Here is an interesting article which appeared in the Autumn edition of the 2010 Wild Magazine. It was written by Dale Morris. Also see https://www.wildcard.co.za/wild_magazine.htm
The article suggests that it is better for farmers not to kill predators as another predator will just take its place. Read the full article it is very interesting.
I also added it in PDF format for those who would like to download it.
In the darkness a leopard creeps
closer, merely a shadow until
the light catches his eyes. There’s
an ear-shattering bang, and so ends the life of
a sheep killer, an officially labelled ‘Damage
Causing Animal’.
The farmer’s got his leopard, but the story
doesn’t end there. It’s only just beginning.
Leopards, like most predators, including
caracals and jackals, will hold, patrol and defend their
territory from outsiders. Usually with deadly force.
Should that territory suddenly become vacant, neighbouring
members of the species will move in to fill the
gap, sharing the space between them.
Almost overnight, a farmer may find that as a
result of killing one leopard on his property, he now
has more.
In the case of jackals, not only do they
defend their territories from outsiders,
the alpha female also inhibits lower
ranking animals from coming into
oestrous. “Kill her,” says Rob Harrison-
White, a jackal researcher of some 11
years, “and chances are you will end up
with more breeding jackals, an increase
in jackal densities and more predation
on your farm.”
And so it is that despite 300 years of dedicated
persecution, jackal and caracal numbers appear to be
rising rather than falling. Farmers complain of large
stock losses despite investing huge effort and money
into trapping, poisoning and shooting these animals.
What more can they do to protect their livestock?
This question has left many traditionalist farmers
scratching their foreheads in confusion, but not everyone.
Pieter Knipe, a farmer from Mafikeng, shares his
property with free-ranging cheetahs. Despite suffering
occasional stock losses, he has been reluctant to take
up arms against these rare and special cats. Instead,
he employed the services of an Anatolian shepherd
dog. This 6 000-year-old breed has been imported into
Southern Africa from Turkey specifically to protect
livestock from predators.
As puppies, the dogs are placed with a livestock
herd with which they will bond, range and sleep. Any
predator or poacher who dares come close will be confronted,
chastened and quickly chased away.
“If you shoot a resident predator,” says Knipe, “it
gets replaced by a worse or uncontrolled invader from
outside and so the story repeats itself.”
Better the devil you know, according to Bool Smuts,
co-author of a recently published guide to predator
‘friendly’ farming called Predators and Associated
Wildlife. “If you can teach your resident predators that
hunting livestock is too risky because they are being
protected, then your problems will decrease.”
It’s not a new idea: people have been using livestock
guardians for more than 13 000 years.
Another holistic and enlightened way of looking at
predators is perhaps in the services they can provide
a farmer. “Leopards eat caracals,” says Tom Barry of
CapeNature’s Gamkaberg reserve. “I have seen their
claws in leopard scats on numerous occasions. So it
stands to reason that if leopards are removed, caracal
numbers will rise.”
A similar case can be made for Verreaux’s eagles.
“A pair of these will eat approximately 360 dassies a
year, but perhaps a few lambs, too,” Barry says. “Kill
the eagles and the 360 dassies are left to consume the
herbage needed to keep 25 sheep alive. The better
option is to keep the eagles, right?”
“There needs to be a shift in thinking when it comes
to protecting one’s stock against predators,” says jackal
researcher Harrison-White. “But old
cultures die hard.”
Traditional farmers, those who
believe in using any means necessary
to rid their property of predators,
often blame holistic farmers and nature
reserves for providing safe havens for
‘vermin’ that then come onto their
land and kill their livestock. But
current scientific research indicates
that when farming practices upset
natural balances it can lead to an increase in ‘problem’
animals, which can have a negative effect on their
neighbours’ farms.
In the end though, it will likely be simple economics
that put an end to the gin traps, poisons, hunting
dogs and snares, for it will be those farmers who
adopt new approaches who will undoubtedly reap
higher rewards.
Fighting with chillies
Nature not only offers adequate solutions to predator
control and stock losses, it can also lend a helping
hand with the age-old problem of crop destruction.
By nature wasps lay their eggs in caterpillars, ants
hunt grasshoppers, bats consume moths, eagles
and owls eat rodents. All these natural systems are
already in place and, sometimes, all it takes is a simple
observation to make those systems work to the
benefit of the farmer.
One such observation was that of a West Coast
farmer who saw owls hunting gerbils and decided that
if he could encourage more owls to move onto his
property, he might no longer have a rodent problem.
So he set about erecting nest boxes next to his fields,
all of which were quickly settled by breeding pairs of
barn owls.
Leigh Potter, a scientist from the Percy Fitzpatrick
Institute, conducted a study on the farm and found
that the owls were consuming around 35 000 gerbils
a year. That’s an awful lot of rodents ending up as owl
poop and pellets. To top it all off, the system is cheap
to install, maintenance free and completely self-regulating.
When gerbil populations drop, the owls move
away, but when the rodents raise their heads again, the
owls move back and breed in the nest boxes.
It’s an ‘obvious’ system to put in place, and one that
has been used extensively around the world. But so far
here in South Africa, it’s quite unique.
Another age-old and, some would say far more serious,
agrarian conflict is that of man versus elephant.
A struggle in which people can lose their entire livelihoods
or even their lives. Elephants need food, water
and space, all of which are at a premium these days;
and as such, crop raiding incidents are becoming ever
more frequent.
The worst hit people are usually poor, subsistence
farmers who can do little to protect their assets from
roving pachyderms. Fences do nothing to deter them,
a stand-off can be extremely dangerous, and even
guns do not always offer the answer. An injured and
enraged elephant – one that has been shot but not
killed – can cause a great deal of damage. According
to a recent National Geographic film, more than 500
people are killed by elephants every year. Who knows
how many elephants die in this conflict.
Several NGOs and research scientists have been devising
and implementing a variety of novel, low-tech
barrier techniques designed to discourage elephants
from coming onto farms. The most effective of which
is a simple string fence impregnated with chilli oil.
Dr Loki Osborn of The Elephant Pepper Development
Trust (EPDT) has been working with subsistence
farmers in Zambia and Botswana, where conflict levels
are high, encouraging them to establish small-scale
chilli pepper growing schemes. “Elephants hate chilli
pepper,” says Osborn, “and they are reluctant to come
anywhere near ropes and rags which have been dipped
in a solution of engine oil and crushed chillies. Brickets
of cow dung mixed with the same solution have
also proved an effective deterrent.”
It’s a good system and the farmer who plants chillies
has the double advantage of being able to sell excess
produce for profit. The EPDT now has a very successful
line of chilli products produced in Africa and sold
all over the world.
Another similar and perhaps even more ingenious
project is being implemented in Kenya courtesy of
Lucy King of Oxford University and the Save The
Elephants trust. It’s similar to the capsicum scheme
insofar as it creates a simple barrier that elephants
are reluctant to cross, but this time it involves bees,
not chillies.
“Whilst studying elephants, we noticed they tended
to keep away from trees with bee hives in them,” says
King. “A test was devised whereby a recorded sound
of bees was played to the herds. We found that 94 per
cent of elephants vacated the area within 80 seconds of
hearing the sound. My project now explores the use of
simple wooden beehives as an elephant deterrent.”
Like the chilli-growing venture, there is an additional
cash crop, in this case honey. It’s a win-win situation
and nobody gets killed, elephants included.
There are many such non-lethal projects being
established around the world. As mankind takes up
ever more space in order to produce ever more food
for an ever-growing human population, we will undoubtedly
come into yet more conflict with nature.
We will win some battles and we shall lose some
battles, but as long as agriculturalists view nature
as the enemy, we will never find a beneficial middle
ground. Thankfully, attitudes are starting to change
and if common sense prevails, holistic approaches to
farming will someday be the norm.
Let’s hope, shall we, it doesn’t come too late
