Predators

Well it finally happened. I have not seen any coyotes around the farm, although one can hear them. Every day, I walk through my animals and check for things out of place. I had been away for a few days to a Holistic Management conference, so at the earliest opportunity on my return, I took a walk. I check fences, look for sick animals, check feed, just... look around. and observe. Well I found a blood spot. Fresh.

My heart raced. I walked more carefully, scanning the ground for more signs. Quickly, I found another spot

And with that spot, a 2" piece of fleece. Soft. Short. LAMB. I knew that some of the sheep might be bred, due to a ram that got out. Rams and bucks and bulls, they always get out. So I was prepared for an early lamb or 2. I was not prepared for a predator that struck so quick and silent. The skin was soft, not frozen. This was an early morning kill. Was the lamb born dead? I don't know. I almost think not, due to the amount of blood I found. The herd didn't really seem too upset. I did a perimeter check and found tracks coming in, and going out of the mesh fence

What was it? A fox? a coyote? I am not sure, but I lean towards coyote. I followed the tracks. They wondered, this way and that. I found a few blood spots next to tracks, but no other evidence of a lamb. Nothing. There was a spot where my unwelcome diner had relieved itself. Eventually my trail ran through one of my camps again and I lost it - too many little hoof prints to distinguish the predator tracks.

The next day, we had a blizzard. Lots of snow covered up the tracks. A day after the blizzard I went to see what else I could find

Fresh tracks! And some scat in one of my pastures

I scanned the places where he had come into the paddocks. Did he jump? Or crawl through? Foxes can fit through some pretty small holes, they will fit through a mesh fence. Some predator specialists say that coyotes don't jump, preferring to crawl under. I found, at long last, a single hair, caught in the mesh, fairly high up. He must have jumped.

His tracks disappeared into the sunset.

But I know he will be back. And I will be ready. I hope to pick up a Llama later this week, and I have managed to obtain 2 adult Livestock Guardian dogs on a loan. I hope that they will serve me until I can get a pup and get the pup trained through the summer for next year.

I don't hate predators. They are only doing what they do best, what they evolved to do over millions of years. Through our meddling in Nature, we have created an abundance of prey. I can just imagine this guy standing outside my fence, staring in wonder at the goats and sheep, all so neatly contained by the fence. All so tempting and edible. But with my Llama and my dogs, I hope to convince him to go dine on rabbits, deer and gophers instead.