Most people can go an entire lifetime without understanding the damage that predators can do to defenceless livestock, which is why three Karoo sheep farmers are travelling to agricultural shows all over the Western Cape to show the unvarnished reality of what happens when predators strike a flock of sheep.
Predation Management Western Cape has a stall at Nampo Cape in Bredasdorp this year, and the collection of skulls they brought along is not just for show.
Explaining the origins of the various grisly injuries on sheep and lambs depicted on the wall of their stall (a lamb with an entire ribcage exposed, a ewe with a crushed skull), Laingsburg sheep farmer Ferdi Botes talks about the anatomy of the most notorious predators in the province, namely the jackal and caracal.
“The jackal has a longer jaw, so it gets in deeper. It’ll go for the sheep’s stomach, for example. However, the caracal will only go for the soft flesh,” he says. “The caracal has a short mouth and tends to suffocate its prey, while the jackal will attack the nervous system, snapping the sheep’s spine.”
While this may not be what anybody wants to see, says Botes, it is a reality for many sheep farmers and needs to be addressed. He adds that after 27 years of farming, he has lost many sheep to predators, often having to humanely euthanise them after an attack.
In an effort to understand predator behaviour better, Botes has studied predation trends on his own land and the lands around him.
“We want to be livestock farmers, and we love our animals,” he says. “Once a predator has bitten an animal, the wounds form abscesses, which only heal with great difficulty, if at all. Sometimes, your livestock gets attacked by young, inexperienced predators that maim your livestock without killing them. About six months ago in the Montagu-Touws River area, we came across 25 such maimed sheep with their bones and ribs sticking out. Those animals were attacked by dogs that had not been fed by their owners.
“When something like that happens, you have to decide for yourself whether that animal is going to survive, and you have to kill those animals that won’t survive, because keeping them alive means you are letting them suffer more,” he says.
His aim is not to change the minds of conservationists, but merely to show the reality of what happens if predator numbers are not controlled.
Regional response
Botes says that predator management has evolved over the years, and works best if predators are hunted over a wider region rather than a small area. Night hunting with infrared scopes by professional hunters yields good results, he adds.
“If you only shoot predators on one farm, you create a vacuum there, and the predators return. The moment they are hunted over a larger area, farmers notice an increase in their lambing percentages. In areas where this approach has been followed for a number of years (Fraserburg and Rietbron, for example), livestock losses have reduced considerably.”
The organisation also makes a point of engaging with conservation authorities.
“We have to state our problem to them; they understand our position and we understand theirs,” says Botes.
According to the Predation Management Forum’s website, predator losses amount to more than R3 billion annually. The organisation provides training on best practices in predation management and also outlines control methods, lists accredited professional hunters and provides contact details of experts who can assist farmers with problem animals.
