Interesting article about coyote study in southern USA

[Moose]

How Much Venison Are Coyotes Eating? - NDA

The Tri-State Coyote Project shined new light on coyote travels, survival, diet, and what hunters can do to reduce their predatory impact on deer.

www.qdma.com

Not sure if someone else has posted this but I just came across it today. The impact of yotes on the landscape seems to be getting worse. I had never heard of the two kinds being residential and transient makes sense when you think about how killing one doesn't seem to have much impact.

 

[oldest school]

That is an interesting article. Thanks for posting.
With the popularity of trapping, killing them on sight and dedicated coyote hunting effort i dont see how any more of them can be eliminated without a disease impacting them.
Unless of course the deer disappear.

 

[30/06]

They are getting much worse. 15 years ago we started seeing them. Now we see em or hear em about every night in Caswell and they’re even thick around my house in Raleigh. They were right under my bathroom window a few weeks ago.

what concerns me is I used to get one on trail cam occasionally. Now every camera, every time has yotes and now I’m getting 2-4 at a time. I doubt one working solo catches many deer but a larger group certainly can.

 

[Buxndiverdux]

The biggest difference I've noticed is the increase in coyote trail cam pictures and the considerable decrease of spotted fawns in summertime trail cam pictures. 10-15 years ago, every Doe had twins. Now it is fairly common to get pictures of 4-5 mature Does feeding with one spotted fawn. Coyotes are a real problem.

 

[georgeeebuck]

The biggest difference I've noticed is the increase in coyote trail cam pictures and the considerable decrease of spotted fawns in summertime trail cam pictures. 10-15 years ago, every Doe had twins. Now it is fairly common to get pictures of 4-5 mature Does feeding with one spotted fawn. Coyotes are a real problem.

This is the reason I have not killed a doe in the last 5 years.Who knows the one I let walk may be the one to raise a fawn or two.

 

[billyf]

I just looked thru the Carolina sportsman magazine and it is filled with many 150"+ deer. Is our deer herd getting healthier? Is it possible the coyotes are removing the surplus and helping to leave a healthier herd?

 

[woodmoose]

I dont see nor hear as many around here

they are here, but we've put a hurting on them

 

[Rubline]

I just looked thru the Carolina sportsman magazine and it is filled with many 150"+ deer. Is our deer herd getting healthier? Is it possible the coyotes are removing the surplus and helping to leave a healthier herd?

I'm thinking that dropping the buck limit from 4 to 2 per season is one of the reasons you're seeing bigger bucks, also more people are practicing herd management by planting food plots, feeding high protein feed and putting out mineral.
I think there is a surplus of yotes that are killing too many fawns and hurting the herd long term.

 

[bigten]

I just looked thru the Carolina sportsman magazine and it is filled with many 150"+ deer. Is our deer herd getting healthier? Is it possible the coyotes are removing the surplus and helping to leave a healthier herd?

I wouldn't give those vermin credit for helping anything. Seriously doubt they play much, if any, part whatsoever in the recent quality of deer. Other factors have produced those results.

 

[oldest school]

I just looked thru the Carolina sportsman magazine and it is filled with many 150"+ deer. Is our deer herd getting healthier? Is it possible the coyotes are removing the surplus and helping to leave a healthier herd?

Real good question billyf.
Would love to hear some bios comment on that. We have several that post here.

 

[Eric Revo]

The packs are getting larger and larger where I am, they are getting bolder and bolder as well. They have no problem coming into our yard and our closest neighbor's yard where we both have large dogs. Once our Great Pyrenees get a bit older they should be able to keep them out of our yard but now, as puppies for the next year or so, I have to keep them kenneled because of the coyotes.
Since we have kinda, sorta neighbors that coon and rabbit hunt I really can't do a lot for the coyote population like we handled them on our lease.

 

[Clark]

I'm seeing coyotes on the camera more, mostly late at night. There may be deer feeding, and then the yote is often hovering in the fringes in the backgound. Waiting on a pelt to come back!

 

[Billy]

I'm thinking that dropping the buck limit from 4 to 2 per season is one of the reasons you're seeing bigger bucks, also more people are practicing herd management by planting food plots, feeding high protein feed and putting out mineral.
I think there is a surplus of yotes that are killing too many fawns and hurting the herd long term.

I agree that dropping the buck limit to 2 per season has helped. I also believe that the use of trail cameras has shown us all that there are some nice shooter bucks around that we didn't used to know about. It's a lot easier to pass on an 8 pointer now than it was when we wondered if it was the best buck on the property.

 

[billyf]

I caught 2 coyotes this week on my hunting land. This was one of them.
I trap some of the predators off my hunting land every year to keep things in balance . Its also enjoyable activity for Jan/Feb. Trapping is the best way to control coyotes.

 

[bertienchunter]

The crowd around home has been catching them with the hounds hard since deer season went out. Trappers been giving em hell too. Most kills I can remember.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[lasttombstone]

Thankfully the activity around here seems to have gone down. I only get an occasional picture, maybe a couple a month. My neighbor keeps telling me he hears the all the time but I haven't heard much in over a year. Wonder what he is hearing?

 

[Moose]

My neighbor keeps telling me he hears the all the time but I haven't heard much in over a year. Wonder what he is hearing?

Might be time to put a new set of batteries in the hearing aides

 

[lasttombstone]

LOL........ probably would help if I bought a set but I'd probably go with a Walker's Game Ear. Them other things are pricey.

 

[DFisher]

Saw a black one in my yard 2 weeks back, another one sunday on the way to church. King, NC

 

[Castle Oak 2]

The researchers in this study made some dangerous assumptions concerning predation vs. scavenging. First, as the graphs indicate, deer hair amounts were more prominent during the hunting season. They ignored the fact that their study areas are heavily hunted and that within a resident pack's home range there are numerous paved roads. Thus, carcass scavenging be they roadkill, wounding loss or discarded carcasses would be a major food source during that period. There own data bears this out but they chose to ignore it. I'm not saying that coyotes don't predate deer, but I think it's not an additive mortality factor in deer herds where sufficient cover is present during fawning season.

 

[Aaron H]

The researchers in this study made some dangerous assumptions concerning predation vs. scavenging. First, as the graphs indicate, deer hair amounts were more prominent during the hunting season. They ignored the fact that their study areas are heavily hunted and that within a resident pack's home range there are numerous paved roads. Thus, carcass scavenging be they roadkill, wounding loss or discarded carcasses would be a major food source during that period. There own data bears this out but they chose to ignore it. I'm not saying that coyotes don't predate deer, but I think it's not an additive mortality factor in deer herds where sufficient cover is present during fawning season.

A good point. Nov, Dec, and Jan on the graph show peak deer consumption which would indicate access to lost or wounded deer it would seem. I do taxidermy and have looked into the stomachs of coyotes during deer season. I've found a couple of times that they were full of deer skin- where they found a hide some hunter had thrown out. Almost no meat- just small bits of skin and hair they cut up with their teeth. Still, a good article.

 

[Aaron H]

Thanks for posting the article- I had not considered the differences much between resident and transient coyotes and the range size is impressive. I don't like the coyotes and hate how our deer population has been impacted but I have to admire the survival skills they have. Every time I hunt I hope to see a coyote and I'll shoot one when I can. Our fawns here are almost all coyote food these days it seems. I miss doe hunting but can't justify killing one now.

 

[turkeyfoot]

So now they need to do study see if yotes are dying of lead poisoning from eating deer

 

[mdunker]

My feist was attacked a few weeks ago by a pack of coyote pups when I let him and our larger lab mix out one night. I have no idea how he got away from them. There were 3-4 in the yard. They scattered before I could get the gun. His back legs and hind quarters were bloody from the bite marks. He will not go outside at night now unless I go with him. I shot and missed one two nights ago. I hope to spend a few nights the next few weeks with the thermal.

I have shot four in the last two years but they keep being replaced just like the article says.