Grizzly bears were pillaging farms. Could a canine keep them away?

On the prairies of north central Montana, farmers must sometimes contend with a worrisome visitor: the grizzly bear. Hungry bears, attracted by grain that has spilled from storage bins, will wander close to worksites and homes, leading to potentially dangerous encounters with people. Some farmers “weren’t letting their kids play in their front yard because grizzly bears were walking through,” says wildlife scientist Julie Young of Utah State University. But now, Young and a colleague have published new research that suggests farmers could turn to an ancient human ally, the guard dog, to scare grizzlies away cheaply and effectively. Shepherds have long used dogs to protect grazing livestock such as sheep from predators. But a few years ago, Young and bear biologist Wesley Sarmento of Montana’s wildlife department, wondered whether the canines might offer a relatively simple way to protect farms from grizzly bears, which have seen their numbers grow to nearly 2000 in the continental United States since the species gained legal protection in the 1970s. Because the bears are protected, killing problem animals is legally complicated, they note, and installing electric fences or other defenses can be expensive. Using livestock guardian dogs to deter bears from farmsteads, however, hadn’t been rigorously tested. And the researchers had doubts it would work, because the breeds involved—including Kangal, Boz, and Anatolian shepherds—had “been born and bred ...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news