To Sheep Producers NL:

                                             ERADICATION HAS NO PART IN COYOTE CONTROL
                                                       BILL MONTEVECCHI
                                        MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY OF NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

I am grateful to Brenda and Matt Morry for the invitation to the Sheep Producer’s Predation Meeting. I apologize for missing the closed-door session on 7 February. When I signed into the Inn on 6 February and was told that I had a room booked on 7 and 8 February, I assumed that I was to attend the workshop on 8 February [my mistake] but as I had no schedule or agenda for the meeting this was not clear.

    Anyway be that as it may, I take this opportunity to provide some perspectives and cautions about coyote control. Owing the killing of sheep, there is a valid case for Coyote control. Most basically, however, a control program cannot envision or include considerations of eradication.

    The best information indicates that Coyotes arrived on the island of Newfoundland on their own accord via sea ice in the 1980s. Hence the are not an introduced or invasive species. They are protected from eradication by the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity and the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy. In a real sense, Coyotes occupy the niche of the extinct Newfoundland Wolf. Like Coyotes, wolves from off-island will arrive here from time to time via sea ice.

 There is nothing inherently evil about Coyotes (or wolves). They can create problems for sheep and other livestock farmers by killing and over-killing animals that they do not utilize. I recorded this over-killing with Coyote predation on Gannets at Cape St. Mary’s.

 Yet, caution in control programs is warranted because wherever sheep farming has expanded, predators (wolves, lynx, eagles) have been severely threatened or eliminated. More attention should be given to deterrence, especially that involving guard animals like dog and llamas.  In Norway, to help resolve conflicts between sheep farming and predation, the government has implemented compensation programs for farmer losses. Such a program warrants consideration in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The bottom line is that it will take more than guns, ammo and snares to solve the problems. Resolution will require accommodation and different ways of doing things.