A4
OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
Inventive tools for
keeping wolves
away from livestock
J
ust about the last thing
a visitor to Ted Birds-
eye’s ranch would ex-
pect to see is “Tube Man.”
You know, one of those
infl atable air dancers that
fl op back and forth and are
featured at used car lots
across the country.
Birdseye, whose Mill-
Mar Ranch is in Southern
Oregon, has not one but two
of the crazy-looking con-
traptions. The idea is not
to sell 1985 Buicks but to
keep wolves away from his
livestock.
Wolves in the past year
have taken a heavy toll on
Birdseye’s herd, killing
or injuring at least seven
calves and one guard dog.
Such attacks would drive
a rancher to try just about
anything to keep wolves
away from livestock.
The idea for the “Tube
Man” came from the envi-
ronmental group Defenders
of Wildlife as a non-lethal
means of keeping wolves
away from the herd.
Birdseye has tried other
means of keeping wolves
away: fl ashing lights and
hanging fl adry — tiny fl ags
— on fences. He has even
had U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service wolf coordinator
John Stephenson camp on
his ranch.
The “Tube Man” had
been used with success on
a ranch near La Grande
after wolves killed several
llamas.
“It’s always struck me as
something wolves would
be particularly skittish
of,” Suzanne Stone, senior
Northwest representative of
Defenders of Wildlife, said.
When it comes to keep-
ing wolves away from live-
stock, any and all means
should be tried. Air can-
nons, special lights called
Fox Lights, noisemakers —
even drones equipped with
lights, pepper spray and
noisemakers — can be part
of the toolbox for ranchers
and others who are pestered
by predators. Some ranch-
ers have success training
their cattle to stay in herds
instead of running.
In Botswana, Africa,
researchers have even
painted eyes on the rumps
of cattle to keep lions away.
Called the iCow, it causes
the predators to give up
their hunt, according to the
Australian Geographic mag-
Contributed photo
A knife, a fi re starter and a light source are essentials for a survival kit.
Shooting the Breeze: Survive it
EO Media Group/George Plaven
Southern Oregon rancher Ted
Birdseye fi res up an infl atable
dancing tube man, loaned by the
environmental group Defenders
of Wildlife, to scare wolves away
from the pasture where he grazes
cattle.
azine. It does it by tapping
into the fact that lions quit
hunting if the prey looks at
them.
In the experiment, the
researcher found that none
of the 23 cows with eyes
painted on their rears were
killed, while 39 others with-
out the eyes were killed.
In another experiment,
the magazine reported the
Australian researcher is test-
ing whether use of dingo
territorial scents might keep
predators away from cattle.
Other, less scientifi c
research has involved hook-
ing up a motion sensor to a
sprinkler to keep mountain
lions away from livestock.
According to mountainlion.
org, when a predator shows
up, it gets a good dousing to
let it know it’s not welcome.
Another idea the website
reported on involved using
Christmas lights to create
“evil” eyes that scare preda-
tors away.
One wonders whether
other low- and high-tech
tools might work. Motion
sensors are readily available
at hardware stores. In fact,
they allow trail cameras to
photograph wolfpacks in the
wild. Combined with “Tube
Man” and other devices,
they might just be enough
to scare off wolves intent on
attacking livestock.
The idea is to keep try-
ing. Wolves are smart, and
they are vicious, but there
has got to be a way to keep
them away from livestock.
And if all else fails,
there’s always a rifl e —
when and where it’s legal.
O
nce upon a time, I was
walking back to the
truck after a hunt. Sud-
denly I noticed a buck facing
me at 50 yards. I snapped off a
shot, and he was gone. Almost
as quickly, so was the light. I
stumbled around in the dark for
a while but, in the end, had to
come back the next day to fi nd
him dead 20 yards from where I
stopped looking.
On another hunt, we didn’t
have enough horses so a friend
and I walked up the trail while
the others fi nished packing the
horses and caught up to us. First
the snow really started coming
down, and then it got dark. We
were getting worried because the
pack train should have caught
up long ago. We stopped under
a tree to wait, and I was able
to surprise my friend by build-
ing a fi re in the blizzard like
conditions.
Years ago I took the time to
develop a survival pack so that
when adventures like these hap-
pen I would be prepared. I’m
not going to bore you with a list
of everything I carry. You can
fi nd lists in every
outdoor publica-
tion and media site
you visit. I recom-
mend you look over
several and then
develop a kit that
Rod
is personalized to
Carpenter you.
For example,
most suggest carrying some kind
of fi shing gear. I usually hunt high
with limited fi shing opportuni-
ties so I don’t. Keep in mind that,
whatever kit you come up with, it
isn’t going to do you any good if
you don’t carry it with you.
I had my pack when the fi rst
story happened but left it in
the truck because I reasoned I
was only going on a short hunt.
Because I didn’t have the fl ash-
light from my pack, I lost half of
the meat on that deer where the
blood pooled.
There are three things that I
believe you should always carry
when you head outdoors. The
fi rst and most important is a
knife. In fact, you should con-
sider your knife as an article of
clothing as important as your
pants. You shouldn’t even leave
your bedroom without it.
The second is a source of fi re,
matches or lighter. I prefer a
lighter and always drop it in my
pants pocket so, if I get separated
from or have a stupid moment
and leave my pack, I still have
it. Those windproof/waterproof
matches are pretty cool too. They
are like mini sparklers, but don’t
carry as well in a pocket.
And fi nally a light source.
Cellphone lights work great but
don’t have the battery life of
fl ashlights. They make small
fl ashlights that fi t well in a pants
pocket if you don’t want to carry
a pack, but a headlamp is the
way to go if you have the room.
Hands free is really handy (Ha!)
when you are working in the
dark.
There are lots of other things
you could add to your kit to make
bad situations better, but a knife,
fi re and light will make bad situa-
tions survivable.
Drop us a line at shootingthe-
breezebme@gmail.com.
Rod Carpenter is a husband,
father and hunting fool.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Loan not in spirit
of measure 5 and 50
To the Editor:
Today I would like to expound
upon the current property tax sys-
tem. In the 1990s, we the people
voted in property tax limitations.
This was accomplished by pass-
ing measures 5 and 50. Measure
50 was passed in 1997 to further
restrict taxing districts and close
some of the loopholes that these
districts were skirting in Mea-
sure 5. If these measures were not
passed, property taxes per capita
in Oregon would be well over 10
percent. At the most recent rural
fi re district board meeting, I was
criticized for my letter to the edi-
tor in the Jan. 16 edition of this
newspaper.
For the record, I have had way
more positive feedback than crit-
ics. Note also the past fi re chief’s
letter in a later edition of the
Eagle. While I try not to make
my views personal, I also cannot
help but allude to one person or
another, and I will not apologize
for it. My point being, the loan the
RFD inherited was not necessary.
This loan was created by bad deci-
sions involving all parties. People
make these decisions and must be
held accountable. It appeared to
me that at this meeting they were
insinuating that, if not for mea-
sures 5 and 50, they could bal-
ance their budget easier. While on
the surface this is true, our citi-
zens today would be paying more
property taxes than state and fed-
eral income taxes combined (after
deductions). This $168,000 loan,
brought on by the cost overruns
with the city of John Day totally
complicit, was not done in the
spirit of measures 5 and 50. To put
it into context, I will use a quote
I used in another article: These
“intergovernmental exchanges of
funds ... would put a drug cartel to
shame.”
Bob Pereira
John Day
L
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