(bright music) (water flowing) (birds chirping) >>Funding for untamed is made possible by- (water flowing) (birds chirping) (soft music) >>As a lifelong nature lover and wildlife enthusiast, I've always been fascinated by the complex systems that govern the natural world around us.

As all biologists, ecologists or conservationists know, every single living organism has its place in these systems, and each one plays its role to ensure the continued success of the grand natural machine.

To me, one of the most interesting aspects of these natural systems are the various food chains that exist, many of which begin with plants that include the creatures that consume those plants, like insects or herbivorous mammals, and eventually include the large carnivores that feed upon the plant eaters.

In most food chains, their is a carnivore, a predator, at the top of the complex pyramid, the so-called apex predator.

This is an animal that eats others, but is not often eaten itself.

These apex predators take many forms, ranging from the biggest spider in the garden, to the biggest fish in the pond, all the way to eagles and other raptors.

Certainly, the most well known of the apex predators, especially in terrestrial ecosystems, are the large carnivorous mammals.

Here in North America, over the millennia, that's included jaguars and mountain lions in the Southwest United States, grizzly bears in the Rocky Mountains in Northwest, and even polar bears in Alaska.

Here in the Eastern United States, we once had black bears, gray wolves, mountain lions, and many other species that were part of almost every ecosystem.

Predators play a critical role in any ecosystem in which they're found.

Now, obviously, the predators control the population of prey species, but that works both ways.

In a balanced system, there will never be more predators than there are prey available, populations of predator and prey balance out.

The presence of predators also keeps prey species from getting lazy, spending too much time in one area, to the detriment of the habitat, and by removing some individuals from the herd or the local population prey, predators create vacancies for outside members of the prey species to move in, thus preventing in breeding and contributing to genetic diversity, it all balances out.

Unfortunately, humans have seldom had a very positive attitude toward predators of any type.

We have even demonized predators in the stories we tell our children, like the big, bad wolf that terrorizes little red riding hood, or the three little pigs.

Since European colonization of North America, many of our iconic predators have been eliminated entirely from the landscape, and that disrupts the balance of nature and ecosystems across North America.

In recent years, we've come to understand the role of predators more effectively, and we now want to learn more about them.

However, after centuries of persecution, most predator have become quite wary of humans.

This makes studying their habits and their movements very challenging.

Fortunately, modern science and modern technology are helping us learn the predators' secrets.

(gentle music) >>My name is Marcella Kelly, and I am a professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech.

I study, usually, large predators that are very difficult to study, so I tend to use methods like remote cameras or genetic sampling or acoustic detection, things like that, to get information on animals at that, otherwise, are really, really hard to learn things about, like, what is their population size, how many are there, how long do they live?

So, yeah, basically, I'm a predator ecologist.

As part of my class, which is taught here at Mountain Lake Biological Station, we set up remote cameras out in the forest as part of the class, and then the students are running them.

We're basically keeping track of most of the predators, so bobcats, bears, coyotes, foxes.

and it's been interesting, we have been able to document that gray foxes are almost completely absent.

We used to have gray foxes here, they're gone now, and we are getting occasional red foxes.

So we're starting to see changes in the community, and it's really interesting to see that with just remote cameras.

So students learn a lot and we're also learning a lot about the environment.

The game department here is actually really interested in things like are gray fox is declining, are coyotes increasing, what's happening?

So we're starting to use that data and go back to the long term data, and figure out these trends in these predators.

And that's gonna be relevant to management because if gray foxes are declining, what should we do about that?

So that's one of the things that we're examining now, but, originally, it just started off as a fun class project, it's proved to be quite useful for studying these predators.

(bright music) >>The removal of large predators from the landscape and ecosystem almost always disrupts the balance of nature.

It said that nature hates a vacuum, which means that the ecosystem needs to have predators.

If we remove one, it creates an opportunity, a niche, for others to move in.

We certainly have seen that in the Eastern United States.

Of all the predators we have on the landscape today, none has been more controversial than the newcomer, the coyote.

(bright music) (coyote howls) (coyote howls) >>It's complicated, the history of humans relationship with top predators.

So, basically we killed a lot of them, when, as Europeans, were spreading across North America.

They were seen as a big threat, a threat not only to human health and safety but also to prey animals that people were living off of.

So they were wiped out, and from the East Coast in particular, we lost wolves.

We used to have wolves, we used to have mountain lions, and bears were almost completely extripated as well.

What's happened now is interesting, they're starting to make a comeback in certain areas.

And that is partly because attitudes have changed towards predators and some people want them back on the landscape.

Now, not everybody, but some people want them back.

So the East Coast is a really interesting place, especially in the Appalachian mountains to be a predator ecologist because, in the time that I've been here, I've basically seen recovery of black bears.

So bears were almost completely gone, and now they are considered recovered, and due to a lot of the efforts of the game department here in Virginia, they're back.

And so our bobcats, bobcats have also made a substantial, we think, increase and coyotes have established themselves, and coyotes were not here in the East Coast, in European time, so there were wolves, but no coyotes.

So now we've got a different ecosystem than we had before.

So we don't have mountain lions, but we do have coyotes, we don't have wolves, but we have bears, coyotes, bobcats.

That's the kind of changed predator guild, so it's been really interesting to study the new predators that prey animals are gonna have to deal with.

That's really relatively recently established in the numbers that they are.

So we do have a complicated relationship with predators, that is because they eat livestock sometimes, and so that is a problem, they can also eat pets.

So it's one of those complications where that is always to be an issue, and I think we just need to figure out ways to manage that kind of conflict.

And I think it's doable, but we have to think maybe a little bit outside the box.

There's a lot of research out of Utah, actually, where they are using techniques like experimenting with dogs that can protect livestock or different types of deterrence, whether they are sound or site-based, to keep animals out of conflict with in particular livestock.

And then people also with their pets can do simple things, bringing animals in at night, things like that, that can reduce the potential for conflict.

I think there will always probably be a little bit, but we could work better at trying to just educate people and see, how can we do this better?

If we wanna have them on the landscape, we will probably need to reduce that conflict.

(gentle music) >>Yeah, coyotes are not native to the state of Virginia, they arrived and colonized Virginia during the late 1970s in Southwest Virginia.

They came to Virginia actually via two routes.

They had the Northern expansion route, which actually went a around the Great Lakes, and then transcontinental across Canada, and then down through the Northeastern States, and into the mountains of Virginia from the North, while at the same time they had got across the Mississippi River, and they were moving across the South.

And that's where they hit Virginia first, was in the late 1970s in Southwest Virginia, early 1980s, in the mountains around this area here in Augusta County.

And then they kind of met in the middle, filled the entire area West of the Blue Ridge, eventually spilled over the mountains, and now we have coyotes in every county of the state.

Bobcat's on the other hand, they're native to the State of Virginia, and their populations have been expanding as well.

Predators are legally classified in different ways in the state of Virginia.

Bobcats, for example, are legally defined as a fur-bearing animal because it's trapped, but they're also designated as a game animal because they're hunted.

Coyotes, on the other hand, are legally defined as a nuisance species, which means that they have a continuous, open, hunting and trapping season, and relatively few legal restrictions that would affect somebody from trying to trap or kill one.

We generally receive very few wildlife conflict calls for bobcats, they're very secretive and avoid humans.

Coyotes, on the other hand, we do get a significant number of calls about coyotes, there were 568 calls that came in regarding coyotes.

That's not real high compared to the total volume of calls that we receive.

A lot of these calls were not necessarily true conflicts, they may have just been people who are seeing a coyote and were concerned about it.

(coyote howling) A conflict for coyotes, a true conflict, what we would consider one, anyway, would probably be if the coyote, either killed somebody's livestock, or attacked their livestock or attacked a pet, whether it be a cat or a small dog.

If somebody contacts us with a problem related to predators and they're seeking our advice, it depends upon what type of problem they're experiencing, is the type of advice that we give them.

If they're a livestock producer and they're experiencing livestock losses, we would recommend that they contact USDA Wildlife Services, 'cause they're the subject matter experts for livestock deprdation, and they can provide many recommendations for non-lethal methods that may help, and they can also provide direct on-the-ground services for trapping or shooting individual offending animals.

For urban problems, we'd recommend making sure that the animals are not being fed, whether it's intentional or unintentional.

When a coyote or a predator comes close to a home, it's generally because they're seeking some food or there's some type of attractant that's close to the home.

And that can be everything from garbage that they're leaving out, pet food that some of is feeding their animals outside and the pets are not eating at all, so they left some food there available for all types of wildlife, including predators, bird feeders can attract predators.

To better address human-predator conflicts in the future, I think, education will be the key, 'cause prevention and is a lot easier to deal with than having to address a problem after it's already occurred.

(gentle piano music) >>I'm Michelle Lute, I'm the National Carnivore Conservation Manager for Project Coyote.

My expertise is in moving from conflict to coexistence between humans and large carnivores, which is in line with Project Coyote's mission, which is to promote compassionate conservation, and human-wildlife coexistence through science education and advocacy.

So we use the best available science to inform what works on ground.

We use that science, we translate it, and we try and make sure that policy is implemented, that reflects that evidence base and uses the best practices to prevent conflict before it ever happens.

And we really see that science indicates the most effective measures are these preventative measures that are non-lethal and peaceful.

We also use education, so we come in with our Coyote-Friendly Communities program, and we do a lot of public outreach and education through webinars, workshops, signage, brochures, door hangers, we work with animal care and control officers in residential areas to also help people understand humane wildlife deterrence around the home.

We haven't grown up with wolves and coyotes in our backyard necessarily.

Coyotes have expanded and contracted their ranges a number of times, so they're a native carnivore across North America, they're America's song dog, that's why we call them that.

Gray wolves are found in Europe and other places, but coyotes are really, truly American.

But some folks don't realize that because they weren't always in the Midwest or Out East.

So coyotes are new to some places, as our wolves, and as they recover, we've gotta expand and learn new tools to coexist and share space with them.

Issues pop up, particularly when coyotes are intentionally or unintentionally fed, that we see conflict popping up.

So, coyotes see humans as a source of food because folks are not securing garbage or they're compost, and then coyotes get more and more comfortable being closer to human habitation.

And then we see habituate, where they're really used to being in close proximity, that makes people uncomfortable, and that's where we get, either real or perceived conflict.

So, when folks are knowledgeable about how to respond, they will often learn to secure food, talk to their neighbors, make sure that nobody's intentionally feeding coyotes, 'cause that's something else that happens.

When you take those simple measures, like securing food in your backyard, keeping pets supervised, and particularly small companion animals on a leash, and under supervision, we find that those are the positive coexistence behaviors that people can react to and empower coexistence in their own backyard.

But sometimes we see negative reactions.

So some of the negative responses that people engage in are trapping coyotes, which doesn't work because it just creates a space for a new coyote to move in, and it doesn't address the problem.

So all the lethal control options that we see, really are ineffective and may even increase conflict by destabilizing coyote populations and what would be normally stable social structures.

Another negative response that really disrupts the ecosystem and causes problems are wildlife killing contests.

Those are events where people compete for cash or prizes, and these are events that are really targeted at killing a lot of coyotes or other predators that are not regulated.

And what we see is that this focused, lethal control begets chaos across the landscape, destabilizes what should be stable social structures and creates a lot of conflict, and creates a vacuum where, particularly coyotes will respond by compensating for that mortality, by having more pups at younger ages.

And so within eight months we see coyote populations rebound, and they even surpass their previous populations where we've seen unregulated lethal control.

So the conflict that's happening between people and predators, or people, predators and livestock, or domestic animals, is really, really small.

The controversy comes when you talk about human-human conflict over how to manage or conserve wildlife.

And that's the crux of the issue.

And that's where we see controversy coming up because you have these value-based arguments about whether or not to kill a predator.

And so that's a value-base that's an ethical argument, and that's where the disagreement comes.

And if we could start talking about the values, if we could empower people to recognize that values are part of wildlife conservation decision making, then we could start to address what the real controversies are and find some common ground to move forward.

(gentle music) >>While farmers and ranchers still hate losing livestock to predators like coyotes, there's a growing recognition that the most productive and effective way to protect cattle, sheep and other livestock is to deter the predators from preying on domestic animals altogether.

This concept is certainly not new, even in the Bible, we've all heard of the shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night, but it's not as practical today as it once was to have cowboys or human shepherds protecting our herds.

However many people are finding great success with guard animals that spend all of their time with the livestock.

Among the animals used for this deterrence are donkeys and llamas, but the most popular animal century has proven to be our old friend, the dog.

The dogs used to protect livestock from predators are not the same type of dogs like Border collies that are used to herd animals, or manage them.

This type of dog is bred specifically to protect the stock from predators.

(gentle music) >>I'm Leo Tammi, and this is my son, Aaron Tammi, and along with his mom, my wife, Judy, we operate Shamoka Run Farm.

We moved here 40 years ago.

Now about 30 years ago, coyotes came into this country, and we started dealing with them.

One of the first things we did, the leadership of the Virginia Sheep Organization at the time, created legislation that created the Virginia Sheep Industry Board, which is essentially a checkoff program.

We sheep producers tax ourselves, and most of that money goes to controlling predation.

We have a cooperative agreement with the USDA, through the Virginia Department of Agriculture.

They assist farmers in controlling predation.

And one of the major predators we have, of course, is the Eastern coyote.

So we've discovered over time that they can do some serious damage.

We have learned that you can't kill yourself out of the problem.

We do use lethal measures to control coyotes and other predators, but we target that we understand that this Eastern coyote has become intertwined in the fabric of our ecosystem, and we're not gonna eradicate it.

We've got real good fence here on this farm, and at first it looked impenetrable, but when we had the coyote attack, we scrutinized the fence line a little bit more closely than we did before, like we should have, and discovered that there were some gaps that would allow a predator to get in.

So we filled in those gaps, we took some other measures, and most importantly, we brought Waldo here.

Waldo is our guard dog, and he does a terrific job.

We haven't had any predation here since he's been here.

>>We've experimented with different things, guard dogs are where we have found our niche to be.

We had llamas, but since we use herding animals, they don't seem to understand the difference between a herding animal and a coyote.

And it's actually interesting to watch the way that these herding animals work are actually very similar to how coyotes attack.

The parallels between herding dogs and coyotes make it difficult for some measures, such as donkeys and llamas, but our guard dogs seem to tolerate 'em well.

And our guard dogs aren't aggressive.

A good guard dog is not a pet, a good guard dog is something that bonds to the flock, stays with the flock, and feels like it's part of the flock.

And I don't know that a really dumb dog doesn't make a better guard dog because it simply thinks it's a sheep.

They're a dog that has a job and we expect them to do their job.

I guess you could compare it to a service dog, that when someone has a service dog, it's there doing a job and it needs to do that job, and you need to leave it alone.

And that's exactly how these guard dogs operate as well.

That we have a little bit of interaction with them, we need to be able to get ahold of them at times, but these aren't dogs that you walk up to and call their name and they come to you, and they sit, everything else, it can be a struggle just to even get ahold of them.

But that's a good thing because their family is not us, it's the sheep and their presence is the deterrence, they're generally not real aggressive, but they are interpreted as being another predator, and that being that predator's turf.

And so it's just like when the mailman comes to the door or UPS comes to the door with a package, and your dog is barking and raising cane, making sure that everybody knows that it's there, that this is its house, that's exactly what we need out of these guard dogs.

(bright music) >>Predators are incredibly well adapted and beautiful members of our natural community, and while living in close proximity to them can sometimes be challenging, they are a vital part of a healthy ecosystem.

In order to keep them around into the future, it's essential that we change some of our attitudes toward them, and we learn to coexist.

And there are things that you can do right in your own home or in your own community.

First and most basic is take some time to learn about the native predators that are in your area.

Knowledge and understanding are the best ways to dispel fear.

Natural predators seldom present at any risk whatsoever to humans if we take even the most basic precautions.

Second, eliminate potential food sources that might attract predators to your home or to your property.

Things like garbage or pet food, that's left outdoors overnight, even bird feeders, if you discover that predators have found them and are beginning to feed there.

Third, monitor your pets, especially if you live in an area where predators live close to residential communities.

Predators nearby can be a threat, but it's easily deterred.

Never deliberately feed or habituate predators, even if you enjoy seeing them, enjoy them at a respectful distance.

Once predators lose their fear of humans, it never ends well for humans or the predators.

Finally, become an advocate for predators.

Push back against those that want to eliminate these beautiful creatures from the landscape.

Ask your elected officials to ban things like the killing contests, in which predators are indiscriminately slaughtered.

It really does create havoc in the natural world.

Society has come a long way from "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," but we still have a long way to go.

(water sloshing) (birds chirping) >>Funding for uncertain is made possible by- (water sloshing) (birds chirping) (bright music) (gentle music)