Coexisting with Carnivores

YERC Chief Scientist, Dr. Bob Crabtree, and Dr. Carly Vynne-Baker, YERC BOD, wolf-watching at Soda Butte Creek

Coexisting with carnivores has been a central focus at YERC for nearly four decades. In fact, YERC’s chief scientist did graduate work in the early 80s to test how improved habitat characteristics and provision of alternate food sources, deterred mammal predation on waterfowl nests in Utah. Such coexistence programs have a deep history both in our society and in our science. 

In fact, the love-fear relationship with large carnivores starts with Teddy Bears and Little Red Riding Hood. They elicit a wide range of deep emotions, beliefs and values in all of us. Today, management strategies range from control programs (that often bear resemblance to predator bounties) to successful applications of coexistence programs and practices like livestock guarding dogs, habitat improvement, and other deterrents that may or may not work. All of these strategies are contested and politicized in a way that brings us further from coexisting as a community - this is certainly the case with the current legislation targeting Northern Rocky Mountain wolf and bear populations. YERC’s 28 years of research on carnivores in the northern Yellowstone region using our multiple field stations in Park County, both above and below Yellowstone’s northern range, have witnessed the recovery of these contested carnivores. We’ve been working on data-driven solutions for conservation of wildlife and wildlife habitat for decades and are excited to build upon those successes.

We believe that with community science, coexisting with carnivores will be successful but how did we get into the current situation in the first place?

In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), our native carnivores - from wolverines and mountain foxes to wolves and grizzly bears - face threats exacerbated by a long history of moving between states of recovery and eradication. Across the US and even in Yellowstone National Park, the predator eradication era (~1850 to 1950) aimed to increase valuable prey populations like elk. Then in the late 30s, Adolph Murie conducted a landmark study in Yellowstone that is attributed to turning the tide against indiscriminate killing of predators (mammals and raptors). Published in 1940, “Ecology of the Coyote in the Yellowstone” used basic science to chronicle the strong ecological role and value of predators. Throughout history our beloved and hated carnivores have been excellent bellwethers for concern and action. In our backyards of the GYE, wild herbivores may invade ranchlands for forage and carnivores may seek out domestic livestock, especially if their habitats are degraded and wild prey reduced. We have cases of successful coexistence programs to address human-wildlife conflicts like these, but is that enough when conservation is so often politicized

We now find our society in an era of misinformation where science is ignored, common sense is marginalized, and fiction becomes fact. Yet science and basic biology were the forces that fought our way out of the predator eradication era and paved the way to the rise of modern conservation led by the likes of Teddy Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold. The old saying is still appropriate today: “Politics usually trumps science”, but does it have to? We’re not sure it does, and we need your support at this 21st century crossroads.

We can contest long-held and diverse values and beliefs or we can engage with science. Respectful discussions and constructive criticism can and should necessitate actionable outcomes - that’s why YERC works with agencies, landowners, other NGOs, private businesses, and individual citizens to seek ideas that result in action. We seek win-win solutions and we take a critical step: bringing stakeholders together to learn from our decisions. Both scientists and practitioners measure success by their ability to predict the consequences of their actions - so why shouldn’t we be working together and bear witness to meaningful change in the GYE? With so many tools at hand - both tried-and-true traditional methods and the latest technologies - we can better learn to coexist with carnivores if we learn together.

We have the opportunity to depoliticize how we manage carnivores and return to a fact-based approach where diverse stakeholders work together to reduce conflicts and learn to trust data that was collected, processed, and communicated together in an open, transparent manner. In what’s now called the digital age, YERC is leading the way to apply the best science, technologies, and information (data science) to promote healthy carnivore populations, restore ecosystems, and reduce or eliminate conflicts. We invite you to consider this adaptive learning approach; we’re proud to facilitate information gathering in what we call community science cooperatives that together produce trusted data that is resistant to mis- and disinformation campaigns.