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<\/a><\/p>\nI’ve had a specific fondness for coyotes my entire life. We see them occasionally on our family farm near Cut Bank, Montana (Glacier County) and since I moved to Utah 42 years ago I encounter them fairly regularly on Antelope Island and in my wanderings throughout the Intermountain West.<\/p>\n
I photographed this one about six weeks ago along a road on Antelope Island.<\/p>\n
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For me it’s a special occasion when I observe (and\/or document with my camera) a coyote doing its natural thing. This young and inexperienced coyote was learning the ropes of survival as it attempted to hunt voles using the shade of a sunflower patch as cover.<\/p>\n
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Coyotes, like other predators, play a significant and positive role in the environment. That role is finally being better understood now that it’s almost too late since we’ve already wiped out most of our large predators. It’s a complex subject whose scope is too vast to cover adequately here but thankfully the wily coyote is still here in reasonably good numbers.<\/p>\n
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But the “Wildlife Services” branch of the USDA is doing their damndest to wipe coyotes out too. Following is some background and recent news as it applies specifically to coyotes and Glacier County, Montana where I grew up and still consider “home.”<\/p>\n
Glacier County is mostly rural, consisting of two small towns (Cut Bank and Browning), farms and ranches, the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Glacier National Park and Lewis and Clark National Forest. It’s bordered on the north by 75 miles of international border with Canada.<\/p>\n
Recently “Wildlife Services” (I always put that deliberately misleading name in quotes, hereafter to be referred to as WS) and local ranchers are promoting a campaign to fund a helicopter for hunting and killing coyotes in Glacier County. Hunting them from the air is much more “efficient” and doing it this time of year increases that efficiency because it’s calving season for cattle and the beginning of breeding season for coyotes.<\/p>\n
In a recent “news” article (the article isn’t really journalism because it doesn’t present the other side of the issue) in the Cut Bank Pioneer Press<\/a> ranchers are being encouraged to fund the expense of the helicopter because of its extra and significant expense of $625 per hour. That funding would be provided through the use of a “cattle petition”. The following quote from the article attempts to justify the extra expense, particularly on the reservation but elsewhere in the county too.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The number of predators killed annually by WS in the U.S. is simply astounding, including but not limited to the following native predators killed in 2016 alone:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But WS doesn’t draw the line at predators, far from it. Following is a link to a list from the USDA of all the species of animals WS killed in 2016 only, including the number of each species killed and the kill\/capture\/restrain method. Invasive species are highlighted in turquoise. The link has already been filtered to include only animals that were killed and it excludes those that were removed or freed.<\/p>\n I realize that many readers don’t follow links like this but in this situation I highly recommend that you follow this one. I predict it will blow your mind.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At the request of corporate and private agricultural interests and the hunting lobby “Wildlife Services” (I despise the strategic misnaming of that agency) uses traps, snares, poisons, gas and aerial gunning to kill animals, most of them native. And whistleblowers repeatedly report that the real numbers are significantly higher but just not reported by WS.<\/p>\n I support the work of most federal government agencies but WS is out of control and I believe it should be reformed and largely disbanded and what’s left should be renamed. Their methods are cruel, indiscriminate, ineffective and mostly funded by taxpayer dollars. They spend far more to kill predators than the actual damage those predators cause and by their own account they killed 2.7 million animals in 2016 alone.<\/p>\n It’s past time to say goodbye to “Wildlife Services” as we know it today.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Notes:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I take this news personally on two levels and it makes me spittin’ angry.<\/p>\n\n
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