"We sought to understand the depredation problem from a behavioral and ecological perspective in a typical ranching environment, where coyote mortality from humans was high and sheep represented an abundant resource."(594)

"Resident males were assumed breeders if >40% of locations were <200 m from breeding females."(595)

"Field necropsies of sheep carcasses were performed to determine cause of death. Subcutaneous hemorrhaging in the throat region, canine punctures, and characteristic feeding on the rump, thighs, and shoulder were used to identify coyote kills."(596)

"Breeding coyotes maintained mutually exclusive territories (Fig. 1), and annual 90% AK (adaptive kernel) home ranges of neighboring pairs overlapped only to a maximum of 4% (proportion of territory overlapped by another)."(596-7)

"Nonbreeders generally avoided conspecific territories and spent more time than expected by chance in peripheral or interstitial space."(597)

"Territorial breeders were responsible for most coyote-killed sheep in both years. Sixty-five sheep kills were found during lambing (1 Jan- 31 May) in 1994. Of these 65 kills, 52 (80%) kills, composing 45 events (i.e., individuals or >=2 sheep killed in the same place), were found in a single territory (M302). Furthermore, no 2 kill events in M302’s territory occurred on the same night, suggesting that one individual or pair was responsible for most or all kills occurring there…. Radiotelemetry was conducted on nights (2200-2400) or mornings (0700-0900) of 26 kill events, and azimuths supported M302’s association with 23 (88%) of these events."(598)

"During late pup-rearing and after most lambs were sold (1 Jun-13 Aug (1994)), kills occurred primarily in 2 concentrations near clusters of locations corresponding to F109’s-M302’s den and to another pair (F210-M208) for which no den was found, which suggested these 2 pairs were responsible for most depredation during this period."(598)

"Seventy-four coyote-killed sheep were found (20 ewes, 54 lambs) during [lambing in 1995]. Forty-four (92%) of 48 1-ranked kills were attributed to breeding adults; the other 4 were attributed to uncollared coyotes of unknown breeding status. One pair (F109-M208) was responsible for at least 85% of 1-ranked kills and 55% of all kills found during lambing 1995. Because the pair was often together when sheep were killed, it was difficult to know which individual did the killing."(599)

"Based on [his broken canines and distinct bite pattern], it appeared that [M208] was doing most or all of the sheep-killing during the early spring, when F109 was in late gestation. Furthermore, after F109 whelped, the pair was often separated, and radiotelemetry confirmed that M208 killed most sheep during this period. After his removal, the rate of sheep killing abruptly declined, as it had the previous year when M302 was removed, and the infrequent kills made by F109 showed typical canine punctures. Not only were the removals of M302 and M208 associated with declines in sheep kills, but removals of 23 other coyotes from HREC before and during the lambing period had no detectable effect on the frequency of sheep kills."(599)

"Territories at HREC were mutually exclusive and were generally avoided by conspecifics. Also, 2 transient coyotes usually were most active during the daytime, when residents were least active, suggesting transients avoided territorial coyotes temporally as well as spatially (Sacks 1996)."(600)

"Territories are not impervious to incursion by external coyotes. Coyotes were observed to scavenge ungulate carcasses in conspecifics’ territories when food was relatively scarce in winter."(600)

"Our results indicated that, in any given year, most coyotes at HREC did not kill sheep. Breeding pairs whose territories overlapped sheep (especially lambs) were the principal predators of sheep."(601)

"Based on the density of coyotes on HREC in 1995, 16% is a conservative (high) estimate of the population segment responsible for greater than two-thirds of sheep kills."(601)

"Contrary to our findings, Windberg et al. (1997) concluded that both resident (breeding, nonbreeding) and transient (nonbreeding) coyotes killed domestic goats because both fed on carcasses. However, because these authors did not track coyotes at kills, transients possibly scavenged goats after they were killed by resident breeding coyotes."(602)

"In most of the United States, lambing coincides with coyote pup rearing. However, at HREC and elsewhere in northern California, lambing occurs during winter months (Scrivner et al. 1985, Conner 1995), out of phase with pup rearing. Despite such timing, lamb availability alone was sufficient to explain the seasonal trend in lamb and sheep depredation at HREC over 13 years, indicating that provisioning pups was not a direct cause of most sheep depredation (Sacks 1996)."(602)

"several direct observations of coyotes killing ungulates suggested coyotes hunt these prey cooperatively"(602)

"However, pairs that killed lambs also killed adult ewes when lambs were not present."(602)

"Alternatively, preference for sheep simply may differ among breeding individuals (Till and Knowlton 1983); if so, this variability argues strongly for selective removal of problem individuals versus broadcast lethal control."(602)

"Furthermore, territoriality effectively precluded sheep depredation by ‘tresspassing’ coyotes."(603)