"Olympic Mascots" Killed as Pests in U.S.

Hillary Mayell
for National Geographic News

February 19, 2002

Olympic Committee members in Salt Lake City may be regretting their
selection of mascots for the 2002 Winter Games.

Mascots are
chosen to reflect the land and culture where the Olympic events are
being held. This year's mascots—the snowshoe hare, the coyote, and
the black bear—were selected by a group of Native American and
petroglyph experts as symbolic of the American West.

But nearly 85,000 coyotes and several hundred black bears are killed each year in predator-control programs designed to protect sheep, cattle, and other livestock grazing on public lands. Their selection as mascots has provided wildlife conservationists with an opportunity to raise public awareness of the issue and voice their opposition to a practice they argue is unethical, environmentally irresponsible, expensive, and ineffective.

Predator Control

Coyotes, foxes, bears, mountain lions, and bobcats all prey on livestock. The National Agricultural Statistics Service estimates that sheep and goat ranchers lost U.S. $19.9 million to predators in 1999, while losses to cattle producers in 2000 exceeded $51.6 million. Black bears pose a threat to the livelihoods of beekeepers and orchard and tree plantation growers, particularly in the Northwest.

To combat the problem, Wildlife Services (WS), the federal agency responsible for predator control, kills close to 100,000 animals nationwide. Conservation groups criticize the WS for its reliance on non-selective lethal control methods—random killing, in other words.

"There's no question that coyotes and black bears are having an impact on people and the environment," said David Gaillard, director of the Predator Conservation Alliance in Bozeman, Montana. "But killing them should be a last resort, not the first."

The most commonly used method to kill coyotes is aerial shooting.

"Typically the Wildlife Service clears an area by coming in and shooting every coyote they see on public lands that are going to be grazed, before the sheep and cattle arrive, and before they even know whether there's going to be a problem," said Gaillard. "Coyotes that have learned to hunt natural prey, and have a stable territory shouldn't be targeted. Lethal methods should be used only as a last resort against offending animals."

Other lethal methods used to reduce predator populations include poisoning through the use of M-44 cannisters, and trapping, using leg traps and wire neck snares.

Killing coyotes as a way to reduce their population is inefficient, ineffective, and in all likelihood exacerbates the problem, wildlife conservationists argue. Coyotes have a unique ability to fill population holes; if their numbers go down, the females produce bigger litters.

"The coyote is very resilient, and despite the numbers that are being killed annually, there's no question that we have more now than we ever had," said Gaillard.

Emerging research carried out by WS wildlife biologists at the National Wildlife Research Center may provide some support for this view.

"Overall population reduction is a total waste of money, and certainly isn't the way to go," said Michael Jaeger, a wildlife biologist at NWRC and the University of California, Berkeley. "We've found that relatively few coyotes are doing the killing."

Coyotes are very territorial, and only one pack operates within a territory.

"Packs are essentially family units, consisting of an alpha pair, which is the only pair that breeds, some betas—animals that are one to two years old—and pups," said Jaeger. "We've found that it's often a single alpha animal or pair that are preying on sheep that have moved into the pack's territory. If you can eliminate the alpha animals you can disrupt the predation until a new alpha pair is established or transient pack takes over the territory."

Jaeger's research also shows that alpha coyotes don't tend to be surplus killers. "Mountain lions or bears go into a herd and can kill 10 to 15 animals in one night, more than they can eat," he said. "Alpha coyotes kill just one animal, which they eat."

Alphas tend to be warier and harder to catch, so random hunting tends to get the younger, dumber animals, adds Jaeger. But, as Idaho sheep rancher John Faulkner says, "How do you tell the difference?"

"If we didn't have predator control out here, why maybe the number of coyotes would back off, but we'd be out of business by then," he says. "And predator control isn't just about livestock. In Los Angeles they've been having problems with animals taking people's pets; Mama gets a mite irked when her cat goes missing."

Predator control operations also tackle bird populations around golf courses, airports, fish farms, and feedlots.

Still, wildlife conservationists argue that the program is basically a tax-subsidized remedy for ranchers—around 70 percent of the agency's budget goes toward killing wildlife to protect livestock in the West. Because it doesn't cost them much, ranchers have no incentive to take non-lethal measures to avoid the problem in the first place, says Gaillard.

Non-lethal fixes are not easy, and they do add costs, admits Gaillard. But a study published in the Journal of Wildlife Management estimated that the costs associated with aerial kills are between U.S. $200 to $800 per coyote. Non-lethal methods include the use of guard animals—dogs and llamas have both proven effective—increased patrolling, and increased fencing, particularly in areas where animals are concentrated and particularly vulnerable to predators, such as lambing and calving lots, and in areas that have chronic problems.

Hunting Powder, Coal, and Copper

Utah has a particularly black record in the eyes of wildlife conservation activists because, along with several other states, the state sponsors coyote bounty hunts. During these shooting contests, hunters returning with the tongue, tail, or a pair of ears, depending on the locale, collect a bounty, usually of around $20. This practice led one wildlife activist to suggest that the Olympic mascot Copper the Coyote be sold missing its tongue, tail, and ears.

"We've all been watching the Olympics here, and it's very exciting," said Gaillard. "We would hope that the spirit of world unity and peace [fostered by the Olympics] would extend to include our furry brethren."

News Alerts From the National Geographic News Desk

Receive regular e-mail alerts about breaking National Geographic news. Send an e-mail to the news desk with the word "Subscribe" in the header field. We'll let you know whenever we publish an interesting story.