I will mention, just in passing, that my career was in “sheep vegetation management” on tree plantations. (Sheep will discriminate between crop-tree conifer seedlings and herbaceous weeds, and preferentially eat the weeds. Handled properly, sheep can therefore be wide-scale weeding alternative in areas where broadcast herbicide treatments are unavailable or undesirable.) Anyway, this meant we worked within the highly-regulated Canadian timber industry, so we were contractually bound to very specific rules for dealing with streams, predators, wild ungulates, disease, and all other aspects of our operation.

I actually do have an anecdote that bears on your question, mystery_man, about farmers and their habit of eradicating wild predators. (Short version: my dogs and I were featured in a documentary cosponsored by a French insurance provider and a wildlife conservation organization. The film was meant to persuade French farmers to employ Great Pyrenees guardian dogs to deter predators rather than killing newly reintroduced wolves and bears. The punchline is that these highly effective French dogs are no longer a working breed in France, because the large predators are all gone.)

And perhaps that’s enough of my personal anecdotes for one thread…

Nevertheless, I will remain skeptical of “what” animal(s) might be killing these Maine sheep until I see more evidence (eyewitness accounts, footprint casts, DNA analysis, a body of the varmint) to convince me, one way or the other.

Very proper.

I will remind you of your above statement the next time I hear of a report of animal collectors and ranchers, who know their animals, and say they have had an encounter with a creature they cannot explain in terms of the animals they know.

I thought it was likely that someone would make this argument. In my view, it’s probably best not to turn it around in this way.

What I’m recommending is that we give more weight to the considered opinion of field experts, within their field of expertise (and regarding a typical event!), than we give to any other more speculative interpretation. But a rancher who is unable to describe something in terms of what they know is by definition working beyond their expertise.

A shepherd is a kind of field biologist of sheep and their known predators. To date, there are no biologists of bigfoot, alien big cats, chupacabras, or any cryptid.

Here in South-east Minnesota, a wolverine was video taped by security cameras checking out the new cars at a dealership in Zumbrota, about 25 miles north of here, a couple of years ago. A couple hours west of here, near Mankato, a female cougar has been known to have lived and had litters for several years now. The coyotes are back, and can be heard singing at night, east of town. An hour and a half south of Mankato, my Dad saw “a coyote the size of a Scots collie” at the end of the hayfield, and spare male yearling wolves have been known to travel down from the packs in the BWCA. Meanwhile a black bear and cub are known to be living in the southern part of town in the woods along the streams in that area, and further south another black bear is known to be hanging around.

But when there are deer kills, the local county conservation officer blames dogs, and angrily insists that farmers should never have more than one dog – even though dogs are not house pets, need a lot of room to run, and need company – our collies would hang out with the horses and cats, as we only had one at a time.

Now, couldn’t a wolverine, or a cougar, or even a bear, be responsible for these kills?
We are talking about one or two, not and again, not like a dog’s running wild around sheep. I’m suspecting a wolverine, simply due to Jack London tales, but that isn’t the same as having an expert’s opinion.

Nevertheless, I will remain skeptical of “what” animal(s) might be killing these Maine sheep until I see more evidence (eyewitness accounts, footprint casts, DNA analysis, a body of the varmint) to convince me, one way or the other. (Sound familiar?)

I will remind you of your above statement the next time I hear of a report of animal collectors and ranchers, who know their animals, and say they have had an encounter with a creature they cannot explain in terms of the animals they know.