Domestic carnivore interactions with wildlife in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve, Chile: husbandry and perceptions of impact from a community perspective

Background Hundreds of millions of domestic carnivores worldwide have diverse positive affiliations with humans, but can provoke serious socio-ecological impacts when free-roaming. Unconfined dogs (Canis familiaris) and cats (Felis catus) interact with wildlife as predators, competitors, and disease-transmitters; their access to wildlife depends on husbandry, perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of pet owners and non-owners. Methods To better understand husbandry and perceptions of impacts by unconfined, domestic carnivores, we administered questionnaires (n = 244) to pet owners and non-owners living in one of the last wilderness areas of the world, the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve, located in southern Chile. We used descriptive statistics to provide demographic pet and husbandry information, quantify free-roaming dogs and cats, map their sightings in nature, and report experiences and perceptions of the impact of free-roaming dogs and cats on wildlife. We corroborated our results with an analysis of prey remains in dog feces (n = 53). With generalized linear models, we examined which factors (i.e., food provisioning, reproductive state, rural/village households, sex, and size) predicted that owned dogs and cats bring wildlife prey home. Results Thirty-one percent of village dogs (n = 121) and 60% of dogs in rural areas (n = 47) roamed freely day and/or night. Free-roaming dog packs were frequently observed (64% of participants) in the wild, including a feral dog population on Navarino Island. Dogs (31 of 168) brought home invasive muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus) and avian prey, and over half of all cats (27 of 51) brought home mainly avian prey. Birds were also the most harassed wildlife category, affected by one third of all dogs and cats. Nevertheless, dog-wildlife conflicts were hardly recognized (