Predator Research Facility studies coyote bonds, wolf deterrence

For people who want to learn about coyotes, wolves, ravens or other predators and how they affect Utah ecology, the Predator Research Facility in Millville is the place to look.  

Across the country, the National Wildlife Research Center focuses on research done in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The Utah center started in 1972, and it specializes in researching predators’ ecology and behavior. 

Dustin Ranglack, the predator research facility field station leader who got his Ph.D. from USU, said the facility got their 165 acres of land leased from USU.  

“We have similar goals: we want to educate the public, educate students, do research, resolve conflicts,” Ranglack said.  

One of the predators the facility focuses on is the coyote. Coyotes are the only predators they always house in their facility, splitting them up between 54 pens of different sizes. 

“Right now it’s breeding season,” Ranglack said. “We have animals that we want to breed, but then we have animals that we don’t want to breed, and we have to separate them during this time.” 

Each coyote has an ID number to identify what year and litter they were born in. This way, the staff can ensure they never put littermates together during breeding season, and they can identify which coyotes do better alone or in pairs. 

In order to avoid any inbreeding, the center brings in wild coyote puppies every five years to add to the genetic pool. 

“We bring in a litter of puppies from the wild where their mother and father have been killed,” Ranglack said. “We basically go in and rescue the puppies, raise them up here and then they become part of our colony.” 

The team works to keep the situation for the coyotes wild. 

“We want them to represent as closely as possible what a wild coyote would behave like when we’re doing our research,” Ranglack said. 

Alexandra Turano, an animal care biologist, recently finished her research on the monogamous relationships of coyotes. 

“We were trying to understand what is the nature of the monogamous pair bond between a male and a female coyote when it’s housed here at this captive facility,” Turano said.  

According to Turano, there were multiple factors when considering how closely bonded a pair of coyotes are. 

First, the coyotes spent a lot more time together during the breeding season. Second, how long the pair had been a couple was influential. Couples who had been paired for one to two years spent more time together than recently paired coyotes or ones that had been in longer relationships.  

Finally, the hormonal status played a part in how much time the coyotes spent together. 

“What was interesting is we saw that in pairs where the female had really high progesterone levels, the pairs spent more time together relative to those that had lower progesterone levels,” Turano said. 

Turano resubmitted her research paper in February, and she estimated it would be published around August. 

“I guess in the simplest way, we were looking to see what factors influenced how much they love each other,” Turano said. “That was kind of our first stab at it.” 

Jeffrey Schultz, wildlife biologist, is testing a coyote repellent device that uses realistic wolf eyes to potentially scare them. 

“I would go at nine o’clock, turn them on to test and then, before it got light again, turn them off,” Schultz said. “I’m in the middle of kind of looking at that data, which doesn’t look like there’s too much of an effect between that behavior.” 

According to Schultz, the facility is always working on multiple predator repellent devices. The research facility doesn’t develop the devices themselves; they test those sent to them from other parts of the country. 

Along with the replicated wolf eyes, they are testing a remote device that use flashing lights to scare predators away. 

Schultz said other teams are working on developing devices that use AI to detect coyotes that the Millville facility will eventually be able to test. 

“I feel like our tech has been motion-activated, or radio at first,” Schultz said. “But this tech is using AI, with the progress and developments.” 

Another predator the facility has done recent research around is wolves, although they aren’t housed on the facility like the coyotes are. 

Ranglack is involved in a project testing hazing devices for wolves to prevent them from killing livestock. They’re testing these drones on wolves in southeast Oregon. 

“In this particular area in 2020, over a three-week period, 11 cows were killed by wolves. So every other night,” Ranglack said. 

The team found that the drone alone made the wolves want to play, but when combined with shouting, the wolves would get scared and leave the livestock alone. 

The animals went from killing cows once every two nights to once every six weeks with the hazing device. 

“It’s really exciting,” Ranglack said. “We’re able to use this to stop wolves from killing livestock before it happens.” 

Sierra Pederson, a USU grad student, is studying raven removal for sage grouse protection. 

“It was just one of the projects that really caught my eye,” Pederson said. “It’s going to be used immediately to help inform better ways for us to project sage grouse and control raven populations.”  

According to Pederson, the facility is very important to the Cache Valley community. 

“There are various agricultural and livestock practices that are taking it out on these species that are just doing what they know to do,” Pederson said. “That’s what I find to be really cool about this research facility — they’re just constantly working to find better ways to manage the species.” 

The facility is open to new volunteers, especially students in wildlife programs. 

“We are often relying on Utah State students to come in and just give us those couple extra bodies that we need to make things happen,” Ranglack said. “We’re always happy to try to give students those experiences as well.”