Under pressure: rare insight into predation and harassment events by wild-living dogs and its potential impact on calving success

Wild-living dogs (Canis familiaris) are a significant agricultural pest in parts of Australia. Whilst many livestock producers focus on the impact of their direct predation, particularly of small livestock, the indirect impacts that predator presence has on stress experienced by livestock is often overlooked. Here, we describe an interaction between a herd of cattle and a pack of wild-living dogs recorded on camera trap imagery. This observation is supplemented with other camera trap images and concurrent telemetry data collected at the site. These observations provide evidence of harassment of a pre-parturient cow by multiple wild-living dogs, which likely led to the death of the newborn calf. We discuss the direct and indirect implications of such events on cattle welfare.