Alberta livestock producers want coyotes added to wildlife compensation program. Here's why

A county in northwestern Alberta wants livestock producers to be compensated when coyotes prey on their animals, which would bring the province in line with the rest of Western Canada.

Currently, the carnivores are not listed alongside wolves, grizzly bears, black bears, cougars or eagles under the wildlife predator compensation program.

What data and research is available suggests coyotes are Alberta's No. 1 livestock predator. People in the industry say the local population has grown, so changes should be made to help out ranchers.

"We're trying to bring it [in line with] what Manitoba, Saskatchewan and B.C. are doing — and it's really not that different from what we're already doing with other wildlife damage [of crops]," Blake Gaugler, County of Northern Lights' agricultural fieldman, told CBC News.

"There seems to be a bit of a hang-up," he said.

The rural county, located about 680 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, previously tried to get coyote compensation in 2016. It will lobby the Agricultural Service Board provincial committee on Oct. 21.

The province did not respond to request for comment before the time of publishing.

What is the coyote problem?

Coyotes, deemed an agricultural pest under provincial legislation, have been an issue for livestock producers in Alberta for generations. But there is little data available to understand the impact coyotes have.

"Unfortunately, we've done a really bad job keeping track of that — and that's not just industry, that's Fish and Wildlife as well," said Graham Overguard, president of the Western Stock Growers' Association, an industry association based in Okotoks, Alta.

"For whatever reason, losses to coyotes are kind of swept under the rug."

The Alberta government tracked predation losses decades ago through its predator indemnity program. Between 1973 and 1981, coyotes accounted for more than half of damage claims filed, mainly targeting sheep and poultry.

During that span, the amount of compensation producers received due to coyotes climbed fairly steadily per year, totalling more than $566,000 at the time — roughly $1.8 million today, when accounting for inflation.

In the late 1990s, the Alberta government published a booklet titled Coyote Predation of Livestock, which said coyotes were the province's "major predator of livestock," accounting for more than 75 per cent of all losses.