Argentina, located in the south of the Americas, is home to many wild cats, such as jaguars, mountain lions, slender-waisted cats, Andean tiger cats (yamahara cats), Joe's tiger cats, Pampas cats and so on. At the same time, Argentina is also the most developed country in South America, rich in cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and various poultry.
The development of animal husbandry will inevitably lead to a reduction in the area of wildlife habitat, and many wild cats will seize the opportunity to prey on poultry and livestock. In Argentina, it is common for herders to kill wild cats for revenge.
Pictured: Pretty Andean tiger cat
In order to kill the "offending" felines, herders would shoot them with shotguns, catch them with traps, and even set up poisonous bait. Both the larger jaguar and the smaller Andean tiger cat could not escape the fate of a retaliatory hunt. Against the backdrop of habitat destruction and insufficient wild prey populations, retaliatory hunting increases the risk of extinction of various wild cats in Argentina.
Pictured: Thin-waisted cat
For example, in the entire territory of Argentina today, the number of Andean tiger cats may be only a few hundred, while the number of jaguars is only about 200. So what can be done to reduce the conflict between Argentines and wild cats?
Pictured: Jaguar fur in a family in Argentina
A few years ago, in order to better protect livestock and protect more wild cats from retaliatory hunting, the International Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) launched a "Livestock Guard Dog" project in Argentina. Recently, a group of specially trained guard dogs was delivered to some herders in Argentina.
Pictured: A guard dog that was not born long ago
These guard dogs are a crossbreeding of Anatolian Shepherds and Pyrenees Shepherds and are relatively large. They can work closely with herders to guard their herds (especially goats and sheep) from being attacked by wild cats. In this way, once no domestic animal falls into the mouth of a wild cat, herders will not retaliate against the latter. That is, guard dogs act as "peacemakers" between humans and wild cats.
Pictured: A guard dog in training
Currently, due to the limited number of guard dogs, only some of the herders who applied for it got the sheepdog, but the demand for sheepdogs among herders is growing. This requires people to breed more guard dogs and train them.
One herder involved in the project said that even though they had been killing wild predators before, they had never effectively reduced livestock losses, and the arrival of guard dogs gave them hope. They want to guard their livestock with their dogs and coexist friendly with wild cats.
A staff member of the Wildlife Conservation Society International said another benefit of using sheepdogs is that it helps with habitat restoration. Because sheepdogs can effectively reduce the probability of livestock being preyed upon by predators, herders can reduce the size of their herd. This means that livestock consume less vegetation, which is conducive to habitat restoration.
All in all, in the "Livestock Guard Dog" project, dogs not only protect the property of herders, but also participate in the protection of wild cats, but also indirectly protect the habitat, which is undoubtedly a good way to do more in one fell swoop, and it is worth learning from other areas where there is a serious conflict with wild animals.