Welcome

Livestock and wildlife interactions are an important concern to private and public landowners. Such interactions become a concern to landowners when livestock and wildlife compete for forages, water, and cover. This often occurs when livestock grazing animals such as cattle, sheep, horses share habitat with deer, elk, fish, migratory birds, rodents, and threatened or endangered species.

Landowners in many developed societies now find a substantial portion of ther income is derived from hunting, fishing, and aesthetic viewing enterprises (Glover and Conner 1988). Thus, a basic understanding of the potential interactions between livestock and wildlife is critical for the development of ecologically and economically sound livestock and/or wildlife operations.

The purpose of this tutorial is to identify the areas of potential interaction between livestock and wildlife, and to examine methods of managing those interactions to benefit both populations and sustain the rangeland ecosystem. The tutorial focuses on addressing livestock and wildlife interactions in geographic regions that exhibit rangelands, forests, and riparian areas of the northern Great Plains and the Northern Rockies.