Coyotes Kill Up To
95% Of Pronghorns

LAKEVIEW, Ore. —(AP)— Coyotes are killing most of the antelope fawns on the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge, according to a new report.

The report, prepared to help determine if coyotes should be shot from helicopters, found that the predators kill at least 70 percent of the fawns on the south-central Oregon refuge.

Refuge managers had previously theorized that high mortality rates for fawns, roughly 95 percent in 1995, were due to an abundance of coyotes.

The study confirms it, said Mike Nunn, who oversees management at Hart Mountain and the Sheldon Wildlife Refuge just over the border in Nevada.

In fact, Nunn said the study by the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis., strongly suggests that about 85 percent of the fawns whose carcasses were collected for the study died from predation. The rest appeared to have died from starvation or other weakening conditions.

In 1995, only eight of an estimated 1,850 fawns survived on the Hart Mountain refuge. This year, about 158 of an estimated 1,600 fawns survived. That's a marked improvement, but Nunn said survival rates will have to climb farther to stem the herd's decline.

This means the controversial coyote hunting plan might be put back on the table, he said.

"I think most biologists would agree that if we shot coyotes on the fawning grounds, fawn survival would go up," he said.