Abstract Cattle trampling of endangered plants, certain animal species, and ground nests may be a management concern on rangeland. Researchers need theoretical models of trampling loss to assist in design of studies and interpretation of results. Managers can use such models to assist in grazing management decisions. This qualitative prediction holds when grazing is nonindependent and nonrandom, competing risks exist, and objects subject to trampling are dispersed nonrandomly. Quantitative predictions of the null models do not hold under nonrandom grazing, which is expected to reduce probability of trampling.
Researchers can use predictions of the models as a priori hypotheses.
If empirical results deviate from the predictions, then researchers should search for the underlying cause-effect mechanisms. For management, the models indicate that trampling varies with livestock density and time grazed but is independent of herd rotation.