Lions and Tigers and Bears. Oh, my!
Okay, maybe not so many tigers.
On the farm we have had sighting of mountain lions, black bears, wolves, coyotes, fox, badger, bald and golden eagles. As well as elk, moose, white-tail and mule deer, pronghorn antelope, sand hill cranes, great blue herons, northern harriers, rough legged hawks, great horned owls, red tailed hawks, and kestrels. Not to mention porcupine, rabbits (both cottontail and jack types), moles, voles, and mice. Our white-tailed prairie dog population is not doing so great right now. The badger moved in and that hit them pretty hard. Oh and lets not forget the raccoons and skunks, both striped and western spotted. Then there's the rattle snakes, bull snakes, and garter snakes. We are happy to report that the spotted leopard frogs are back in good numbers again. We also have our share of ravens, magpies, blue birds, goldfinch, oriole, and other bird species to numerous to mention.
We love our wildlife - All of it!
With that said, it doesn't mean we don't ever have issues and confrontations. While our livestock guarding dogs do a very good job of keeping everyone on the farm safe we have had times when measures had to be taken to ensure livestock safety. Like the time the Game and Fish had to come tranquilize and relocate the young black bear the dogs put up in the tree 30 feet from the house, or the raccoons which have been trapped and relocated or the skunks which due to uh, their aroma shall we say, which had to be euthanized rather than relocated when they were eating the chickens (even the dogs don't like to help to much with them). I've have had calls from the county trapper asking if they could come over our place and shoot the coyotes, but when I asked if they were harassing or killing livestock in the area he told me no. So I told him the same. He insisted that I would start loosing lambs when they were born but I never have. If a predator has an established territory and is eating it's natural prey, removing it from that ecosystem allows a different predator to come in to replace it that may eat livestock. So we like to keep the ones that don't.