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| In Australia, its usually dogs chasing bears rather than bears chasing dogs that necessitates on-leash walking in some areas. |
One thing Australian dog owners don’t need to worry about
is encounters with large carnivores like wolves, brown bears or polar bears. Sure,
we do have to contend with the world’s most venomous snakes and paralysis
ticks, but spare a thought for our friends in the Northern Hemisphere.
A paper released this week found that human behaviour can
trigger large carnivore attacks – and one of the risk-increasing human
behaviours is off-leash dog walking in carnivore habitat.
The paper found that large carnivore attacks have
increased significantly in number, probably due to the very large increase in visitors
to large carnivore habitat, as well as other factors like climate change. For
example, conflicts with polar bears have risen over the last ten years because
of increased tourism, increased oil and gas development on the Arctic coastline
and reduction of ice volume.
Attacks are still very rare. Humans are more likely to
suffer injuries including fatalities from encounters with less-feared animals
(mosquitoes, bees, spiders, snails, snakes and large herbivores).
Large carnivores were more likely to attack if they were
looking after their young; if they were surprised; wounded; protecting food;
seeking out food from humans or if they were chased by a dog. Human behaviours
such as leaving human offspring unattended or jogging alone at twilight in the vicinity
of large carnivores increased the risks.
According to the authors, “Unleashed dogs can exacerbate the probability of a large carnivore attack, because a dog that runs away from a large carnivore towards the owner can trigger a dangerous situation where the carnivore chases it. When dogs are involved, large carnivores usually focused their attention on the dog rather than on the person.”
So, to our friends in the North, if you are walking your
dog in an area frequented or lived in by large carnivores, keeping your dog on
a leash is recommended. Its probably also wise to walk in a group. Off-leash time is important, but requires a safe location.
Reference
