Posted: Wednesday, August 6, 2008 12:00 am
Clarification
A story in Friday's Star-Tribune included statistics on annual sheep losses to coyotes kept by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. The numbers cited in the story and in the accompanying graph referred to adult sheep killed by coyotes. The USDA keeps separate statistics for lamb losses, which are not included in its "sheep losses" tables, and which were not included in the story or in the graph.
Since 2001, coyotes have killed about 10 times as many lambs as adult sheep, annually, according to Rod Krischke, state director for Wyoming's USDA Wildlife Services. In order to have a complete picture of the total number of sheep losses to coyotes, one must multiply the sheep loss numbers cited in the graph and in the story by 10, Krischke said.