Reducing poultry-carnivore conflict and promoting guigna conservation in Chile

Carolina Susana Ugarte Caraball

The guigna (Leopardus guigna), the smallest felid in the Americas, is listed as Vulnerable and its populations are declining, mainly due to habitat loss and fragmentation. This vegetation specialist lives mainly in native forests and uses vegetation corridors to cross fragmented landscapes. In the Los Lagos region, temperate rainforest (the guigna's habitat) is threatened and declining due to conversion to cattle ranching, firewood extraction and land subdivision. Maintaining the long-term persistence of the guigna in human-dominated landscapes is crucial for its conservation, but retaliatory killing due to poultry predation hinders this goal. Reducing guigna-poultry conflict requires the involvement of local communities and the application of effective predation reduction measures. This project aims to gather information on tolerance and willingness to co-exist with guigna through surveys, and to test a device that plays dog and human sounds as an auditory repellent to deter guigna from approaching backyard poultry. In collaboration with poultry farmers, we will conduct a behavioural experiment using auditory devices linked to trail cameras. If successful, this will be a new, low-cost and effective non-lethal technique for reducing human-carnivore conflict, specifically applied to guigna conservation. Results will be shared with stakeholders and the technique will be applied by the Agricultural Development Institute (INDAP).

Watch footage of a guigna captured by the team's camera traps: