From encounter to death: which stages of predation are considered within livestock depredation research?

Abstract: The predation of livestock by carnivores, known as livestock depredation, negatively impacts livestock owners and predator conservation. Although various management interventions have been implemented globally, considerations of predator behaviour and predator-prey ecology have not generally been at the forefront of this development. Yet, an ability to predict how different predator species and livestock behave during a depredation event may lead to more evidence-based and tailored interventions with increased long-term effectiveness. We divided the depredation process into successive stages during which key predatory decision-making takes place, informed by the formative predator-prey theory developed by Lima and Dill (1990). These stages include encounter, interaction, attack, capture, and death. We then systematically reviewed the depredation literature to quantify research effort alignment with each stage. We found that the death stage was by far the most commonly assessed (96 % of reviewed studies, n = 522 of 548), with other stages considered four to 30 times less frequently. Only 1.5 % of reviewed studies (n = 8 of 548) made real-time visual observations or recordings of any of these stages. We describe the importance of considering the predatory process across each of these stages and discuss how current focus on the collection and analysis of post-hoc data following livestock death or proxy data may limit intervention effectiveness. We provide practical advice for the study of all stages, highlighting relevant methodologies and novel avenues of future research. Integrating ecological and behavioural principles into depredation research should lead to a better understanding of predator-livestock dynamics, and more effective interventions. Highlights: • Livestock depredation involves trade-off decisions that vary by predator species • We divided depredation events into stages informed by predator-prey theory • We found that 96 % of reviewed studies (n = 522 of 548) assessed the death stage • Post-hoc analyses may weaken the efficacy of management interventions • We propose novel research methods to increase intervention success at each stage.