Variation in the legal status and management of wolves (Canis lupus) across EU Member States provides a good opportunity to test the effectiveness of different practices to reduce livestock losses. This opportunity for testing is particularly useful for lethal interventions, as they are among the most controversial actions within the large carnivore management toolbox. We aimed to test a conservation compromise adopted in Slovakia, based on a public wolf-hunting scheme and annual hunting quotas between 2014 and 2019, and partially justified to reduce livestock losses. We assessed whether this hunting scheme influenced livestock depredation levels (at the district level). Wolves in the area fed mainly on wild ungulates (98.9% of consumed biomass). While domestic sheep comprised only 0.5% of the diet, they were dominant among the reported livestock killed by wolves (91.1%). Using two different approaches, we did not observe a relationship between the number of killed wolves and livestock losses. Alternatively, a negative relationship between wild prey biomass and livestock losses was found. Since 2021, public wolf hunting has not been conducted in Slovakia, and there is no merit in the previous justification for this conservation compromise to reduce livestock losses.

中文翻译：

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测试保护妥协：没有证据表明斯洛伐克的公共猎狼减少了牲畜损失

欧盟成员国对狼（ Canis lupus ）的法律地位和管理的差异提供了一个很好的机会来测试减少牲畜损失的不同做法的有效性。这种测试机会对于致命干预措施特别有用，因为它们是大型食肉动物管理工具箱中最具争议的行动之一。我们的目的是测试斯洛伐克采用的保护妥协方案，该方案基于公共猎狼计划和 2014 年至 2019 年间的年度狩猎配额，并在一定程度上证明了减少牲畜损失的合理性。我们评估了这种狩猎计划是否影响牲畜掠夺水平（在地区一级）。该地区的狼主要以野生有蹄类动物为食（消耗的生物量的 98.9%）。虽然家羊仅占饮食的 0.5%，但在报告的被狼杀死的牲畜中，家羊占主导地位 (91.1%)。使用两种不同的方法，我们没有观察到被杀死的狼的数量与牲畜损失之间的关系。另外，野生猎物生物量与牲畜损失之间存在负相关关系。自2021年以来，斯洛伐克就不再进行公共猎狼活动，之前为减少牲畜损失而做出的保护妥协的理由毫无道理。