A killing machine

Wildlife Services is a secretive taxpayer-supported federal agency whose prime purpose is to kill wildlife. Wildlife Services uses a host of cruel methods to kill coyotes including trapping, poison, hunting, aerial gunning, and snares, all based on the flawed assumption that such procedures will reduce coyote predation on livestock as well as huntable species like deer. Ironically, such control measures increase the likelihood of predation.

In a sense, Wildlife Services control begets more coyotes and more predation, thus creating a circular feedback mechanism that creates political support for continued agency funding. In other words, Wildlife Services does not want to see coyote predation reduced since the more predation it can create by its activities, the more funding support it receives.

The basic issue is that Wildlife Services ignores coyote social ecology.

A breeding pair of coyotes will stake out and defend a territory. If unmolested, a breeding pair will have pups and form a pack of up to 10 individuals. Each pack has a dominant breeding pair. Other adults are behaviorally ‘sterile’ and do not breed.

This has implications for coyote control, because in areas with heavy coyote mortality, these typically ‘sterile’ females are released and can breed.

In addition to pack members, there are always random individuals that are known as floaters who usually do not maintain a territory, but are available to breed, if the dominant breeders are killed. These floaters form a reservoir of replacement breeders, should a breeding coyote be killed.

In addition to these behavioral controls on breeding, in unexploited coyote populations that are near the saturation point in terms of food availability, many pups die of starvation and never reach maturity. In exploited populations, a greater number of pups will survive into adulthood, often negating any losses from Wildlife Services control efforts.

A further limit on coyote livestock predation is due to learned behavior. Coyotes, like most predators, are reluctant to sample ‘new’ food. If they are not preying upon livestock, they are unlikely to begin. However, in exploited populations, young orphaned coyotes must fend for themselves and in desperation will prey upon livestock and become livestock killers.

To be successful at reducing coyote populations, a minimum of 70 percent of the population must be killed on a sustained basis. This is almost never achieved, and a vacant territory is quickly filled by floating individuals, or by a nearby pack.

Furthermore, due to extreme competition for food and territories, there are compensatory mechanisms that quickly repopulate any vacant space.

First, more females breed. Second, due to reduce competition for food, a greater percentage of pups survive and mature into adults. Finally, in exploited populations, female coyotes bred at a younger age. All these mechanisms ensure that coyote numbers seldom decline for any significant period.

Livestock grazing can also lead to more coyote predation by reducing cover for the preferred prey of mice and voles which results in lower small mammal populations.

In the end, the only alternative that is effective is non-lethal measures such as guard animals, corralling livestock at night, and herding. Indeed, in some California counties, tax dollars that previously went to Wildlife Services were used for non-lethal methods, resulting in lower predation losses, and costs.

This article has been excerpted from: ‘Wildlife Services is Really a Wildlife Killing Machine’.

Courtesy: Counterpunch.org