Low Deer Population? Read this article

[Jeff Phillips]

The studies also show that control needs to take place in the spring. Yotes are having pups and fawns are about to drop. Fawns are an easy food source for a hungry litter of yotes.

I like the idea of a bounty. We could make it a stand alone fund, administered by WRD. Use the funds to pay for 2 or 3 statewide rangers to run the program and teach groups about the need and means for predator control.

Make the fee $10 to $20 for residents and non-residents.

 

[BowanaLee]

I don't doubt that coyotes are part of the problem but I see 20 dogs for every yote in Dekalb. I get em on my trail cams hunting in packs in the middle of the night. Their not near houses, their in the river bottom privet hedge thickets. I didn't just fall off a turnip truck, them rascals are hunting deer. I cant use leg hold traps because of the dogs. Where I'm at, I think their a bigger problem and dang sure a more sensitive issue to deal with. Most non hunting dog owners have no idea what their doing when their running around.
I'm going to call animal control tomorrow and let y'all know what happens. I'll show em the pictures too. Dog fighters have been dumping their dead dogs there for years. They'll be informed about that too. Maybe I'll get em to set traps. Regardless, I'll be on record as going the legal way. That'll dictate my next option.

 

[Milkman]

Folks we don't need to let this issue go unattended. This coyote problem is serious.

Go back and read the original post and think what those facts are going to be like in a few years when there are more coyotes and even less deer !!

We need to do something or deer hunting may become like buffalo hunting.

 

[saltysenior]

the bottom line is........what do wild dogs and coyotes eat...sit in the woods and fields all day and nites for 4 days and see what food source is available...you will come up with a answer with out even a college education or a gov. job

 

[BeenHuntn]

I have seen more dead totes on the side of the road this year them ever before including on the metro Atlanta area. Had never seen one in the deer stand (16 years) until this year but had three run by me in December at 100 mph. They were as big as german shepards.

i've been huntn 8 years in Ga and never seen a yote live although i cant take a step in the woods without steppin on a yote track... anyway, i saw a yote this week standing in the bank parking lot on powers ferry rd in marietta, 1 block north of I285... walking around looking for something to eat... or maybe he was trying to get his money out of the bank before they steal it from him... lol.

i had posted in a different thread a few months back that i had been huntn several wma's in north ga and have yet to see a fawn... i can go a whole season and see only 10-12 deer... hunted mcgraw ford now for 6 years... not a single fawn spotted... thats a yote problem... if the dnr keeps letting everyone blast all they can... and let the yotes go nuts... there wont be many deer left in GA before long...

 

[Milkman]

We need to keep this thread active......... who has more input or ideas ?

 

[Scoutman]

Been doing research on this exact thing online for work. Several universities and organizations have done studies.The savannah river plant did a study and found that they lost 70% of fawn recruitment to coyotes, bobcats,etc. I researched online where this is not a case specific problem. The researchers I read about said that providing better fawning areas and not shooting all the does will work better than predator control.The more spread out the fawn drop is, the less coyotes can zero in on it. Liberal harvest of antlerless deer as most states are allowing is contradictory to these prescribed methods of treatment. I know a government trapper in Co, he said they trapped coyotes,shot them out of helicopters, but they found that only poisoning them really controlled them.That needless to say is not a popular method as it is indesriminate of what it kills, if something eats it, it dies period! I know a trapper in Forsyth county that has caught 15 plus coyotes in the last few weeks on 3 properties! Thats just a miniscule part of the county! It is their breeding season now so it helps more to catch pregnant females. It is a problem and the wildlife community knows it, just costly to address it. A bounty might help but just going predator hunting is not the answer. WRD and UGA are started a study in Middle Ga now but it will go on for 2 years before they publish results that alot of people already know what they will be. I am looking for a way to do my part.

 

[TroupTC]

Last weekend I drove from Atlanta to the Ga/Alabama line on I-20. I saw 5 dead yotes on the side of the road and zero road killed deer. I gues the breeding season has them moving more right now.

Kill'em all

 

[Mr Mike]

YES YES YES, I've started a thread to find yote hunters in my area. I got afew replies, but I even got some wondering if I would be interested in shooting on their Club/Lease land, because the members were not interested in yote hunting. I do believe that you can't shoot mega amounts of Doe and expect to repopulate year after year. I seen first had what liberal Doe harvest can do back in Pa. There are counties that still don't have the deer population density prior to the Doe killing.

 

[Son]

Far as I know, many counties don't have animal control. And probably wont for years because of the economy.
Just today, took a tour around our woods looking at the tracks. Besides deer and turkey, I saw lots of coyote and dog tracks. Found bobcat scat with deer hair in it. Amazes me how the deer and turkeys can make it with so many things wanting to eat em. Their only savior is, our members who practice management by not shooting the limit allowed. I got their attention by giving an example, 16 members times 12 deer, equals = 192
Even divided by 2 = 96, then I ask how many of em believed the property could take that kind of pressure for one year, two years etc.. We have 1600 acres that used to be three clubs, with two clubs that shot everything, so our older members know what happens when that's done. Now that we have the entire 1600, our herd had come back to where everybody sees deer most of the time when on stand. And that's how we want it. We control coyotes when we see em. So do the farmers around us.

 

[olcowman]

good article. and don't forget... HOGS!!! if they are in your area. they are in mine.

while they aren't predators, they do effect deer populations. they directly complete for resources!!!

they eat the same acorns and a lot of the same forage as the deer do!

so while they don't kill deer, the are competing at the same critical time (winter) for scarce nutrition. my guess is that an undernourished doe that could have 2 fawns may only have 1... maybe none... if the situation is competitive enough, and maybe the winter harsh enough.

just another consideration... and to a lesser degree, bobcats...

I have to respectfully disagree with part of your post. My experience with hogs has shown that they are often very much a predator. A hog will bout eat anything that don't eat it first. Several years ago I was doing some work with a large cattle ranch in south Florida that was eat up with feral hogs. I saw first hand a problem they were having with a group of hogs that had started preying on newborn calves. The hogs got to the point where they were actually witnessed stalking cows in labor. This illustrates the similarities between the yotes and the swine that makes them so difficult to control..... they are among the most intelligent and adaptable members of the animal kingdom.

Callin and shooting will not make a dent. there are other methods that should be looked at.

If you're suggesting poison, I can't argue the effectiveness, but I would bet that the general public's disdain and some recent history will make that option highly unpopular?

 

[olcowman]

I have a couple of questions. What, if anything, is a coyote worth nowadays? Is there any market for the fur (the yotes in the southeast are generally poor quality to begin with) or is it feasable (and legal?) to sale those caught live to foxpens? I have heard that both markets are marginal these days?

 

[Jeff Phillips]

I have a couple of questions. What, if anything, is a coyote worth nowadays? Is there any market for the fur (the yotes in the southeast are generally poor quality to begin with) or is it feasable (and legal?) to sale those caught live to foxpens? I have heard that both markets are marginal these days?

Sales to fox pens helped distribute them. If they are caught they should be killed!

 

[Milkman]

I have a couple of questions. What, if anything, is a coyote worth nowadays? Is there any market for the fur (the yotes in the southeast are generally poor quality to begin with) or is it feasable (and legal?) to sale those caught live to foxpens? I have heard that both markets are marginal these days?

Im not sure if the hides are worth anything, That is why I am suggesting we come up with some sort method to fund and administer a bounty program.

I was asking a friend of mine who is retired the other day what he would do if there was a state paid bounty on coyotes. He said he would be hunting and trapping coyotes all over the place to supplement his income.

We need to get something going on this quickly!!!

 

[olcowman]

I reckon one of the best coyote trappers in the state is near by and he catches a heap of them. He will admit it is hard to make a dent in them except in areas he has really concentrated in....

I understand that many feel that the fox hunters are partially responsible for the current population, but realistically I would surmise that they played a small part in spreading coyotes in the east. It always appeared to me that they were part of a natural migration, according to historical accounts and research, that basically found a home with the east's booming deer populations. The deer herds were manipulated, by man, back into the ecosystem without any of the native predators that had always played a role in population control. It looks has if 'Mother Nature' has provided one of her own and evidently,according to recent reports, this one is a bit more efficient than anyone first thought.

One partial solution, although not real popular, would be to put some serious effort into restocking some of the state's long vanished predators. Didn't the red wolves and perhaps even eastern cougars that once roamed the south act as a sort of deterent to prevent the coyotes from expanding their ranges eastward? I do know that in some areas out west and in Canada I have hunted and worked in that the wolves, where abundant, sure can play havoc on the local yotes. Not only do they prey on many of the same animals, but the wolves made it a point to kill every yote they come across.

The dang coyotes have got it far to easy here in the southeast and if some of the reports on this forum are accurate..... we may have to look at some "unpopular" means to reduce their numbers?