John Shivik

Fear, John Shivik notes, drives both those who wish for predators to be extirpated and those who wish for predators to be venerated. The truth is that predators "kill things and are certainly capable of killing people, but that is nothing to be ashamed of or defensive about" (29).

In The Predator Paradox, Shivik outlines pragmatic solutions to the encroachment by predators on what's viewed as human territory. I wish the book had been about one hundred pages longer and a bit more forceful on a couple of tough topics. That would have made The Predator Paradox a good one-volume resource. It still is a great starting point for anyone who wants to learn about more humane, more effective ways to manage interactions between carnivores and humans—interactions that are certain to increase during late capitalism.… (meer)

Dr. Shivik's work centers on the "war" on predators such as wolves, bears, cougars, and coyotes. These animals are commonly considered nuisances and are freely slaughtered in most of their primary home territories. Ranchers, especially, are affected by these predators as their livestock is at risk on a daily basis. Reading Dr. Shivik, you'd think there was a straight-forward way to deal with this situation.

I'm not convinced. While I'm no expert on this subject, and despite the decent writing and narrative style, I don't find Dr. Shivik's argument fully convincing. The way he handles criticism of his ideas is really distracting at times. Not a terrible read and survey of the subject, but does not provide a clear or convincing argument regarding the ending of this "war."… (meer)

Dr John Shivik is a wildlife biologist and researcher specializing in devising non-lethal control of predators.

It's a subject that I read with keen interest since it's an issue here in the Montana mountain valley where I live. Although I don't have livestock, except for a few horses, my property has coyotes, foxes and the occasional mountain lion traveling through. Naturally bears live here, although I don't see them at my place. A wildlife biologist wolf specialist says the wolf density here in the valley is greater than in Yellowstone Park.

I learned a lot from this book about the research going into predator control and the predators themselves.

Unfortunately, there aren't any easy answers. Dr Shivik gives the impression that the the answers are at hand and the war is over, but it isn't and won't be for years to come.

Coyotes and wolves get habituated and begin ignoring strategies such as flags to scare them away from ranchers' yummy and enticing herds. Electric fencing is expensive for the huge pastures in the west and a moose traveling through can take down a quarter mile of fence in one go. Guard llamas are suggested for sheep as protection against wolves and coyotes, but while this may work for coyotes, wolves are happy to dine on llama. Other strategies are still in the development stage with long term results and cost/benefit ratios yet unproven. These include causing predators to be negatively conditioned with emetic chemicals, or neutering coyotes with the expectations that less pups will produce less livestock killing. Finally, some solutions such as getting rid of sheep ranching altogether or putting beef cattle in barns at night are simply nonsensical.

The writing is lively and entertaining, but in places the tone of the book bothered me as most of the humans are given cartoon-ish, mostly unflattering, stereotypes.


Ranchers are almost universally portrayed as backward and rather unteachable. Those who don't agree with him (even those who live in Spain) are dubbed rednecks.

The Mormon community he lives in is “known chiefly for their aversion to alcohol and coffee”. (p18)

Several descriptions of his colleagues, especially women colleagues, are troubling. For example, this bit of sexist nonsense:

"Val Asher would have been perfectly cast as the resourceful, confident, borderline truculent heroine in a dusty western. She had dark eyes and wavy brown hair, but was so tough and scrappy that you almost forget how pretty she was. I could not imagine that she'd ever appear in a dainty dress, much less petticoats. A long time wolf trapper, Val played the part accurately."

Gag me with a spoon. How would you like to be the professional colleague that has to drag that around for the rest of her career?

In addition, there are small, sloppy misstatements throughout the book such as the one on page 49 “opening the chest cavity, I see that the liver is gone ...” which had me on the internet to see if the author actually is a biologist. (He is)
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Summary: Highly readable although often condescending; interesting work and potential but promises more than it delivers. Recommended for those with an interest in the large predators, but definitely needs to be taken with a grain of salt for the biases expressed.… (meer)