1080 collars kill coyotes

Press, 3 June 1981, Page 20

1080 collars kill coyotes

NZPA Salt Lake City Livestock : owners, frustrated by sheep-eating coyotes, may be able to fight back by putting poison-filled collars on their sheep. At the United States Fish and ■ Wildlife Predator Research Centre, at Logan, Utah, and at field sites throughout the west of the United States, researchers are studying the effective-

-ness and feasibility bf a rubber, toxic collar. “The collar concept as a coyote control method is a good one,” said Mr Richard Burns, a research biologist on the toxic collar project. “It is a very selective method because it not only kills coyotes but gets the coyote doing the killing,” he said. “You can put put a trap and catch a coyote but you

cannot be sure that you got a coyote that kills sheep.” Coyotes killed about .87.3 adult sheep per 1000 head and 261.6 lambs per 1000 nationwide in 1977, costing sheep ranchers about $16.2 million, Mr Burns said. In 1979, the United States farmers lost about $112.5 million as 312,500 sheep and 981,600 lambs were killed by predators, mainly coyotes.