Wolf predation a growing problem for cattle

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This article was published 31/01/2024 (622 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A cattle producers organization is looking to beef up the province’s existing system of dealing with predators that eat into producers’ bottom lines.

The call for an improved provincial system to deal with predators comes after what producers are calling a particularly bad year of predation from wolves.

“We’re always going to have a level of predation … but last year we’ve seen a really substantial increase,” Matthew Atkinson, president of Manitoba Beef Producers, told the Sun. “There’s coyotes and there’s wolves … but the wolf predation is the big one that dominates the conversation.”

Atkinson said the organization is seeing wolf predation provincewide, with some producers who usually don’t have to deal with the problem encountering it in recent years. The issue has also recently affected Atkinson, who owns a cow-calf farm near Neepawa. Last year he lost three calves to predators — two were killed in the spring and one was killed on Thanksgiving weekend.

“I call [wolves] a heartbreaking predator. They like sport and so they take the biggest and the best out of the herds,” he said. “They’re very hard to control and they’re also very hard to find evidence of the kill because they don’t hunt daily, and they do a very good cleanup job when they do kill something.”

Atkinson managed to get compensation for the loss of his calves through the Manitoba Agricultural Services Corporation’s (MASC) wildlife damage compensation program. But he says Manitoba’s system for addressing cattle producers’ problem predators should be timelier and more effective.

Currently, a producer has 72 hours to register a claim of a predator attack with MASC, which then sends an adjuster to verify the kill. Compensation is 90 per cent of the value of the loss. Values are based on the average commercial market price for each type and class of livestock.

Once they have a claim number, producers have the option to call the Manitoba Trappers Association, which runs the provincially funded Problem Predator Removal Service. After receiving a call, the organization has one of its trappers go out to the producer’s area and attempt to trap and kill the predator.

The onus is on the producer to call the predator removal service after they have a claim number. After the trappers association gets the call, they arrange for a trapper in the area. For coyotes, trappers have a 24-hour period allocated for servicing the claim, while there is a 40-hour period given to trap wolves.

Trappers receive an hourly rate when attending a call for the problem predator program and have an option to request an extension to give them more time.

Atkinson said he would like to see more of a co-ordinated and timely effort after a producer loses an animal to a predator.

“When we have problem predators, they need addressing at the time they are a problem,” he said, adding that market values of fur have impacted hunting activities that help control predators that affect cattle producers.

A solution to speed up claims, he said, would be for a producer to verify predator kills themselves, similar to a practice allowed in British Columbia.

According to B.C.’s livestock protection program website, the organization allows self-verification for producers who complete a training course and pay a $150 self-verification fee. Once an attack is verified, the program will dispatch a wildlife specialist to deal with the predator. This usually begins within 24 to 48 hours of verification, the website says.

MASC chief product officer David Van Deynze told the Sun that MASC adjusters are trained to look for signs of predators and to differentiate between a calf that has been attacked by a predator versus a stillborn calf, for example.

MASC has seen an uptick in claims for livestock losses attributed to wolves in western Manitoba. In 2022, there were 513 claims. In 2023, that number was 579, though the fiscal year hasn’t ended yet.

“Already a little bit more than all of last year, but the year is not over,” Van Deynze said.

While claims of wolf predation may be up, they still aren’t the main predator for cattle.

“Coyotes overall, from a provincial perspective, continue to be the primary predator for livestock,” he said.

For the entire problem predator removal program, the Manitoba government provided $43,000 to the Manitoba Trappers Association in the 2022-23 year, according to provincial figures.

In 2022-23, 16 wolves were removed by trappers as part of the program, while between April 1 and Dec. 31, 2023, 39 wolves were removed.

Ken Woitowicz, president of the trappers association, told the Sun the group has seen an increase in calls to trap wolves, and while they do have enough trappers to meet demand, they are always looking for more, as there are few full-time trappers.

He said wolves are smart, always on the move and adapt quickly to trappers’ techniques. Still, he said, trapping can make an impact on helping reduce livestock loses.

“Say if you had a pack of five wolves and if you take out, say, two members of that pack, they don’t need to eat as much to survive,” he said.

Woitowicz said he would like to see more producers that know of areas where they have had trouble with predators to call trappers during the trapping season, so that problem predators could be addressed proactively instead of after the fact.

But while wolves may be seen by producers as problem predators, people like Tim Sallows, the ecosystem team leader at Riding Mountain National Park, see wolves as valuable to the province’s ecosystems.

“The best thing about wolves and large predators in general is that they can pick out the diseased animal, which includes chronic wasting disease animals, so they will limit the movement and the spread and the number of infected chronic wasting disease deer, elk and moose,” Sallows told the Sun.

He also warned that the random shooting and trapping of wolves can make the problem worse.

“It splits up the pack [and] breaks down the social society within that pack,” he said. “It splits them up and then they go off and breed, which increases the population even more.”

He said guard dogs and donkeys can be effective in keeping wolves away from livestock.

Still, Atkinson says that improving the co-ordination between the claim and the removal service, as well as allowing producers to self-verify, is a solution. But he also noted the organization is exploring cost-sharing for other preventive measures, like automatic lights that are designed to help deter predators.

“Our big focus amongst producers now is when we do have a problem and we have predators working in an area, especially wolves, and it’s hard to find the trace of a carcass and it’s hard to control them,” he said. “We need something better in those cases.”

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