Wolf Depredation on Livestock in the Pamir

Abstract

This study examined the wolf - livestock conflict and the wolf control measures in the Alai region, southernmost Kyrgyz and in the Karakul area, northeastern Tajikistan. Interviews with 14 local residents were conducted in 2008 and 2009. Questionnaire surveys were conducted in the Alai region in 2008 (N = 331) and in 2009 (N = 468). The number of 'rural wolves' has been increasing since the area's independence in 1991. The questionnaire survey shows that 70.8% of the respondents have actually seen wolves in the region, and 67.8% of the respondents answered that they have experienced wolf depredation on their livestock. Damage by wolves on livestock had been smaller in the former Soviet era, because the government had supplied guns and ammunition to local hunters. The wolf depredation on livestock, however, has been increasing since 1991, because the governmental supply had stopped. The local hunters face difficulties in renewing or fixing their guns due to serious poverty, leaving them unable to kill wolves even when livestock is attacked. Officers in the army and the National Security Agency equipped with automatic guns have practiced illegal massive hunting of ibex in the Alai Range, and the amount of prey of the wolves is likely to have decreased in the mountains. This in turn brought the communities into a conflict between wolves and livestock. The questionnaire survey shows that 94.4% of the respondents consider reducing the wolf population a necessity. The existing measures against wolf depredation on livestock do not function well, so they need to be improved and strengthened.