Livestock guarding dogs: their current use world wide

While most large carnivore species are threatened, there are some carnivore populations which are recovering, notably in North America and Central and Eastern Europe, where large carnivores are returning to areas where they had vanished long ago. Combined with a relaxation of responsible livestock guarding in many areas where carnivores had been eradicated, modern farmers no longer know how to protect their animals against attacks from wolves, coyotes, bears, pumas, lynx and others. Livestock losses often lead to increased antagonism towards wild carnivores and any associated conservation project, with the overall negative impact on conservation activities often exceeding the actual financial cost of predation.