Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference

Social, legal, biological, and political constraints dictate the need for new and improved methods of depredation management. One under-exploited approach to address these constraints may be the adaptation of methods from other damage management situations. We discuss several of these methods. Two examples are pre-baiting and diversionary feeding. The former is a standard feature of rodent control programs, but seldom if ever implemented with predators. We discuss preliminary evidence that pre-baiting increases the efficiency (and perhaps the selectivity) of some coyote management tools. Similarly, diversionary feeding is an integral component of black bear damage management for industrial timber in the Pacific Northwest. We are currently testing the hypothesis that diversionary feeding also reduces black bear depredation on livestock. Other plausible methods to reduce depredation include laser technologies, and habitat manipulation. Our efforts reflect the emphasis placed by USDA Wildlife Services and the National Wildlife Research Center on developing economically and ecologically sound strategies to manage predation on livestock, big game, and other wildlife species of concern.