Why Killing Coyotes

Improved Essays
The title of the article "Why Killing Coyotes Doesn't Make Livestock Safe" is an effective hook because it draws in readers from both sides of the debate it discusses. Conservationists will be concerned with wildlife populations, and owners of livestock will be interested in the safety of their own animals. Megan M. Draheim's article follows up on its title with a startling introduction: the US government's Wildlife Services killed more than 70,000 coyotes in the year of 2016. Despite the fact that Wildlife Services is more than capable of utilizing methods of predator repellent that do not kill wild animals, they proceed with extermination. Wildlife Services mediates between wildlife and humans, trying to find compromises between the two. …show more content…
Draheim mentions that coyotes, wolves, and dingoes (wolves and dingoes were the subjects of two of the sources that are cited) are pack animals and that their behavior upon losing some of their numbers is one of the reasons for increased predation following extermination. I found it interesting that studies found population growth following the killing of animals in a pack, which, according to the article, is because when individuals are killed, pack structure falls apart. In coyotes, this makes females more likely to breed. Draheim also states packs protect their own land, and so when they fall apart, more individuals can come in, leading to more predation. I would like to learn more about the structure of packs formed by pack animals. Besides repelling an influx of foreign individuals from filling their space, I would be interested in seeing what effects social pack animals have on their ecosystems, and how important packs are to the ecosystems they exist in. The importance of these predatory animals, or any wild animal, is why the preservation of nature is critical and must always be considered when trying to accommodate for human

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