The coyotes on Vivian Bollman’s farm are no longer satisfied just
chasing her sheep and cattle.
“This summer we had a coyote bothering our guard dog,” says the
Kelvington, Sask., farmer.
“He was nipping at our guard dog’s heels while he was trying to herd
our sheep back to the yard.”
She isn’t the only rancher in the area experiencing problems with
coyotes. A neighbour lost a cow and a calf to the predators this fall.
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“We also have another farmer who raises wild boars and they’re just
waltzing right into the pasture and taking his wild boars.”
Bollman has lost only one or two sheep this year, but in previous years
coyotes would kill up to two a day. She said the animals are getting so
brash they are coming right into her yard. One neighbour saw a pack of
seven coyotes emerge from a nearby bush.
This winter Bollman joined the Saskatchewan Livestock Predation
Program, a new government program administered by the Saskatchewan
Sheep Development Board.
It has helped 340 producers protect their animals from attack since it
was set up on April 1, 2001.
Experienced hunters and trappers are hired under a three-day contract
to remove animals causing a problem on Saskatchewan livestock
operations.
Coyotes and wolves are the primary targets, but the program also takes
aim at other predators, such as bears and red foxes. Producers aren’t
charged for the service.
Saskatchewan Agriculture set aside $200,000 to administer the predation
program for the 2001-02 fiscal year.
Mike Gollop, a problem wildlife specialist with the Saskatchewan
environment department, said funding hasn’t been approved for next
year, but he “fully anticipates” it will happen.
He said there is no way to pinpoint the size of Saskatchewan’s coyote
population or to come up with an accurate estimate of the damage they
inflict, but he’s confident both are on the rise.
“There is reasonable good evidence to suggest that numbers are probably
higher than they’ve been since people settled the Prairies.”
Gollop said poisoning campaigns kept the coyote population down in the
1930s, 1940s and 1950s. High pelt prices in the 1960s and 1970s gave
trappers an incentive to kill them, but the coyote population grew
unchecked in the 1980s and 1990s.
Disease may be the next weapon that curtails their expansion.
“We’d be expecting a pretty significant outbreak of mange here
anytime,” Gollop said.
More than half the people who have used the predation program are
cattle producers, but Gollop said the jury is still out on whether
coyotes pose a serious threat to cattle.
“I’ve talked to a lot of old cowboys that don’t think coyotes are any
problem at all and I’ve talked to a lot of cattlemen who hate them.”
While cattle producers account for most of the calls, sheep producers
lodge a disproportionate amount of requests for help.
“There’s no question that coyotes and sheep are a bad mix,” Gollop said.
Sheep producers can lose up to 14 animals a night from coyote attacks.
Bollman said the trapper that is working for them has already caught
and killed nine coyotes and suspects he will get another three before
he is done.
She is pleased with the results, but worries that the trapper is
underpaid. He has already put in a lot more than three days of work on
her farm.
Another potential problem is that most of the calls will happen during
calving season, which occurs at the end of the fiscal year when funding
may be in short supply.
