Landowners, producers learn their options for predator control

By MINDY POEHL | Central Texas Edition

Jan Loven, district supervisor of Wildlife Services, shows a rifle used for aerial hunting. -- Photo by Mindy Poehl

July 21, 2005 - Predators, such as coyotes, feral hogs, bobcats and foxes can greatly affect farms and ranches. These predators eat crops and kill animals such as goats, sheep, chickens and deer. Predator control is a good way of actively managing these animals that might be causing problems on your land.

On Thursday, July 7, a predator awareness workshop was held at the Somervell County Expo Center. Speakers from Somervell, Bosque, Erath and Hood counties gathered to discuss the effects of predators as well as predator control methods.

Coyote predation accounts for the mortality of about half of the fawns in South Texas. Starvation and disease account for most of the remainder of the mortality of deer.

Matt McCloy, with Wildlife Services, inserts an M-44 device into the ground. -- Photo by Mindy Poehl

Robert Stalbaum, with Wildlife Services, spoke about non-lethal approaches to getting rid of predators.

"A lot of people in the city think every animal is endangered and they don't understand why people in the country want to get rid of predators. They would understand as soon as the predators started making them lose money from their own pockets," Stalbaum said. "We (man) evolve wildlife to our liking."

Stalbaum said the best way of getting rid of predators such as squirrels, opossum, raccoons, beavers and birds is to use cage traps; wire or netting; pyrotechnics, like fireworks; chemicals or spikes, that are roost inhibitors.

"Birds are becoming bigger and bigger problems in cities," Stalbaum explained. "Egrets are protected. If they are roosting you can't do anything to move them. You can move them with pyrotechnics as they come in."

Jan Loven, also with the Wildlife Services, said another alternative might include aerial gunning.

"We had to shoot lots of hogs in Bell County this year," Loven said. "Our helicopters don't like to fly. They are very expensive."

Before flying over certain properties to gun down predators, the Wildlife Service must have the signatures of the owners of the land.

"The land owners must sign a government contract that takes lots of time to complete the work on. This year, it took from October to February to do all of the work before we could fly," Loven explained.

The problem with aerial hunting is not only is it expensive, but there is a low success rate in heavy brush. If your local county does not have an aerial hunting service for shooting predators, Loven said several property owners and neighbors should get together and hire the Wildlife Services, because it can cost several thousand dollars when the service is not set up in a certain county.

"There is no county in Texas that can't afford our services," Loven said.

Two other Wildlife Services technicians, Ronald Rhoades and Terry Shriver, demonstrated some of the procedures of snaring and setting traps.

Rhoades showed how to set up snares for hogs and coyotes. Snares consist of a wire loop with a locking device that tightens around the animal's body as it passes through the loop.

"Snares are usually put in a place where the animal is crawling under a fence," Rhoades said as he set up a snare loop at the bottom of a wire fence. "When the animal puts its head through the loop as it tries to crawl under the fence, the snare gets tighter around the neck."

Shriver set up a foothold trap as a demonstration. Shriver dug a hole deep enough for the leghold trap to fit into. After he dug the hole, he hammered a stake into the ground, under the hole and covered the hole with sifted dirt, so the animal would not become suspicious of the difference in the ground. After setting the trap, but some bait near it.

"You go to great efforts to not catch what you're supposed to," said Shriver, because not all animals that get trapped are the ones you are originally looking for."

Matt McCloy with Wildlife Services, demonstrated inserting M-44's into the ground. M-44's contain sodium cyanide that is mechanically ejected when predators grab the bait from the trap.

"Fifty percent of coyotes in Texas are killed with M-44's," McCloy said. "Put the M-44 where he'll get to it on his way somewhere. I like to put paraffin wax on the end of the M-44 to see the teethmarks. I also make it level with the ground so the coyotes can't roll on it."