Often, the concept of “coexistence” between wolves, livestock, and people is oversimplified by those who are not directly impacted by wolf presence and may not have a true understanding of the complexities and nuances involved. For the people who carry the burden of coexisting with large predators -- the ranchers who live and work with wolves on shared landscapes, or the wildlife agencies who are responsible for conserving and managing this iconic species, there is nothing simple about it. 

However, more recently as more and more organizations (NGO’s and academia) become involved with this issue in response to the increasing wolf population and increasing conflict on the ground, the concept of coexistence or conflict mitigation in many ways has been made more complicated than it needs to be.  More and more written resources and “tool kits” are being produced and promoted by well-intentioned groups seeking to address the decades old coexistence challenge. 
Many of these newer resources provide beneficial insight and guidance, however, the level of complexity and scientific elaboration can be overwhelming to the user muddling the points and ultimately becoming counter-productive due to its less-than-user-friendly format.
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If we are working towards resolving the historic cyclic of both social and biological conflict surrounding wolf conservation and sustainable ranching, it is critical that we not only address the underlying root causes of wolf-livestock conflict, but provide resources that are tangible, easily digestible and do not add burden to an already resource strapped community or wildlife agency. Thus, exploring this issue from the ground up, breaking down its parts in a clear step-wise fashion helps to not only better understand this multi-layered challenge but allows us to see a clear path forward leading to the ultimate goal of creating positive lasting outcomes for wolves, livestock, and people. 
  
Understanding Wolf Livestock Conflict Mitigation
Wolf-livestock conflict mitigation that actually addresses the root cause of conflict, comes down to this basic formula:
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Wolf-Livestock Conflict Mitigation
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Understanding Wolf Hunting Behavior
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Understanding Vulnerability in Livestock
Understanding Wolf Hunting Behavior
As wolves circulate around their territory and encounter and test prey under various conditions, they gain information about prey's vulnerability to hunting (finding, catching, killing). Through trial and error, wolves end up with whichever prey they can capture. 
As a top predator, wolves as a species who prefer large prey, face greater challenges than other larger predators such as mountain lion or bear.  Mountain lion and bear, with their large claws and teeth along with their immense power, generally ambush their predators taking them down relatively quickly and efficiently.  Wolves on the other hand, expend great energy when hunting. Pressuring prey to entice a response, the chase, relying on the packs cohesiveness and the risky take down of the prey is not an easy task and only leads to success 20% of the time.  Once the attack starts, bringing down the animal can take minutes to hours.  In addition, the hunt is risky business for wolves due to the relative size and build of wolves compared to the larger prey with hooves and  antlers, thus it is not uncommon for wolves to be seriously injured or even killed during a hunt. 
For this reason, wolves are very risk- adverse. Wolves have a strong sense of self-preservation. As such, they are continually weighing vulnerability against risk – Does the vulnerability of the prey outweigh the risk of injury or death? Unlike bear and lion, wolves are not ambush predators. Wolves are not physically equipped to take down prey like bears and lions. Wolves generally attack from behind, minimizing their risk of injury or death from a hoof or antler. Thus, wolves will pressure prey to entice them to flee. Getting their prey to run also allows the wolves to evaluate which animal is the most vulnerable, allowing them to single out and put their collective energy toward taking the weak target.  If the prey, however, turns and faces the wolves, standing its’ ground, the risk to the wolf increases. If the wolves are unsuccessful in getting a flight response, in most cases, the wolves will back down and seek more vulnerable options. 
When prey becomes trapped or hindered by a landscape feature like deep snow, downfall, fencing, or steep draw, wolves don’t need to take the weakest or slowest animal. They can take a healthy, full-grown elk bull hindered by challenging terrain. As long as the vulnerability outweighs the risk, wolves will take advantage of the circumstances.   
A highly influential factor in determining wolf hunting success is prey vulnerability.
This goes for livestock.
The fact that wolves are risk adverse is exactly why focusing on reducing vulnerability is key to reducing wolf-livestock conflict.  The concept of vulnerability allows us the advantage of being pro-active by addressing potential vulnerability in cattle or operations, thus avoiding conflict to begin with.
Understanding Livestock Vulnerability
 To reiterate, prey vulnerability is a highly influential factor in determining wolf hunting success. As wolves circulate around their territory and encounter and test prey under various conditions, they gain information about the prey's vulnerability to hunting. Through trial and error, wolves end up with whichever prey they can capture.  Many factors lead to livestock vulnerability. Some examples include: 
Response of livestock to predator pressure.  This is one of the biggest factors in livestock vulnerability.   Examples of responses that may decrease or increase vulnerability stand or flee group or scatter mother up or leave their calf behind Condition/health of livestock (this is the other biggest factor in livestock vulnerability) Nutrition Mineral program Terrain/topography Wolves can and will take advantage of landscape features that lead to increased vulnerability in prey, thus, higher hunting success Downfall Bogs or deep snow Draws and creek beds Woody areas Fencing Fringe territory (cattle gathered in an open pasture against dense woods Mothering instincts of cows Single/alone animals Scattered cattle vs. grouped herds Encounter rate can be increased by deadstock left on the landscape can be increased by pasture location in proximity to wolf activity and or prey location/migration routes Ungulates mingled with livestock Predictable location and movement of prey.  Wolves learn and remember the information gained about prey behavior, terrain, locations, and any other physical factors that will help them in their quest for food.
The above information can help in evaluating wolf-livestock conflict risk; there can be any combination of factors and factors not listed in this document.  Keeping the above points in mind can help ranchers make proactive decisions regarding livestock management to reduce the vulnerability of livestock to predation by wolves.
When a conflict does occur, there is always a reason or combination of factors specific to that incident. Identifying and understanding these will help in preventing the potential for future events. 
It is not uncommon to have repeat depredation events on the same one or two operations. This leads to the question of what is happening on those ranches that is not happening on the neighboring ranches.  What vulnerability factors exist that lead to repeated hunting success.  To identify this is key to halting the continued loss of cattle by wolves.

If you are going to raise prey in predator country, you want to be sure that your cattle are the least vulnerable prey on the landscape
Whit Hibbard, Stockmanship Journal