Predator management

Abstract: Successful legislation during the 20th century has led to recovering populations of large carnivores in Europe and we are now facing the challenges of managing the populations to fulfil both national and international conservation goals as well as minimizing the conflicts resulting from depredation on domestic animals on a national level. I investigated the space use by Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in relation to their migrating main prey, the semi-domesticated reindeer (Rangifer t. tarandus). Based on data from radio-collared lynx individuals seasonal activity range use did not seem to be affected by the seasonal migrations of the reindeer. For example, the mean distance from the centre of a lynx’s activity range one season, to the centre point in the season immediately following, did not differ significantly between seasons. The distances between centre points were about one order of magnitude shorter than the distance of the reindeer migration. Hence, lynx in northern Sweden do not appear to move with the migrating reindeer and likely sustain on stray reindeer and alternative prey during part of the year. Successful management of wildlife populations also requires appropriate monitoring of population size to make new management decisions and evaluate the consequences of previous decisions and management actions. I evaluated the effect of varying accuracy and interval of population estimates on management success. When funding is limited, managers would be better off focusing on surveys with higher precision even if that means that the interval between surveys is longer.