Wildlife Damage Management, Internet Center for
Date of this Version
December 1983
Abstract
Twenty-three ranchers were trained and certified to use Compound 1080 in toxic collars to control coyote ( Ca nts l a tran s predation on sheep during a 2-year experimental program conducted by the New Mexico Department of Agriculture. Fifteen ranchers employed a total of 330 collars in field use. Two used collars in preventive control schemes and success was unknown. Thirteen used collars in corrective control (i.e. predation was in progress); 6 had collared lambs attacked and killed by coyotes; 4 had 1 or more collars punctured by coyotes and in 1 case a bobcat; 3 solved specific coyote problems that they were unable to solve by other means. Although punctured collars were not recovered for verification, 2 other ranchers were believed to have stopped killer coyotes based on circumstantial evidence. Two ranchers were found to be in violation of use restrictions during the 2-year program. One was dropped from the program and the other was reprimanded and found in compliance upon subsequent inspection. One nontarget animal, a skunk (M ephitis m e phitis), was discovered that my have died from scavenging on a collared lamb carcass. Problems encountered by ranchers in using collars included restrictions against using collars on federal land and lack of suitable areas to keep main flocks of sheep while collared target flocks were in use. Conclusions drawn from the experimental program were: (1) ranchers can be expected to safely use 1080 in toxic collars; (2) some ranchers will not be successful in using collars; however, others will be able to solve certain coyote predation problems they are unable to solve by other means; (3) some violations of use restrictions may occur; however, they likely will be infrequent.