They always exceed your direst fears. The Lady with the Black Dogs sent me this link to a story about how Tesco, the huge British supermarket chain that buys most of New Zealand’s lamb, will no longer allow shepherds to use herding dogs. You couldn’t make it up: “The supermarket chain has told its major …
Tag: Predators
Working girls
On Tuesday, we started shipping our lambs to another desert allotment here in western Wyoming, to combine our lambs with that of a friend’s, into one large herd. By the time the sale takes place in 10 days, there will be over 2,000 lambs in this bunch. Right now, there are four livestock guardian dogs …
The art of setting a snare
First, you tie some sheep legs to a large tree, using heavy cable, burying the spring to the snare at the base of the tree. Then you gingerly set thin steel strips and wire mesh in the snare so the animal will feel some support as it puts its foot into the snare. Next, add …
The ongoing saga
Things are really busy on the ranch, with this being the time of year we should be finished with haying, and starting our fall sorting and shipping. The predation issues we’ve been dealing with have taken far too much time and effort, really screwing up our haying schedule, with the result being the rather difficult …
Nothing good
Our predation issues are still not resolved. First we had two big lambs killed and entirely consumed, in one event. Then things were quiet for a full week. Last Friday morning’s early sheep check led me to a just-killed 90-pound lamb – nothing much eaten but the liver. Once again the scene was so fresh …
Quiet night
Everything was quiet in the pasture this morning, with no signs of further predation during the night. The animals were all calm, and the guardians all seemed content. Although some may see the fact that two lambs were killed as some fault of the guardian animals, Jim and I disagree with that view. We shudder …
Predation
I swear any time I change my schedule, something goes really wrong. I drove my son Cass to Laramie yesterday to move him into a dorm for his freshman year at the University of Wyoming. It was a fun but stressful day as I tried not to think about the fact that my son just …
Who Were the Cannibals?
More and more it has been suggested that we interacted little if at all with our close cousins the Neanderthals. Though there is still some controversy it mostly seems that we did not interbreed, finding each other too strange. Some have wondered, more in literature than in science, if the appearance of our hairier relaatives …
Eagle predation on bears
Adolph Murie described golden eagles harassing bears in Alaska as they swooped and dive-bombed the bruins. This type of action has been viewed by naturalists on numerous occasions, with the consensus being that the eagles were either playing or curious, or simply hanging out waiting for the bears to take down prey that could be …
Cat’s Yellowstone Wolves, and others
Our own Cat Urbigkit has just published a book on the Yellowstone wolves and their reintroduction (so to speak as you will see.) She brings a unique perspective as she is both a sheepherder and a naturalist- observer, one who can appreciate big carnivores but doesn’t want them killing her sheep or her livelihood. Her …