Abstract

Hunting is an important recreational activity for large numbers of people. The roe deer is one of the most popular types of game in Sweden; however, recently the roe deer population has decreased. It is argued that this decrease is due to an increase in predator populations. The aim of this paper is to identify and compare the impact of lynxes and wolves on the hunting values of roe deer, taking into account that the impact depends on the hunting effort. The impact of the predators on the roe deer harvests is estimated econometrically, using a production function approach that accounts for the abundance of predators and the alternative prey, as well as the climatic conditions. The results show that the marginal cost of wolves is larger than that of additional lynx families in terms of their impact on the roe deer harvest values. The marginal costs of the predators vary with the hunter effort and the presence of alternative prey, which can have implications for policies affecting the regional allocation of the wolves and the lynxes.

Keywords

Production function approach; Hunting; Costs; Roe deer; Lynx; Wolf.

Published in

Working paper series / Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Economics
2016, number: 2016:07

Authors' information