Excerpts from the report: Coyotes are a major cause of sheep loss in the western United States. This preliminary report features data on death losses gathered as part of a USDA project funded by Congress to make a comprehensive analysis of the sheep-predator issue, including the economic, environmental, and social impacts of alternative predator control policies. The loss estimates are based upon reports from about 9,000 producers surveyed in January 1975 by the Statistical Reporting Service in cooperation with the Economic Research Service. Each surveyed producer reported his sheep inventory and lamb crop, and estimated his losses of sheep and lambs to various causes such as weather, disease, coyotes, and other predators.