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Perceived efficacy of livestock-guarding dogs in South Africa: Implications for cheetah conservation

Large wild carnivore predation on domestic livestock and the associated financial losses may increase efforts toward lethal control of carnivore populations. Livestock‐guarding dogs could provide an effective alternative to such lethal control by mitigating depredation losses. Although this information is available in North America, the cost‐effectiveness of guarding dogs has not been studied in other areas experiencing large carnivore depredation such as South Africa, where the socio‐economic context is very different from that of North America. We assessed the costs and benefits of 97 livestock‐guarding dogs working on 94 farms in South Africa between 2005 and 2011 by reviewing data collected from questionnaires on perceived depredation losses prior to and during guarding dog placement, rates of guarding dog behavioral problems, removals, and pre‐senile mortality.