Big cats kill more livestock when wild prey reaches a minimum threshold

摘要: Abstract Livestock predation by big cats, i.e., lion ( Panthera leo ), tiger tigris leopard pardus jaguar onca snow uncia puma Puma concolor and cheetah Acinonyx jubatus creates conflicts with humans which challenge biodiversity conservation rural development. Deficiency of wild prey biomass is often described as a driver such conflicts, but the question “at level density do cats begin to kill livestock?” still remains unanswered. We applied logistic regression meta-data compiled from recent peer-reviewed scientific publications show that cattle high when 2 , whereas sheep goat at regardless sizes study areas species, body masses, population densities cats. Through mapping cases known case-specific comparison actual vs. threshold-predicted livestock we confirm reliability these thresholds in predicting The map also demonstrates some protected India, Nepal lowlands, South Africa contain sufficient makes less likely livestock, other sampled not enough probabilities are moderate high. suggest represent important landmarks for human–felid identifying conflict hotspots, setting priorities targeted actions. It essential maintain restore forestall local extinctions