Response of captive coyotes to renardine coyote repellent

Abstract

Renardine' is a bone tar product available for use as a coyote (his latrans) repellent in Canada. The substance is applied to pasture borders to prevent coyotes from entering and attackiig sheep. Because data regardiig the effectiveness of Renardine are lacking, we designed two experiments. In the first, six pairs of coyotes were first presented with 400 g of ground meat in two pans (200 gtpan) with false screen bottoms. Beneath the screens were absorbent tubes wetted with 10 ml of distilled water. Subsequently, during a treatment period, the absorbent tube was wetted with 10 ml of Renardine. Pans were presented for 60 minutes, and the amount of time to consume the meat was recorded. In the second experiment, six additional pairs of coyotes were fmt presented with 200 g of ground meat inside a barrier created with baling twine and wooden dowels. The area inside the barrier was 1 m2, and the twine was tied onto the dowels 0.25 m above the ground. During the treatment period, the twine and dowels were painted with Renardine. In both experiments, all coyote pairs consumed all of the ground meat shortly after presentation. We conclude that Renardine probably is not an effective coyote repellent. However, because the active ingredient in Renardine is bone tar oil and bone tar oil is deer repellent, we speculate that Renardine may have utility as an herbivore repellent.