Wily Coyotes Hone Skills to Outwit Sheep Guard Dogs : West: The problem has grown since anti-predator poisons were outlawed two decades ago.

The coyote, that scourge of the Western sheep grower, has written another page in the battle of wits between man and predator.

Growing in numbers since anti-predator poisons were outlawed 23 years ago, coyotes are working in groups of four to eight, deploying decoys to lure away guard dogs while others move in on the flocks. Previously, they worked in breeding pairs.

“Instead of one or two coyotes coming at the herd, you see one or two coyotes drawing off the guard dogs and the others come in to kill the sheep,” said Steve Raftopoulas of Craig, whose family runs one of Colorado’s largest sheep operations and whose losses to coyotes and other predators run well over $90,000 a year.

Although there has been no official population count on coyotes for more than 20 years, sheepmen’s losses are climbing, officials said. The latest state figures, for 1990, pegged Colorado sheep losses to predators at $837,000.

Coyotes used to attack exclusively at night, but now they come during the day, too.

“We are noticing where the dogs work all night to protect the band, the coyotes will come in the daytime while the dogs are tired and trying to sleep,” Raftopoulas said. “It’s a whole different plan of action the coyotes are using.”

To counter the attacks, sheep growers depend more heavily on guard dogs.

*

Professor Bill Andelt, a predator specialist with Colorado State University’s Department of Fishery and Wildlife Biology, said a survey in 1986 showed 24 Colorado sheep producers using guard dogs. Now, he said, 10 times that number rely on guard dogs.

In Andelt’s 1993 survey, 96% of the sheep operators using guard dogs recommended their use to other sheep producers.

Guard dogs cost $700 or more each; the number used by sheep growers depends on what they can afford.

“Two damn sure helped us, but four is twice as good and six is better,” said Randy Campbell, a sheep rancher and guard dog breeder in Eagle County. Campbell raises Akbash guard dogs.

Raftopoulas uses six or seven guard dogs per band of 900 to 1,000 sheep.

The coyote problem has accelerated since anti-predator poisons were outlawed 23 years ago and the price of coyote pelts plummeted from about $57 in the early 1980s to less than $5 today, discouraging trappers and hunters.

The federal Animal Damage Control Unit has been effective in trapping the worst coyote killers. But that agency’s budget is faced with downsizing along with demands from urban areas that dilute its ability to help stockmen.

About 10 years ago, Colorado sheepmen began turning to guard dogs--not the traditional Australian herd dogs--to protect their flocks.

The Great Pyrenees breed was an early favorite but now many sheep growers prefer the white Akbash, which has been guarding sheep in Turkey since before the time of Christ.

John Jewell of Silt swears by the Akbash. He also swears that the coyote population has doubled in his area. He runs about 2,000 producing ewes and has about 3,000 lambs each May and June.

“I lost 130 lambs last year . . . almost all to coyotes and a few to [mountain] lion,” Jewell said.

He pastures his sheep up in the Flat Tops Wilderness Area during the summer.

Last year, he lost 23 lambs out of 1,600 to predators.

Several years ago, when he had no guard dogs, he lost 250 head of sheep.

Jewell bought his Akbashes from Campbell and his wife, Julie Hansmire, who are among the state’s top Akbash breeders.

“Our oldest dog is Abe. He’s 14 or 15 now, but he chased and caught a coyote the other day,” Hansmire said.

The Akbash range in weight from 90 to 140 pounds and stand 29 to 32 inches at the shoulder, she said.

“They look somewhat like a Great Pyrenees but there is a greyhound influence with more of a slender build. I’ve seen them run and jump a 6-foot fence,” she said.

A new market has emerged for the Akbash: Californians living in the Sierra want them for protection against mountain lions while they’re jogging and while their children are playing.

J. Paul Brown, president of the Colorado Wool Growers Assn., said most of his peers do not want to eradicate the coyote, just to control the sheep killers.

“Welfare coyotes,” he calls them, because they are too lazy to chase down swift jack rabbits.

“Coyotes do a lot of good in killing prairie dogs and rabbits and keeping those populations down. It’s those ones that like lamb chops--those are the ones we want to take care of,” Brown said.