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M. Yécora‐Molina, M. Valverde, I. Baños‐González, R. Pascual‐Rico, E. Arrondo, J.L. González del Barrio, M. González, J. García‐Fernández, A. Trujillano helped during the fieldwork. We are grateful to the farmers, for generously sharing their knowledge and time. The study was supported by MINECO and ERDF (project CGL2015‐66966‐C2‐1‐R). Z.M.R. was supported by a pre‐doctoral grant (FPU12/00823) and a mobility grant (EST15/00741) from the MECD, M.M. by a Severo Ochoa Program for Centres of Excellence in R+D+I (SEV‐2012‐0262) and by a research contract Ramón y Cajal from the MINECO (RYC‐2015‐19231), P.M.T. by a Portuguese FCT grant (SFRH/BPD/112437/2015), and A.M. by a research contract Ramón y Cajal from the MINECO (RYC‐2012‐11867).

Key policy highlights Policies emphasizing the preservation and revitalization of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) might be essential to promote co-existence between wolves and livestock, as TEK effectively reduces conflicts. In areas with recent wolf recolonization, initiatives to reintroduce TEK are vital for reducing conflicts and fostering harmonious relationships between wolves and extensive grazing systems. Incorporating TEK in the EU Common Agricultural Policy and the EU Nature Restoration Law can support sustainable livestock farming practices and promote co-existence with large carnivores across Europe.

Plant conservation fences are widely used to restrict or minimize grazing pressure on endangered plant species or communities, and to ultimately ensure their viability. Despite the wide range of studies on how fences restrict ungulate herbivory and promote plant protection and conservation, information about what factors condition their effectiveness at a regional level is still lacking. For this reason, we analyzed 90 fences located in a biodiversity hotspot (Southern Spain). We used a model selection approach to evaluate the relative importance of management strategy, landscape context and fence shape for determining ungulate detection within exclosures and discussing its ecological and conservation implications. The level of structural damage (fence permeability) was the main factor to explain ungulate detection within fences. As expected, intact or closed fences were able to exclude large herbivores. Interestingly, semipermeable fences (i.e., with an intermediate level of structural damage) also showed a significant reduction in ungulate crossings (approximately 60%). The fences located in higher altitude landscapes and with high proportions of grassland cover showed more frequent ungulate crossings compared to the lower altitude areas surrounded by pine and Quercus spp. formations. Ungulate detection within fences was less frequent when fences were smaller and had a more complex shape. According to our results, fence networks may benefit from including both nonpermeable and semipermeable fences, while prioritizing complex perimeters that adjust to the boundaries of vegetation patches with threatened plant populations and communities. Ungulate fence crossings varied along an altitudinal gradient and vegetation type, indicating that landscape context can also determine the effectiveness of herbivore exclusion fences. We conclude that integrating fence design, management, and landscape context can improve regional‐scale implementation of exclosure networks to better safeguard threatened flora. Fences are widely used to restrict or reduce grazing pressure on endangered plant species or communities, and to ultimately ensure their viability. Here, we evaluate what factors determine their effectiveness at a regional scale by assessing ungulate detection (presence/absence) within exclosures and discuss its ecological and conservation implications. According to our results, fence networks may benefit from including both “closed” and “semipermeable” fences, while prioritizing complex perimeters that conform to the boundaries of vegetation patches of threatened plant populations and communities. We conclude that integrating fence design, management, and landscape context can improve regional‐scale implementation of exclosure networks to better safeguard threatened flora.

Scavenging is a key ecological process controlling energy flow in ecosystems and providing valuable ecosystem services worldwide. As long-lived species, the demographic dynamics of vultures can be disrupted by spatiotemporal fluctuations in food availability, with dramatic impacts on their population viability and the ecosystem services provided. In Europe, the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in 2001 prompted a restrictive sanitary regulation banning the presence of livestock carcasses in the wild on a continental scale. In long-lived vertebrate species, the buffering hypothesis predicts that the demographic traits with the largest contribution to population growth rate should be less temporally variable. The BSE outbreak provides a unique opportunity to test for the impact of demographic buffering in a keystone scavenger suffering abrupt but transient food shortages. We studied the 42-year dynamics (1979–2020) of one of the world’s largest breeding colonies of Eurasian griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus). We fitted an inverse Bayesian state-space model with density-dependent demographic rates to the time series of stage-structured abundances to investigate shifts in vital rates and population dynamics before, during, and after the implementation of a restrictive sanitary regulation. Prior to the BSE outbreak the dynamics was mainly driven by adult survival: 83% of temporal variance in abundance was explained by variability in this rate. Moreover, during this period the regulation of population size operated through density-dependent fecundity and subadult survival. However, after the onset of the European ban, a 1-month delay in average laying date, a drop in fecundity, and a reduction in the number of fledglings induced a transient increase in the impact of fledgling and subadult recruitment on dynamics. Although adult survival rate remained constantly high, as predicted by the buffering hypothesis, its relative impact on the temporal variance in abundance dropped to 71% during the sanitary regulation and to 54% after the ban was lifted. A significant increase in the relative impact of environmental stochasticity on dynamics was modeled after the BSE outbreak. These results provide empirical evidence on how abrupt environmental deterioration may induce dramatic demographic and dynamic changes in the populations of keystone scavengers, with far-reaching impacts on ecosystem functioning worldwide.

Carrion resources sustain a complex and diverse community of both vertebrate and invertebrate scavengers, either obligate or facultative. However, although carrion ecology has received increasing scientific attention in recent years, our understanding of carrion partitioning in natural conditions is severely limited as most studies are restricted either to the vertebrate or the insect scavenger communities. Moreover, carnivore carcasses have been traditionally neglected as study model. Here, we provide the first data on the partitioning between vertebrate and invertebrate scavengers of medium-sized carnivore carcasses, red fox (Vulpes vulpes (Linnaeus)), in two mountainous Mediterranean areas of south-eastern Spain. Carcasses were visited by several mammalian and avian scavengers, but only one carcass was partially consumed by golden eagle Aquila chrysaetos (Linnaeus). These results provide additional support to the carnivore carrion-avoidance hypothesis, which suggests that mammalian carnivores avoid the consumption of carnivore carcasses to prevent disease transmission risk. In turn, the absence of vertebrate scavengers at carnivore carcasses enabled a diverse and well-structured successional community of insects to colonise the carcasses. The observed richness and abundance of the most frequent families was more influenced by the decomposition time than by the study area. Overall, our study encourages further research on carrion resource partitioning in natural conditions.

Species assemblages often have a non-random nested organization, which in vertebrate scavenger (carrion-consuming) assemblages is thought to be driven by facilitation in competitive environments. However, not all scavenger species play the same role in maintaining assemblage structure, as some species are obligate scavengers (i.e., vultures) and others are facultative, scavenging opportunistically. We used a database with 177 vertebrate scavenger species from 53 assemblages in 22 countries across five continents to identify which functional traits of scavenger species are key to maintaining the scavenging network structure. We used network analyses to relate ten traits hypothesized to affect assemblage structure with the “role” of each species in the scavenging assemblage in which it appeared. We characterized the role of a species in terms of both the proportion of monitored carcasses on which that species scavenged, or scavenging breadth (i.e., the species “normalized degree”), and the role of that species in the nested structure of the assemblage (i.e., the species “paired nested degree”), therefore identifying possible facilitative interactions among species. We found that species with high olfactory acuity, social foragers, and obligate scavengers had the widest scavenging breadth. We also found that social foragers had a large paired nested degree in scavenger assemblages, probably because their presence is easier to detect by other species to signal carcass occurrence. Our study highlights differences in the functional roles of scavenger species and can be used to identify key species for targeted conservation to maintain the ecological function of scavenger assemblages.

Human-carnivore relations in Europe have varied throughout history. Because of recent conservation efforts and passive rewilding, carnivore populations are recovering, which translates into more interactions with humans. Thus, unraveling these interactions as well as the multiple contributions carnivores provide to people is crucial to their conservation. We examined the literature conducted in Europe since 2000 and used the nature’s contributions to people (NCP) framework to identify factors that have shaped human-carnivore relations. To do so, we examined the state of scientific knowledge and relationships among types of NCP from carnivores, countries, and carnivore species; and between NCP, actors, and management actions. Results indicated that research has been oriented toward large carnivore species and their detrimental contributions to people. Further, the effectiveness of carnivore management strategies has only been evaluated and monitored in a limited set of all the research. To balance any negative views on carnivores, we suggest that the recognition of the duality of carnivores, as providers of both beneficial and detrimental contributions, should be included in EU conservation policies.

Carnivore and humans live in proximity due to carnivore recovery efforts and ongoing human encroachment into carnivore habitats globally. The American West is a region that uniquely exemplifies these human-carnivore dynamics, however, it is unclear how the research community here integrates social and ecological factors to examine human-carnivore relations. Therefore, strategies promoting human-carnivore coexistence are urgently needed. We conducted a systematic review on human-carnivore relations in the American West covering studies between 2000 and 2018. We first characterized human-carnivore relations across states of the American West. Second, we analyzed similarities and dissimilarities across states in terms of coexistence, tolerance, number of ecosystem services and conflicts mentioned in literature. Third, we used Bayesian modeling to quantify the effect of social and ecological factors influencing the scientific interest on coexistence, tolerance, ecosystem services and conflicts. Results revealed some underlying biases in human-carnivore relations research. Colorado and Montana were the states where the highest proportion of studies were conducted with bears and wolves the most studied species. Non-lethal management was the most common strategy to mitigate conflicts. Overall, conflicts with carnivores were much more frequently mentioned than benefits. We found similarities among Arizona, California, Utah, and New Mexico according to how coexistence, tolerance, services and conflicts are addressed in literature. We identified percentage of federal/private land, carnivore family, social actors, and management actions, as factors explaining how coexistence, tolerance, conflicts and services are addressed in literature. We provide a roadmap to foster tolerance towards carnivores and successful coexistence strategies in the American West based on four main domains, (1) the dual role of carnivores as providers of both beneficial and detrimental contributions to people, (2) social-ecological factors underpinning the provision of beneficial and detrimental contributions, (3) the inclusion of diverse actors, and (4) cross-state collaborative management.

The study was funded by the regional governments of Andalusia (project RNM-1925) and Catalonia, the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (MAGRAMA), and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and EU FEDER funds (projects CGL2012-40013-C02-01/02 and CGL2015-66966- C2-1-2-R). Additional information was supplied by the Organismo Aut onomo Parques Nacionales (OAPN) and the MAGRAMA. Z.M.R. was supported by a pre-doctoral grant FPU12/00823, M.M. by a Severo Ochoa Program for Centres of Excellence in R+D+I (SEV-2012-0262), A.C.A. by a post-doctoral grant FCT-SFRH/BPD/91609/2012 and a contract IJCI-2014-20744, E.A. by La Caixa-Severo Ochoa International PhD Programme and A.M. by a Ramón y Cajal research contract (RYC-2012- 11867).

Managing migratory game species is challenging and often leads to conflicts across areas or stakeholders. The European Turtle-dove Streptopelia turtur (TD), a declining migratory game bird, is currently subject to an adaptive harvest management plan in the European Union (EU), which has led to a temporary hunting moratorium in western Europe. We used Q-methodology to identify the discourses of hunters, hunting lobbyists and members of governmental agencies in Spain, the country with the largest TD hunting bags within EU, regarding the role of hunting and its regulation, including the moratorium, on species recovery prospects. Three discourses were identified: one that denies any involvement of hunting in the species population decline and thus considers the moratorium unnecessary; one that advocates for a moratorium but highlights the need for global strategies for it to be effective; and one that disputes the population decline, attributing the moratorium purely to environmentalists’ pressures and false data. Larger differences were observed among hunters from areas with varying levels of TD hunting than among hunters that hunt or not TD, suggesting that discourses may be socially constructed and maintained. Hunting lobbyists’ discourse was more uniformly against the moratorium than that of hunters as a whole, while governmental agencies had more nuanced perspectives. A point of consensus among discourses was the agreement on the need for transboundary coordination and a global conservation strategy incorporating habitat and hunting management approaches. These results emphasize the importance of increased transborder collaboration and effective communication strategies to mitigate conflicts about migratory game management.