Hi Sandy,
You can usually tell what's eating your sheep if
you look for several things. If your pastures are fenced
look for an entry point and see if there is any hair caught
on the fence. If the ground is not too dry you should be
able to find some sort of track. Look around the carcass.
If the carcass is totally consumed it could be a cat or bear.
A pair of coyotes with some youngsters could clean up a
whole sheep too. Cougars like to kick sticks and grass up
over a carcass if there is enough left to come back for another
feed. The ASI sheep manual has some pictures of various
kills and most predators have a certain pattern. What parts
they eat first, what parts they leave....they kill in different manners
too. Sometimes you can find claw marks on the carcass,
if you have the head and neck left skin it out and look for the
bite marks. Distance between the fangs can tell you if it was
a big cat like a cougar or a coyote or even domestic dogs out
for a day of fun. We've had coyotes come out in broad daylight
after an easy meal. My husband did predator control for ranchers
that were friends in the Santa Rita mountains when we were
in Az. If you can find someone who does this they can solve
the problem quickly. Just make sure you are not shooting or
trapping a protected animal to stay inside the law. Otherwise
the thing to do is shoot, shovel and shut up..... Mona
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