To lose their livelihoods or to break the law? That is the question facing herdsmen in China's wild wild west.

The current situation on the grasslands of western China offers farmers a real dilemma -- wolves are taking their livestock, but under China's environmental laws they are a protected species and must not be killed.

But recent reports of "big bad carnivores" devouring livestock have meant the wolves' days as untouchables may be coming to an end.

Last April, a pack of wolves attacked a pasture close to Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, killing 10 sheep belonging to herdsman Bieke.

On a wintry January night in Inner Mongolia, 180 sheep fell victim to wild wolves.

Since January, more than 1,000 domesticated animals are believed to have been killed by the voracious predators in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.

One shocking incident happened on December 21, 2004, when a lone wolf chased a teenager down the street in a county town in Baicheng, Jilin Province in Northeast China. Police came to the rescue and, with approval from their boss, shot it down.

A local official in charge of wild animal protection explained that, under normal circumstances, one should not harm a wolf, but self-defence is justified.

People in the 1950s-1960s might have laughed at the notion. Back in those days, Chinese were expected to exterminate all wolves almost as a matter of duty, and the public did not need much encouragement as the wolf had always been a symbol of vicious aggression.

The wolf-busting programme was so successful that, by the 1980s, there were hardly any wild wolves left. Then, environmental awareness emerged in China and laws and regulations were phased in to protect the animals from random hunting.

"The wolf is high up in the food chain," said Teng Enjiang, an expert with China National Environmental Monitoring Centre. "We need them to keep the balance of things."

Wolves are necessary in the Darwinian animal world, contended Pan Zhaodong, a researcher at Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences, because they prey on the weak and sick, ensuring survival of the fittest.

However, now it seems the protection measures have been too successful, wolves are once again coming into conflict with people, and herdsmen are calling for hunting to be reintroduced.

According to Yuan Guoying, chairman of the Xinjiang Ecology Institute, wolves usually do not invade human territory. But the thriving livestock industry has taken away much of the room for wild wolves, resulting in "an overlapping of these animals' living spaces".

Teng told China Daily that there should be studies to determine the number of wolves appropriate for an area of a certain size. "If there are too many, there should be a controlled cull of the wolf population. Before a cohesive policy is adopted, the herdsmen who lost animals should be compensated by the government."

Some local governments are heeding these suggestions. Damao Banner in Inner Mongolia has introduced three measures. First, herdsmen must take all reasonable measures to protect their animals. Second, a fund will be set up to pay damages to those who have suffered big losses. And third, a patrol team will cruise the prairie to keep wolves at bay.

It may not be ideal to have wolves and sheep on the same grassland, but, with proper management, you don't have to kill one in order for the other to survive.

(China Daily July 28, 2005)