Post by Hank Scutoski
I always enjoy seeing myths cherished by anti-hunters debunked. The most recent example is in a report titled The Marin County Livestock Protection Program: 15 years in review (Larson, McGranahan, Timm, Spring 2019). A team of researchers from the University of California and the North Dakota State University conducted this study and their report smashes the idea that non-lethal methods are more effective for controlling coyote predation than simply shooting them.
The report documents the results of a study conducted fifteen years after the implementation of a coyote control program in Marin County, California. Marion County officials believed that non-lethal methods would successfully reduce coyote predation of sheep.
The most damning part of the report is the comparison between the results of this study and an identical study performed ten years earlier. The first study, conducted by coyote hunter’s primary adversary, Camilla Fox, looked at the first five years of the program. You might recall that Camilla Fox is the Founder and Executive Director of Project Coyote and leader of the recent movement to ban coyote calling contests.
The abundance of coyotes in Marin County had been increasing and their predation of sheep had reached the point of causing some ranchers to abandon the sheep business and switch to cattle, and other ranchers to completely give up ranching. Being California, there was also public pressure to abandon the various lethal control methods used by Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, the agency previously hired by the county to control coyotes. Wildlife Services stopped their activity in Marin County in December 1999.
The Livestock Protection Program was started in July 2001 and consisted of several facets. The state offered financial aid to ranchers willing to adopt non-lethal approaches to control predation. These methods included fencing, guard animals, scare devices, shed lambing, and the use of herders. Ranchers received $500 for each method employed up to a maximum of $2,000. Additionally, a rancher who employed at least two of the approved methods could receive compensation for sheep lost due to coyote predation. However, the compensation component of the program was stopped in 2009. Participating ranchers were still allowed to shoot coyotes when they felt it appropriate.
The research team compared the findings of their study versus Ms. Fox’s study and found different results. Both sheep lost due to coyote predation and the number of coyotes killed had increased. The opposite of the goals of the program and opposite the findings for the five-year study conducted by Ms. Fox.
The report does not provide the number of sheep killed by coyotes during the fifteen-year period, but when asked if coyote predation had changed, eight of the eleven ranchers surveyed said it had increased or remained the same. This may reflect continuing growth of the coyote population.
During the most recent five-year period ranchers killed 291 coyotes as compared to the 111 taken by Wildlife Services during their last five years of their service in Marin County. One possible explanation is that trained coyote control specialists are more skilled at taking out identified sheep killing coyotes than a rancher who might shoot every coyote he can. Another possibility is an increasing abundance of coyotes.
The report concluded by suggesting Marin County re-institute the compensation program, continue the cost sharing program for implementation of non-lethal methods, and rehire Wildlife Service or other professional hunters to target sheep killing coyotes.
Regardless of the causes of these increases, once again, Camilla Fox, her anti-hunter tribe, and California are proven wrong.
