Wolf Canis lupus numbers, diet and damage to livestock in relation to hunting and ungulate abundance in northeastern Belarus during 1990–2000

Wolf Canis lupus relationships with wild ungulates, domestic animals and humans were studied in an area of ca 800 km² at the head of the Lovat River in northeastern Belarus during 1990–2000. The region was dominated by natural habitats (78%) consisting mainly of forests and bogs, but also lakes and rivers. The abundance of wild ungulates, such as moose Alces alces, wild boar Sus scrofa, and roe deer Capreolus capreolus, as censused by snow tracking and assessed by game wardens, declined 5 to 6‐fold between 1990 and 1996, most probably due to uncontrolled exploitation and poaching. During 1997–2000, the numbers of ungulates began to recover. Wolves responded to the shortage of wild ungulates by a strong shift in feeding habits. When wild ungulates were numerous, wolf diet as studied by scat analysis was composed of wild ungulates (80–88% of consumed biomass), with small additions of medium‐ and small‐sized wild animals (7–13%), mainly beaver Castor fiber and hare Lepus sp., and domestic animals (4–6%), mainly cattle. In the years when the recorded numbers of wild ungulates were at their lowest, wolves preyed on domestic animals (38% of biomass consumed), wild ungulates (32%), and medium‐ and small‐sized wild prey (29%). Wolf damage to domestic animals (28 head of cattle and 247 dogs killed) and wolf‐human interaction (100 observations of wolves in and near villages, including one attack by a rabid wolf on 11 people) were recorded in 14 villages. The rate of wolf predation on domestic animals and their appearances in villages increased exponentially with the declining biomass of wild ungulates and ceased again when wild ungulates began to recover; a one‐year time lag in wolf response to changes in ungulate abundance was observed. The numbers of wolves as estimated by snow tracking and assessed by game wardens played a weaker role in shaping wolf‐livestock and wolf‐human interaction. The wolf population was strongly affected by hunting during the study. Wolves responded numerically with a 1 to 2‐year time lag to the varying intensity of harvest by humans. Our study showed the role of the human factor in shaping wolf numbers and wolf‐livestock interaction in eastern Europe. The three major components of this relationship were: 1) the manifold decline in wild ungulate abundance, which was most probably caused by uncontrolled exploitation by humans in the years of political transformation and economic regress, made wolves shift to predation on domestic animals; inevitably, wolves were frequently seen in the rural areas; 2) people interpreted the growing rates of wolf damage and appearances near the settlements as an effect of greatly increasing numbers of wolves, and demanded that authorities and hunters fight the ‘wolf plague’; 3) hunting impact on wolves increased and led to a marked reduction in wolf numbers and a decline in wolf‐human conflicts. This scenario was most probably repeated in many areas of eastern Europe during 1990–2000, which was a decade of political and economical transformation. From a management perspective, we suggested that predation levels and wolf‐human conflicts could be reduced not only by increased wolf harvest but also by enhancing the density and diversity of wild ungulates.