Author
Mary E. GARVEY and Brent R. PATTERSON
Correspondence: Mary E. Garvey, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Wildlife Research and Development section, Trent University, DNA Building, 2140 East Bank Drive, Peterborough, Ontario, K9J 7B8, Canada. Email: garvey.mary@gmail.com
Received 24 January 2014 – Accepted 27 March 2014
Abstract
Livestock-depredating Coyotes (Canis latrans) continue to be a problem for livestock producers across North America. To alleviate livestock losses, producers often hire trappers to target and remove Coyotes although some trapping devices may be difficult to use at certain times of the year (i.e., foot-hold traps in winter). The cable restraint is a nonlethal cable-trap designed to capture an animal around the neck, during any season, and hold it in place until the trapper arrives. Our objective was to evaluate the selectivity and injuries to Coyotes captured in cable restraints on livestock farms in southern Ontario, Canada. We hypothesized that cable restraints set by trained trappers would be selective towards Coyotes and that the majority of Coyotes captured would sustain only minor injuries. Consistent with our predictions, we found the cable restraint to be selective towards Coyotes (17 Coyotes and 3 non-target species) in addition to causing minimal injuries to captured Coyotes (88% without indicators of poor welfare). Although our sample size is small, our results demonstrate the value of the cable restraint and the potential for this device to be utilized as a tool to reduce human-wildlife conflicts or to safely capture Coyotes for research, year-round in urban or rural areas.
Key Words: Animal Welfare, Cable Restraint, Canis latrans, Coyote, Trap Humaneness, Trap Selectivity.
3-Vol-3-Issue-1-Garvey-and-Patterson
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