Coyotes

All week, by about 2 a.m. our local pack of coyotes has been on the move. Unfortunately they are moving closer and closer. I've been trying to remember to leave the back porch light on, thinking that this would help convince them to stay away.

Two nights ago I forgot; by 2 it sounded like there were 15 dogs and pups howling and singing and yelping right in the backyard. I've never heard anything like it. Eerie, haunting, yet joyful. I bounded out of bed, raced to the French doors and flipped the light on. Immediate and utter silence! I guess the light does work!

It seems to be a bad year for coyotes ... okay, good for them, bad for livestock owners. The litters were huge this year! The pups are about six months old now, and are in training to be the good hunters and scavengers they must become. This is the most dangerous time of year for livestock since food requirements for the den are now huge, and their food supply is quite diminished after the crazy dry summer we had. Kev even passed by a dead coyote on the road a couple of weeks ago; this is a rarity. I'm told by locals that once we have snow, the threat from coyotes is much reduced. I'm not sure why. So between now and our first snow, I MUST be vigilant about keeping that light on.

Around here, farmers use either livestock guardians dogs (LGDs) or llamas as their flock guardians. We see mostly Maremma and Great Pyrenees. These dogs or llamas live with the sheep 24/7 and do a fabulous job of scaring away coyotes! Unfortunately, Dickens just doesn't have what it takes in this area, as you can see by this photo :-).


He does, however herd our free range chickens in at night, is a truly excellent watchdog with an uncanny intuition into people's characters, and this summer he learned how to be an efficient mouser, so he is not completely useless! He earns his keep :-).

For now, we'll continue to depend on electric fence and a single light bulb for coyote and fox control!