Wildlife & Habitat
Conservation Plans & Programs - Predator Management
Coyotes, mountain lions and ravens are common predators in Nevada. While predators are important to a balanced ecosystem, in some areas of the state, these predators endanger the establishment of new wildlife populations, or contribute to the decline of existing species.
Wildlife damage management can be effective when well-defined predator problems are identified. Often times, when predator problems exist that endanger wildlife populations or threaten declining species, controls can be implemented to manage those problems.
The agency’s predator control contract is handled by Animal and Plant Health and Inspection Services (APHIS), which controls species on a project-by-project basis, as established in an annual work program. That plan is reviewed by the Board of Wildlife Commissioner’s Wildlife Damage Management Committee, and is approved by the full Wildlife Commission.
Six predator projects were approved for implementation for fiscal year 2006. They include: an expanded Lincoln County project designed to protect desert bighorn sheep. Wilson Creek - White Rock Coyote Control project to enhance mule deer fawn production and the Horse and Cattle Camp Loop Project in the Schell Creek Range, also to enhance mule deer fawn production, and two projects for deer protection, one in Washoe County and the other for deer and elk protection in Elko County.
The Wildlife Commission approved the following projects as part of the FY 2006 Predator Management Plan
(project numbers not included are completed or discontinued at this time):
6a. Protection of desert bighorn sheep in the Delamar Range in Lincoln County.
14. Wilson Creek / White Rock - coyote control to enhance mule deer fawn production
15: Horse and Cattle Camp Loop, Schell Creek Range - coyote control to enhance mule deer fawn production
17: Elko County deer and elk project
18: Washoe County deer project
Program History / Funding
As a result of legislation, the Nevada Department of Wildlife is now (2006) in its sixth year of an enhanced Predator Management Program in the Silver State.
The Department and the Board of Wildlife Commissioners initiated a Predator Committee and provided $100,000 in license dollars for predator management in 2000. Then in 2001, Assemblyman Jerry Claborn introduced AB 291, a bill that established the program within the agency, and added a $3 fee to each tag application to fund projects.
This last fiscal year (July 1, 2003-June 30, 2004), income from the previous year’s (FY2003) $3 fee predator fee on tag applications raised $341,841, while donations amounted to $17,131 for a total of $358,972. Of that, $262,581 was budgeted for predator control of coyote, raven, and mountain lion. The funding also supports a new staff biologist, and his program operations. The legislation that established the predator program also stipulates that any funding that remains in one fiscal year is carried forward to the next, ensuring that all funding provided for predator control project stays in the program.
Currently, in fiscal year 2004 (July1, 2004 - June 30, 2005) the $3 fee predator fee on tag applications raised $345,771, while donations amounted to $20,212 for a total of $365,983.
Predator Management & Mule Deer Populations
 More information is needed to identify how and when predator control is most effective in supporting mule deer populations. Limited studies on mule deer predation have shown a diversity of results, but some key conclusions have been reached.
In order for predator control to be effective, the following conditions should exist:
- Deer populations are below carrying capacity (the number of deer that the habitat can support).
- Predation is identified as a limiting factor.
- Control efforts must reduce predator populations enough to yield results, and
- Control efforts must be timed to be most effective.
Predator management is only one aspect of mule deer management, with a multitude of other factors in the mix. Wildlife biologists have a job laid out before them as they investigate one of the most complex wildlife management challenges of our time: Why are Mule Deer Populations Diminishing in the West?
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