How Can Farmers Protect Their Livestock From Wolves?

Wolves pose a problem for livestock farmers. Hunting, trapping or poisoning these protected animals is illegal in many places and farmers must turn to alternative means to protect their livestock. Using guard animals is considered the best of these alternatives. But where practical, good fencing can also help deter wolves.

  1. Guard Animals

    • Using guard animals is considered one of the best defenses a farmer can use against predators. Guard animals can be dogs, donkeys (or mules) and llamas. They are effective in two ways: They will attack wolves to defend the flock and they will raise an alarm. When the farmer backs up the guard animal, its effectiveness will increase.

      While you can use several trained dogs, farmers typically use a single llama or donkey so that the animal will bond with and seek to protect the flock. Introduction to the flock may take awhile, but in general, sheep and other livestock quickly accept a donkey or llama into the fold.

    Build Better Fences

    • Where practical, build tall fences that wolves would be unable to climb or jump over. For large areas, this is not generally practical. However, if wolves are a problem, consider using a pen at night, near the house where you can hear any sort of alarm from the animals. Build the fence around the pen tall, or consider electrifying the top.

      Set up motion sensors along the perimeter to watch for outside activity and to activate flood lights to help drive off wolves, which prefer the cover of darkness. If the problem warrants, consider a horn siren as well. The noise will help scare off wolves while alerting you to their presence. Make sure you don't have a lot of deer or other nocturnal animal activity that would constantly set off the siren.

    A Final Consideration

    • Discourage hunting on the surrounding property. Hunting takes away food from the wolves, driving them to seek alternatives, which includes poaching on livestock. The ideal solution is to try to live in balance with nature, however difficult that may be at times. Weigh all the options and their associated expenses. Depending on the situation, it may be cost effective to simply leave out food for the wolves. Only hungry wolves hunt.