Spring calving and lambing season is on across Wyoming, and ranchers are on guard against predators snatching up their newborn livestock.
Coyotes are a constant threat, as are wolves in parts of the state. Along with occasional marauding grizzlies, or foxes looking for an easy meal.
But as it turns out, ravens can be a bane to ranchers, as well – attacking calves’ tender parts or pecking out lambs’ eyes.
And because ravens are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Act, ranchers can’t legally shoot them.
“One sheepman I know over by Riverton said one of the most pathetic things you can see is a lamb that’s alive, but has had its eyes pecked out,” Wyoming Farm Bureau spokesman Brett Moline told Cowboy State Daily.
Big Piney area cattle rancher Tim Thompson told Cowboy State Daily that he dreads ravens showing up during calving season – and he and his family do their best to shoo them away.
“Those sons-a-bitches will eat a calf alive,” he said.
Don’t Mistake Ravens For Crows
Ravens’ smaller cousins, crows, can also cause trouble for cattle and sheep ranchers this time of year, Moline said.
Like ravens, they can attack newborn animals, he said.
There is a hunting season for crows in Wyoming, but that ended on Feb. 28. So, crows are also protected during much of the calving and lambing season.
In some cases, USDA Wildlife Services can issue permits to kill crows and ravens – to protect livestock or other human interests.
A few years ago, Riverton was practically overrun with those birds, and USDA allowed for many of them to be killed, Moline said.
Thompson said raven attacks on calves are gruesome.
Ravens will peck through a calf’s rectum area, trying to get to the hapless animal’s internal organs, he said.
Coyotes Everywhere
Wolves can threaten young livestock, particularly in Western Wyoming.
Last month, a wolf that had been transplanted from British Columbia, Canada to Colorado made its way to north-central Wyoming. It was killed by USDA Wildlife Services agents after it killed a rancher’s sheep on private land.
Grizzly bears can take a toll on lambs and calves as well, again mostly in northwestern Wyoming.
In April 2024, wildlife agents killed a young male grizzly that was attacking cattle south of Ten Sleep. It was the first verified report of a grizzly in the Bighorn Mountains.
But coyotes are the number one predator of newborn livestock across the state, Moline said.
Mother cows giving birth and newborn calves are especially vulnerable to coyotes, he said.
Cows like to go off by themselves, on the edge of the herd or into cover, to give birth, he said – and coyotes will take advantage of that.
Predators can cost ranchers their calves either “by killing them directly” or “by a cow panicking at a predator’s presence and stomping her calf,” Moline said.
Unlike crows and ravens, coyotes aren’t protected. They can be shot on sight anywhere in the state.
Thompson said if coyotes keep their distance from his momma cows and their calves, he leaves them alone.
“But if they’re bold enough to come around and try messing with those cows, we shoot them,” he said.
Eagles Swoop In
Golden and bald eagles are also protected species in Wyoming. Golden eagles occasionally attack lambs.
Thompson said that with cattle eagles are “mostly scavengers” that might gobble the carcass of a cow or calf that died for other reasons.
For sheep ranchers, eagles are a bigger concern, Moline said.
Raptors can “swoop in” and try flushing lambs away for their mothers, so they can close in for the kill, he said.
Countermeasures such as putting sheep into lambing sheds to give birth, or putting livestock guardian dogs on duty help mitigate the risks from predators, Moline said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
