Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference

Hazing has been advocated as a non-lethal solution to human-predator conflicts, but the efficacy of hazing is not well documented, especially for mountain lions. We conducted a study of mountain lions throughout the state of California during 2001-2021 to determine if hazing with dogs has potential for deterring mountain lions from returning to sites of conflict. We used data on 76 mountain lions captured and equipped with radio collars; 34 lions were exposed to barking dogs during capture, then further exposed to barking dogs upon release (dog-exposed), and 42 lions were captured and released without exposure to dogs (control). We found that distance from the capture site was similar for dog-exposed and control mountain lions through 45 days following release, except for a slightly greater distance for dog-exposed lion shortly after release. Almost all mountain lions (94-98%) returned to within 6 km of the capture site during the 45 days following release, and most (77-88%) returned to within 1 km, with no significant difference between dog-exposed and control mountain lions. Therefore, aside from a modest short-term effect, we did not find evidence that hazing with dogs is an effective method for displacing mountain lions from a conflict location.