There won’t be a coyote bounty in Saskatchewan in 2010-11.
Last year a flood of complaints about coyote numbers, especially from livestock producers, led to a bounty of $20 per animal.
About 18,000 animals were killed between November 2009 and March 2010 under the pilot program, well below the government’s target of 30,000.
Agriculture minister Bob Bjornerud said in an interview last week that while there is still a large number of coyotes roaming the countryside, the situation isn’t as bad as last year.
Read Also
Canola support gets mixed response
A series of canola industry support measures announced by the federal government are being met with mixed reviews.
“At this point we’re not getting as many calls as we were last fall about damage being done to livestock,” he said.
A new program that compensates producers for livestock killed by predators may also be a factor in the decline in complaints, he added.
With no bounty, rodents should be better controlled. It’s estimated that one coyote consumes five rodents per day.
The 18,000 killed last year would have eaten more than 30 million rodents in one year.
“There are (many) more rodents on the landscape that farmers have to contend with that would otherwise have been controlled naturally by coyotes,” said Paul Paquet, a member of the scientific advisory board of Project Coyote.
“Mass killings of coyotes are ethically indefensible, ecologically reckless and counter to sound scientific wildlife conservation.”
Project Coyote is a Californiabased organization dedicated to promoting “educated coexistence” between people and coyotes.
Meanwhile, a group called Nature Saskatchewan expressed its opposition to any publicly funded bounty.
The 1,300 member environmental organization passed a resolution at its annual meeting in September describing the critical role coyotes play in maintaining species diversity and ecological health.
Trevor Herriot, conservation director for Nature Saskatchewan, said in addition to eating rodents, coyotes clean up carrion, remove sick animals from the gene pool and eat insects, all benefiting the environment.
He acknowledged that some coyotes can cause problems for livestock producers in particular, but said the solution should be devising a focused and environmentally friendly control program rather than issuing a blanket licence.
Officials from Saskatchewan Agriculture failed to return phone calls.
Ken Engel, executive director of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, said there are several resolutions on the agenda at that organization’s convention in Saskatoon Nov. 8 and 9 asking the government to reinstate the bounty.
There are at least five more asking for a similar bounty on beavers, which have been creating serious problems for landowners in some areas.
