Conflict between hyrcanian big mammals and free-roaming dog population in Northern Alborz-e Markazi protected area

Domestic dogs are considered one of the most popular domesticated animals that humans have been keeping. While living freely alongside human societies, they have entered natural habitats due to emotional support and feeding by humans, as well as their high success in reproduction and abnormal reproduction. Under conditions of lack of control over behavior and an increase in the domestic dog population in natural environments even in urban areas, this has caused conflict of wildlife species, which has become one of the current challenges in wildlife management. In this study, seasonal conflict by stray dogs on large mammals (wild boar, maral, wild sheep, Bezoar goat, leopard, brown bear and wolf) was investigated in Northern Alborz-e Markazi protected area (295,768 ha). Firstly, the three main habitats of forest, rangelands, and residential areas of Northern Alborz-e Markazi were divided into a network of 4×4 square km cells. Then, out of the total of 170 quadrats in the region, 27 quadrats were randomly selected and examined three times consecutively in the months of February, July, and September in the year 2022. The effect of the presence of dogs on the wildlife of the area, including presence indicators such as target species profiles, was observed and recorded. On the other hand, dogs were recorded separately in two different types: FRD (born and growth in the wild) and FRDD (herd accompaniment), with the ratio of FRDs to FRDDs being higher. FRDD dogs had a human guardian in one of their life stages, making them more dependent on moving with livestock herds than other types. We estimated the potential of dogs to cause harm by analyzing the hot spots of kernel density and overlap with wildlife presence, as well as the depth of penetration. The highest conflict rate was reported for wild boar (76%) and the lowest for maral (1%). Wild boars exhibited the highest level of conflict throughout all seasons and wolves had the most conflict in winter. In 74% of total cases, escape behavior had been observed in wildlife. It was more than the conflicts and casualties, and the highest season of conflicts between dogs and wildlife was recorded in autumn. The conflict at the edge of the core zone of the protected area showed that nomadic herders did not follow the law.