working across the same study region in Araucanía, 233 rural residents were surveyed using a randomized response technique — a specialised method designed to elicit honest reporting of sensitive or illegal behaviours by providing statistical anonymity to respondents.

Results showed that more conspicuous species were killed at higher rates: approximately 46% of respondents admitted killing hawks (diurnal raptors), 29–30% had killed foxes or free-roaming dogs, while only 10% admitted killing the güiña — the only species of conservation concern in the study (IUCN Vulnerable). Puma killing appeared negligible, with confidence intervals overlapping zero.

The drivers of killing varied significantly by species, yielding important conservation insights. Güiña killing was most strongly predicted by encounter frequency, suggesting that the low rate of illegal killing is largely a function of the species' cryptic and primarily nocturnal behaviour rather than tolerance. Hawks were killed more frequently by those with low tolerance to livestock predation and high encounter rates. Fox killing was associated with land parcel economic dependency. Dog killing — which was near-universal when livestock losses were high — was strongly driven by reported sheep losses and low tolerance to predation, compounded by ambiguity in Chilean law: most respondents incorrectly believed that killing free-roaming dogs was illegal under the hunting law.

Notably, knowledge of the law's protections for native predators did not significantly predict killing behaviour for any species, suggesting that enforcement risk is too low to act as a deterrent. The authors recommend species-specific interventions: improved poultry enclosures and deterrents to reduce güiña encounters; social marketing campaigns to increase the perceived value of predators as pest controllers; and urgent reform of domestic dog management policy to reduce free-roaming behaviour and clarify the legal framework.

3. Human-Wildlife Conflict in the Andean Region: Patterns and Lessons

Bonacic, Amaya-Espinel and Ibarra (in Human-Wildlife Conflicts, Oxford University Press) provide a comprehensive overview of conflict patterns across the Andes, from Venezuela to Patagonia. Iconic Andean predators — including the Andean bear, puma, culpeo and gray fox, and small felids such as the güiña — are involved in livestock depredation across their entire distributional ranges, though the actual scale of impact is frequently overstated relative to the evidence. Studies in the Araucanía region found that pumas accounted for only 15% of confirmed livestock losses, with their diet in the region primarily consisting of introduced hares and rabbits rather than domestic animals. Small felids such as the güiña are primarily implicated in poultry predation, typically when encountered in chicken coops.

A consistent finding across the Andean region is that lethal control remains the default response to perceived predation, despite limited evidence of its effectiveness and substantial evidence of non-target impacts. Feral dogs are identified as an increasingly significant and underappreciated cause of livestock losses across Chile and Argentina, often exceeding losses attributable to native wildlife while simultaneously generating retribution killing of native predators that are wrongly blamed. The review argues for an interdisciplinary approach — integrating ecological, sociocultural, and economic dimensions — and identifies six key steps toward effective conflict mitigation, including community-based self-assessment, genuine empowerment of rural communities with protective solutions, and improved training of local wildlife authorities to assess and document incidents accurately.

4. Feral Domestic Animals as a Threat to Biodiversity

Bonacic, Almuna and Ibarra (2019, Trends in Ecology and Evolution) situate the free-roaming dog problem within a broader global framework. Domestic animals — cats, dogs, horses, pigs — become feral when removed from proper management, transitioning through stages from responsible ownership to free-roaming and ultimately to fully independent wild reproduction. At the global scale, cats alone are estimated to kill between 1.4 and 3.7 billion birds annually in the United States, and feral dogs are linked to the spread of rabies, canine distemper, and other zoonoses that threaten both wildlife and human communities.

In Chile, the tension between animal rights legislation and conservation is particularly acute.

The 2017 Responsible Ownership Law prohibits euthanasia and lethal control of dogs irrespective of their involvement in livestock or wildlife predation. The authors argue that this legislation — while well-intentioned — has paradoxical consequences: it reduces the legal options available to rural farmers experiencing repeated attacks on livestock, incentivises the covert killing that is already occurring, and actively contributes to the decline of the güiña and other native wildlife that free-roaming dogs prey upon. They recommend participatory management frameworks that engage multiple stakeholders — conservationists, animal rights groups, rural communities, and government agencies — and argue that the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems must be the overriding priority of government policy, superseding the legal protection of feral domestic animals.

5. Conservation Implications

Across this body of work, several conclusions emerge with consistency and urgency. The güiña — as the world's smallest wildcat in the Americas, restricted primarily to Chile and classified as Vulnerable — is dependent on the maintenance of native forest cover outside protected areas, as demonstrated by earlier work by Gálvez et al. (2013, Oryx) showing that forest cover on private land plays a critical role in the species' conservation. The activity pattern research confirms that land-use intensification is subtly but measurably compressing the temporal niche of the güiña and other mesocarnivores, with cumulative fitness consequences that are difficult to detect but important to address.

The free-roaming dog problem sits at the intersection of multiple conservation challenges: it directly threatens native wildlife through predation and disease transmission; it generates retribution killing of native predators that are wrongly blamed for livestock losses; and it is entangled in complex social and legal dynamics that make straightforward management responses politically difficult. Research at Kodkod and across the Araucanía demonstrates that resolving human-carnivore conflict requires moving beyond species-level interventions toward integrated socioecological approaches that address the root drivers of human behaviour and build genuine tolerance for wildlife in agricultural landscapes.

References

Bonacic, C., Almuna, R. & Ibarra, J.T. (2019). Biodiversity conservation requires management of feral domestic animals. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 34(8), 683–686.

Bonacic, C., Amaya-Espinel, J.D. & Ibarra, J.T. (2014). Human-wildlife conflicts: an overview of cases and lessons from the Andean region. In State of the Wild (eds A. Aguirre & R. Sukumar). Oxford University Press.

Gálvez, N., Meniconi, P., Infante, J. & Bonacic, C. (2021). Response of mesocarnivores to anthropogenic landscape intensification: activity patterns and guild temporal interactions. Journal of Mammalogy, 102(4), 1149–1164.

Gálvez, N., St. John, F.A.V. & Davies, Z.G. (2021). Drivers of predator killing by rural residents and recommendations for fostering coexistence in agricultural landscapes. Frontiers in Conservation Science, 2, 712044.

Padrós García, E. (2026). The predation paradox: socio-cognitive drivers of human-carnivore coexistence. MSc thesis, Kodkod Field Studies Center / Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.