<ericshackleATbigpond.com>
More and
more farmers in Australia and North America are using donkeys to protect their
livestock against predators. In Australia, the villains are dingoes, wild dogs
and foxes, which attack sheep, calves and poultry. In America, coyotes, aka the
American jackal, brush wolf, or prairie wolf, are the farmers’ enemy.
Ironically,
coyotes are protected in 12 US states, and hunting is regulated in most of
North America.
“Darling
Downs grazier Bruce McLeish and his wife Angela turned to ‘guard donkeys’ after
losing 300 sheep worth $110,000, to wild dogs in 2007” says a story on an ABC
website.
“As well as
shooting, trapping and baiting the dogs, the McLeishes – who run 4500 sheep on
Warahgai, near Karara, in the traprock country west of Warwick – got the donkey
idea after hearing about a Toowoomba woman who ran free-range poultry with a
donkey and found a fox which had been kicked to death.”
“The latest
weapon in the war against wild dogs is not bullets or bait, but floppy ears and
a deafening call,” Karen Hunt wrote in an ABC website four years ago.
“Guard
donkeys are being used successfully in southern Queensland to guard sheep
against attack from rapidly increasing numbers of wild dogs. In some cases
losses from dog attacks have been so severe station owners have been forced to
sell all their remaining sheep and switch to cattle.
“Warwick
station owner Bruce McLeish says he discovered guard donkeys were commonly used
in the US for protecting livestock, but it was the hardiness of the animals
which finally persuaded him to try them out. ‘The donkeys eat the same as sheep,
are easy on fences, and if you’re in harder country like we are, you don’t have
to do anything with their hooves, and they naturally live in the desert.
‘’’The
donkey is a very inquisitive animal; and they naturally live in the desert so
they are very hardy, even in our droughts.’
“Although
donkeys were initially hard to source, once released with the sheep, Mr McLeish
says their natural instincts took over.
“’The
couple we’ve got are bonded with sheep. If anything goes into the paddock, they
go out to the edge of the mob. If it’s something like a dog they will actually
chase after them, trying to bite and kick them.’”
Graziers in
Australia, the US, and western Canada have successfully used donkeys as guard
animals. The Ontario Predator Study reported that about 70% of the donkeys used
were either excellent or good at protecting sheep from wolves, coyotes and
dogs.
video: http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/07/09/2949845.htm?site=eyre
