Wildlife managers and livestock owners can choose from a multitude of interventions to prevent carnivore attacks on domestic animals, ranging from light and sound deterrents to fencing and lethal control. To guide management and make the best and most cost-effective choice of interventions, knowledge about where and when these measures are needed the most is important. By identifying spatiotemporal patterns of carnivore attacks, resources can be used more efficiently to prevent such attacks. We used a Swedish nationwide, long-term data set to identify inter- and intra-seasonal variation in probability, number, and severity (number of killed or injured per attack) of large carnivore attacks on sheep. Our results show that there are specific “times of trouble”, regarding the number of attacks from golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) in late spring, and from brown bears (Ursus arctos), lynx (Lynx lynx), and wolves (Canis lupus) in late summer. Additionally, for brown bears and wolves, the severity of attacks varied throughout the grazing season with a peak in the latter part of the summer. The results can be used for guidance of temporal prioritisation of preventive interventions to reduce the probability, number, and severity of large carnivore attacks on sheep.

野生动物管理者和牲畜主人可以选择多种干预措施来防止食肉动物攻击家畜，从灯光和声音威慑到围栏和致命控制。为了指导管理层并做出最佳和最具成本效益的干预措施选择，了解何时何地最需要这些措施非常重要。通过识别食肉动物攻击的时空模式，可以更有效地利用资源来防止此类攻击。我们使用瑞典全国范围内的长期数据集来确定大型食肉动物袭击绵羊的概率、数量和严重程度（每次袭击造成的死亡或受伤人数）的季节间和季节内变化。我们的研究结果表明，晚春金雕 ( Aquila chrysaetos ) 以及棕熊 ( Ursus arctos )、山猫 ( Lynx lynx ) 和狼 ( Canis lupus )的攻击次数存在特定的“麻烦时期”夏末。此外，对于棕熊和狼来说，在整个放牧季节，袭击的严重程度各不相同，在夏末达到高峰。研究结果可用于指导预防性干预措施的时间优先顺序，以减少大型食肉动物攻击绵羊的可能性、数量和严重程度。