Pest or pest control? Coyote interactions with cattle and Richardson’s ground squirrels

Coyotes (Canis latrans Say, 1823) are ubiquitous across Canadian grasslands and have been implicated as causing millions of dollars of damage each year by injuring or killing cattle (Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758). Gaining insight into the behaviour of coyotes in proximity to cattle may mitigate these costs. We hypothesized that coyotes obtain direct (e.g., killing calves or scavenging cattle) and indirect (e.g., hunting native prey) benefits from cattle pastures. We further hypothesized that cows respond defensively to coyotes. We conducted 58 focal observations of coyotes from May to August in southwest Saskatchewan and recorded activity, prey species, distance from cattle, and the response of cattle to coyotes. Coyotes hunted native prey more often than they interacted with cattle. Coyotes were often within 100 m of cattle when hunting Richardson’s ground squirrels (Urocitellus richardsonii (Sabine, 1822)), their most common prey. Coyotes scavenged from cattle carcasses (N=5), occasionally approached calves (N=2), rushed herds (N=2), or consumed afterbirth (N=1). Cows and/or calves chased coyotes in 43% of observations having encounters within 10 m. Our data suggest coyotes primarily use cattle pastures to obtain native prey, although periodic opportunities to scavenge cattle or kill calves may contribute to their use of these areas.