For olcowman

[Public Land Prowler]

From east to west..from whitetails,to antelope,and mule deer..

Are the deer on your property becoming elusive and more difficult to hunt? Are deer sightings down? If so, then maybe you are facing an obstacle that if not controlled – will in time frustrate your hunting opportunities …. The American coyote!

You’ve planted food plots, managed the timber, and established proper harvest quotas. The land is ripe for whitetail habitat; and yet deer sightings are minimal. You still find deer sign, but something just isn’t right. There should simply be more deer. You may have even provided native forage in combination with supplemental food sources, and still the whitetails are not being seen, especially females with newborn fawns.

Even though you are still seeing deer sign, you are also finding lots of coyote sign. Perhaps you are hearing the coyotes howl around sunset. You are doing everything to manage the deer herd, but are you managing the coyote population?

For so long it was believed that coyotes had very little impact on white-tailed deer populations. Yet now, biologists in certain areas of the country are seriously reevaluating coyotes and their impact on white-tailed deer. There is controversy amongst biologists as to how much influence coyotes have on fawn mortalities; yet an increase in coyote sightings nationwide is prompting new research on the subject.

Studies have proven that coyotes, when present, are responsible for more fawn mortalities than any other predator. For example, overpopulated coyotes in south Texas have a significant impact on white-tailed deer fawns. Unmanaged coyotes forming high densities can jeopardize fawn recruitment. Combine this loss with drought, hunter harvest, other environmental conditions, and sportsmen can have limited hunting opportunities for a couple of seasons.


Though it is rare for coyotes to kill adult deer, with the exception of a sick or injured animal, these canines are quite effective in locating newborn fawns. For coyotes that have previously preyed upon newborns, they are quick to learn the season and traditional fawn birthing grounds as well.

Hunting by sight, smell, and hearing, the coyote’s carnivorous instincts in time become enhanced – increasing the odds of fawn predation. Fawns born in agricultural fields are highly vulnerable. If fawns are malnourished or the parenting doe stays gone from its side for too long, fawns are more inclined to “bleat”; then the ole coyote through hearing capabilities can quickly pinpoint the fawn.

Coyotes pose a threat for fawn recruitment and to all whitetails in general. The presence of coyotes alone can reduce the overall visibility of whitetail deer, which in turn can affect scouting and hunting opportunities for sportsmen. Some coyotes tend to waste time and energy chasing adult deer – particularly during the nighttime and pre-dawn hours. It is a merry-go-round of chasing. Whitetails are in and out of cultivated fields – utilizing whatever available cover they have such as high grasses and thick underbrush.

Occasionally, more than one coyote runs deer sometimes up to three. All this physical exertion can put stress on the whitetail negatively affecting impregnated does, nursing does, as well as hindering bucks from developing good antler growth. This chaotic activity also disrupts whitetails from feeding uninterrupted and can change where and when whitetails forage.

These occurrences may provide hunters with answers as to why some mornings or evenings they see whitetails feeding in plots and why some days they don't. Coyotes keep the whitetail wary and so both does and bucks are not only evasive because of hunting pressure; the animals are also eluding coyotes and other predators. Also, some geographical locales may be impacted more so by coyotes than others depending on the habitat and how it's managed.

Coyotes are also the most common and the most serious predator of livestock in the western United States. Westwide, they cause a majority of the predation losses of sheep, goats and cattle.

In attacks on adult sheep and goats, coyotes typically bite the throat just behind the jaw and below the ear, although repeated bites made while shifting their hold may obscure the initial tooth punctures. Death commonly results from suffocation and shock; blood loss is usually a secondary cause of death. On small prey such as young lambs and kids, coyotes may kill by biting the head, neck or back, causing massive tissue and bone damage.

Coyotes exceeding uncontrolled numbers need to be managed despite recent environmental claims that the animals are able to self-regulate and control their numbers through natural acts such as starvation, cannibalism, and dominant hierarchy dispersal. This is the theory of natural regulation where man is eliminated from the predator food chain. It is not proven scientifically and is highly controversial. Ultimately, man and the traditions of hunting and trapping need to be incorporated into a management agenda if coyotes are going to be effectively controlled.

Trapping is a very effective and selective control method. A great deal of expertise is required to effectively trap coyotes. Trapping by inexperienced people may serve to educate coyotes, making them very difficult to catch, even by experienced trappers. Trapping for coyotes should take place in the fall and winter.

(Tommy Kirkland, writer for the Ohio Valley Outdoors Magazine, contributed to this article.)

http://webpages.charter.net/trapperman/coyote2.htm

The Eastern Coyote has only in relative recent times expanded its range to the eastern United States. The coyote has been a significant predator in the west and it will likely prove to have the same impacts in the east.

Historically, the coyote was commonly found in the Great Plains of western and mid-western states. During the last 50 years, expansion of the coyote eastward has come from the northwest and southeast. Today, the coyote occupies every state in the continental United States and ranges from Alaska to the Panama Canal. On their path to the east the coyote hybridized with timber wolves in the north and red wolves in the south and possibly wild dogs. Thus, at 20 to 45 pounds, the eastern coyote is bigger than its western cousin. The eastern expansion of the coyote was probably a result of the elimination of its ancient foe the timber wolf and the establishment of the deer herd in the east as a food base. The coyote is an adaptable animal and there may be more coyotes today than there were in colonial times.

It has been said that the coyote’s favorite food is anything they can chew. The coyote is a carnivore that is able to adapt to the available food supply. The coyote is a significant predator of both wildlife species and farmer’s livestock. Primary wildlife species that the coyote prey upon are white-tailed deer and small mammals such as rats and mice. Their diet also consists of rabbits, groundhogs, ruffed grouse, turkeys, chipmunks, squirrels, muskrats, fruits, berries, carrion, and the occasional house cat.

While the coyote is a significant predator on wildlife populations, it should be noted that predation is a natural part of the ecosystem. The addition of the coyote to the ecosystem can change ecological balances of predator and prey species, but it will not eliminate other species from the environment. Predators serve a valuable function to keep prey species in balance with their habitat. Rodents such as rats and mice would be soon out of control without predators.

White-tailed Deer

Predator-prey relationships between the white-tailed deer and the coyote have been extensively studied. The coyote is a significant predator of deer fawns. Studies in Texas have shown that the coyote’s diet consists of 70% fawns during June and July. Sheep predation by coyotes is known to drop drastically when fawns are born around the first of June. The synchronous birth of fawns in June allows the numbers of fawns to overwhelm the predators, and although a large number of fawns are taken during the first month of the fawns’ lives, they become relatively secure after about one month. During winter predation again picks up and deer again become the main diet of coyotes. Although the coyote takes healthy adult deer during the winter, winter killed and wounded deer as well as carcasses and offal from hunting season probably make up the bulk of the winter diet.

In areas, such as West Virginia, where deer populations are abundant, coyote predation may benefit deer health by reducing the deer herd and providing more nutrients for the remaining deer. Coyote predation also has the potential to have significant negative effects on deer herds. In some northern states, deer herd densities are relatively low and their habitat consists of vast wild areas with severe winter weather. In Maine, food habitat studies showed that white-tailed deer made up 50-60% of the coyote’s diet, and this predation had the potential to have significant negative effects on the deer herd. Coyote predation in the high mountain areas of West Virginia with lower deer populations and severe winters is likely to have more effect on the deer herd than in areas with higher deer populations.

In Texas, fawn survival in a coyote proof enclosure was significantly higher than outside the enclosure; however, as deer populations in the enclosure exceeded their carrying capacity fawn survival from 6-12 months was greatest outside the enclosure because the fawns were in better physical condition. This demonstrated that coyote predation in a deer population that exceeded the carrying capacity of the habitat could increase survival of older fawns.

In a fawn survival study in Centre County Pennsylvania during 2000-2001, 218 fawns were radioed and followed with telemetry equipment. Of these fawns, predators killed 22 percent, the leading source of mortality. Of the fawns killed by predators, most were killed by coyotes (49%) and bears (43%). Nearly 50% of all mortality occurred during the month of June, with 18 percent and 16 percent in July and August. It was interesting to note that 84 percent of fawn predation occurred on one of two study areas. This probably illustrates the difference in predation rates due to localized coyote populations.

http://www.wvdnr.gov/Hunting/CoyoteResearch.shtm

“Early fawn survival in eastern and northern Maine is low enough to prevent population recovery, even after moderate winters. Predation, primarily by coyote and bears during the early fawning period seems to be the main cause of low fawn recruitment in eastern and northern Maine.”

Read for a minute what Levigne is saying. First he is saying that the deer population in Northern and Eastern Maine is beyond recovery. That means it can no longer sustain on its own. The numbers are too low. If this is true, how can any responsible fish and game department have allowed this to happen?

Lavigne is also saying that it is the predation of coyote and bears that’s destroying the deer. This statement seems to run contrary to what is being fed the public from MDIFW. There is little talk of predation and all the focus seems to be on the harsh winters.

It is not a popular topic when discussions surround the need to slaughter overgrown populations of coyote or any other predator that’s destroying an ecosystem.

http://maineoutdoorstoday.com/blog/...rsh-winter-to-blame-but-what-about-predation/

Another reason for attempts at extensive control measures has been the coyote's appetite for deer. In one study it was found that coyote predation was responsible for half of the whitetail deer fawn mortality occurring in the first month of the fawn’s life. Despite tremendous efforts to control coyotes, the animal is thriving today well outside its original range.

http://www.pamliconews.org/pamliconews/node/114

That coyotes have spread rapidly across Virginia in the past decade or so doesn't surprise game biologists. It might be a revelation of sorts for people in the state's cities and suburbs, but coyotes are present and multiplying in every county in Virginia.

"When I came here 20 years ago, they were uncommon," said Matt Knox, head deer biologist for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. "The only place where you heard about them was in the western part of the state - Bath, Highlands, maybe Russell County, Tazewell. Now, they're common statewide."

What has shaken up Knox and other deer biologists were recent studies showing coyotes to be a significant source of predation on white-tailed fawns, one big enough to have an impact on local, and possibly regional, herd size. It's something that game departments and hunters who manage their land for deer might not have had to worry about in the past. But that could be changing.

The findings that Knox called "very surprising" were presented in February in Roanoke at the annual meeting of the Southeast Deer Study Group. Two studies, one in South Carolina and one in Georgia, found that coyote predation was a much larger problem than previously imagined.

In a patch of land in western South Carolina, USDA researcher John C. Kilgo monitored fawn predation from 2006 to 2008. His results showed that out of the 60 fawns observed, 44 died within eight weeks. Of those 44, 80 percent were either confirmed killed or likely killed by coyotes.

In Georgia, University of Georgia researchers Brett Howze and Robert Warren chose a 29,000-acre swath with a low fawn-to-doe ratio. They removed coyotes from one large study block and kept another block of similar habitat as a control. Fall camera data showed that fawn-to-doe ratios were more than 10 times larger in the area where coyotes were removed than in the control area.

Said University of Georgia biologist Karl Miller in the June issue of Field & Stream: "Coyote predation is the big issue right now. It's something we must take more seriously in whitetail management going forward."

A native Georgian himself, Knox said the Peach State has had coyotes much longer than has Virginia, and has many more.

"When I came here from Georgia, we had coyotes for decades and there were still plenty of deer. But in Georgia recently, the deer population is down. Some people say it's because of heavy harvest. Some people say it's because of coyotes. The jury is still out.

"Maybe there's a critical mass [that has to be reached], where once they reach a certain level, they do have a big impact on deer."

Considering Virginia probably was the last state on the East Coast and in the South to be populated by coyotes, it's not likely that critical mass has been reached here, suggested DGIF furbearer project leader Mike Fies, but, he said, "It's definitely something to keep an eye on."

He thinks the areas likely to experience problems with coyote predation on deer right now would be in Virginia's mountains, where you have poor deer habitat, relatively low white-tailed populations and high numbers of coyotes.

"The habitat is poorer; there's not good cover for them to drop their fawns; there's not as many other mammalian species for the coyotes to feed on," Fies added. "Those are the places where you'd expect to have problems."

Virginia's coyote population is estimated at 50,000 (a ballpark figure, Fies stresses) and growing, despite almost yearly increases in hunter kill numbers. As Knox said, Georgia didn't think it had a problem until its deer herd began to decrease.

One thing we know for sure is that coyotes aren't going anywhere.

"What we've done is create a predator vacuum," Knox said. "We've got these abundant deer herds and no predators. Nature is going to fill a vacuum. We removed the mountain lions; we removed the wolves. To a large extent, bears have been removed. Nature abhors a vacuum, and what we've got is a predator vacuum."

It still remains to be seen whether coyotes can affect deer herds statewide. But as more and more coyotes spread throughout Virginia looking for a warm meal, they'll increasingly come in contact with our burgeoning white-tailed population. It's a situation that biologists and hunters will have to monitor closely in the years ahead.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/sports/recreation/hunting/article/ANDY21_20090620-202003/275055/

“Research has clearly and repeatedly shown that coyote-caused fawn predation is a significant limiting factor affecting survival and recruitment rates,” said Erin Riddering, a department biologist. “Fawns are most susceptible to predation during the first few weeks of life. Data shows that limited coyote control measures, in concert with the strong winter rains we had in the area, work well in promoting fawn survival.”

http://www.mesillavalleysportsmen.com/2008/04/coyote-removal-to-aid-pronghorns.html

"Since the department has little control over these factors, we are limited to only those management tools available to us. Research has clearly and repeatedly shown that coyote-caused fawn predation can be a significant limiting factor affecting pronghorn fawn survival. Predator control measures, applied at the right time of year and with the right application, can greatly enhance dwindling antelope populations by improving fawn survival."

Cagle acknowledges that not everyone is going to agree with each wildlife management decision made by the department. "However," he says, "most people do agree with our goal to maintain the greatest diversity of wildlife. The department's ultimate goal in this particular management effort is to ensure that both coyote and pronghorn populations remain viable. We don't want just coyotes, nor do we want just antelope. Like most people, we want both, and through aggressive and effective management, we can have both. "

http://www.biggamehunt.net/sections/Arizona/Predator_Management_in_Unit_3A_03310302.html

It goes on and on...