Important to know: Coyote packs and your livestock

[niglefritz]

I was not sure where to put this, but decided to post it here.

I was told yesterday of a guy who had a large coyote pack just outside his fence where he was keeping his sheep. He was concerned about these possibly coming in and taking some of his livestock, even though they had not taken any to date.

He was going to start culling them when he happened to have a chat with a trapper. He got some interesting advice that I figure is worth recording here for our benefit. The trapper asked if the coyotes had ever taken any of his sheep. The answer was, "No." The trapper said that this pack had not developed a taste for sheep. The pack leaders, because they had no taste for these animals, were training the young ones to leave them alone. If the farmer started killing off the coyotes, others might move in who might have a taste for sheep. He advised him to remain watchful but until he started losing animals, to just leave this pack alone.

I thought that that was interesting.

[Fowler]

Very useful. I've heard of the same strategy being used in Aversion therapy. It is psychological reaction that we all have to things that make you sick (think how many young people have a bad drunk on a particular liquor and then cannot bring themselves to drink it for years afterward).

They have been experimenting with using tasteless and odorless poisons on livestock carcasses. Coyote eats them and gets sick. Never goes after another one again and also keeps other coyotes out of the territory. You train the predators in your area to leave the livestock alone.