Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnqiBEb9imw) is an interesting video explaining how Anatolian Shepherd Dogs are used in Namibia to protect domestic livestock from cheetahs and other predators (such as caracals) so that the farmers no longer need to kill the predators to protect their livelihood and feed their children. In addition to electric and reinforced fences and other protective means, my own family used to have to shoot coyotes, bobcats, and the occasional mountain lion to protect our goats and chickens, yet we still lost some animals when the predators got through our defenses. After obtaining a Great Pyrenees dog, we lost **not one** goat or chicken to local predators and we stopped shooting the local predators, which then moved on to other targets not protected by a huge, scary dog–so I know from experience how effective obtaining a single sheepdog can be at protecting your livestock.

My point is twofold. First, that caracals are so common in South Africa and Namibia that the IUCN is not going to list them as Near Threatened or Vulnerable or Endangered in the near future, so there will not be any sort of legal requirement to protect the species in those two countries; therefore, any efforts to educate farmers not to kill the cats which are literally eating away their livelihood simply because they’re pretty and cool is totally useless. Remember that you’re speaking to a completely different culture, one which is more concerned with feeding their children at any cost than in protecting threatened species like the cheetah (classified Vulnerable), much less extremely common species like the caracal. Second, that simpler techniques such as providing the farmers with sheepdogs is both cost-effective and successful at decreasing the farmers’ need and therefore inclination to kill local predators.