North America
According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, 224,200 sheep were killed in the U.S. by predators in 2004, comprising approximately 37% of all ovine deaths for that year. The sheep lost in that year represented a sum total of 18.3 million dollars for sheep producers. Coyotes were responsible for 60.5% of all deaths, with the next largest being domestic dogs at 13.3%. Other North American predators of sheep included cougars (5.7%), bobcats (4.9%), eagles (2.8%), bears (3.8%), and foxes (1.9%). Wolves, ravens, vultures, and other animals together made up the remaining 7.1% of deaths. As all NASS statistics on sheep only take into account sheep after docking, the American Sheep Industry Association estimates that an additional 50-60,000 lambs were killed (before docking) that were not a part of the count. The number of sheep lost to predators may also be higher when considering that reports are generally only made when there is a reasonable expectation that a producer will be financially reimbursed for the loss.
Read more about this topic: Domestic Sheep Predation
Famous quotes related to north america:
“We might hypothetically possess ourselves of every technological resource on the North American continent, but as long as our language is inadequate, our vision remains formless, our thinking and feeling are still running in the old cycles, our process may be ‘revolutionary’ but not transformative.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)