So Just How Bad Is The Coyote Problem, I'tell You

[Hillbilly stalker]

Corn pile = mice

mice #1 on coyotes menu

 

[Son]

Get coyotes on cameras all the time. Last week of deer season they must have been mating. Had about ten running all around me chasing a female. Too darn fast for a rifle at close range. So, I know there are plenty to go around. The tracks and droppings tell the story even if you don't see them.

 

[ucfireman]

A neighbor trapped 16 in a matter of 3 months a few years ago off his place and mine, about 60 ac total. Now its just a few here or there. He traps year round but only gets maybe 5+- a year off our places. He has stated calling and hunting them instead of trapping. Still a few but nothing like it was.
I do need to get a hold on the coon issue though.

I heard that if soak sponges in cooking grease and throw them out the yotes will eat them and die. I dont see how a sponge with grease on it would kill a yote.

It swells up in their stomach and causes septic poisoning. They can’t have a bowel movement. The problem with it is 1. It’s illegal and 2. It kills everything that eats it, coon, possum, bobcat, dogs, cats and likely birds. It’s a slow torturous death and cruel.

Not a good idea at all!!!!!

 

[ucfireman]

I do remember a "Bounty" of sorts the state did a few years ago.
You entered and you could win a lifetime license.
Am I mistaken?

 

[Nicodemus]

I heard that if soak sponges in cooking grease and throw them out the yotes will eat them and die. I dont see how a sponge with grease on it would kill a yote.

That`s an indiscriminate killer. It culls nothing.

 

[mallardsx2]

I had 4 or 5 howling outside my window last night at midnight....Menacing things.

 

[Goon]

I hired a trapper last week to trap yotes and coons on our property. Will run for 10 days. Probably hire him again in a few months and make this an annual property maintenance task.

what does a trapper charge?

 

[Wifeshusband]

I do remember a "Bounty" of sorts the state did a few years ago.
You entered and you could win a lifetime license.
Am I mistaken?

No you are not mistaken. That was one of the prizes. I believe there were more. But you had to take the dead yotes to DNR officials for proper counting and inspection and that was probably a drawback to many.

Rstalling 1979, the trapper I talk about would be humbled by your compliment. He was toting a rifle and hunting deer in the early 60's when people my age (mid 60's) were toting sums and repeating lines from Dick & Jane readers. I had the opportunity to work on a GA WMA in the 70's one deer season with some GA wildlife biologists. I learned a lot, but the old trapper (boots on the ground as they used to say in the military) has a better grasp of what's actually happening in the woods. I have a great deal of respect for the gentleman.

Even though they used poison out west, I believe trapping is the only way to make a real dent in predator population.
As an aside, we had a hog problem on the place and guys were brought in to shoot them. They shot some, but not nearly enough to be effective. Trappers came in and built wire corrals and trapped over 100 hogs in a couple of months. Before that they were turning the fields into moonscape. Last year the craters almost all disappeared and few hogs were seen. Trappers are unsung heroes in wildlife management.

 

[Silver Britches]

I had 4 or 5 howling outside my window last night at midnight....Menacing things.

I actually enjoy hearing them howl and carrying on at times. Going to my stand before daylight and having a pack of them explode very close by, is a pretty neat experience. Sometimes it will make the hair on the back of my neck stand up, especially when it gets quiet and I don't know what they're up to. I have had one run up on me coming out at night. And another came up on me while I was walking around looking for a tree to climb. That one saw me and still came toward me. I shot and killed him a short distance from me. Not sure what he was up to, but I didn't want to find out. Do I want a lot of around where I hunt, no, but they're here. I think most people would be surprised at how many are around where they hunt. They're everywhere.

 

[Southbow]

If you want to understand why a trapper can catch more than a dozen coyotes on a small tract you should listen to this podcast. It's the transient population of coyotes that travel 100+ miles looking for habitat without a resident pair of coyotes. The facts are that even intensive trapping has a very short term effect on your land. As soon as you trap a resident coyote a transient moves in to fill that void.

https://georgiaafield.com/tag/coyotes/

 

[ribber]

Sounds like a good trapper as well!!!

Agreed! This man is a skilled trapper if he caught 19 in 3 months. I used to help a guy runs traps for a while 8-10 years ago, and a coyote is the smartest animal in the woods.

 

[treemanjohn]

If you want to understand why a trapper can catch more than a dozen coyotes on a small tract you should listen to this podcast. It's the transient population of coyotes that travel 100+ miles looking for habitat without a resident pair of coyotes. The facts are that even intensive trapping has a very short term effect on your land. As soon as you trap a resident coyote a transient moves in to fill that void.

https://georgiaafield.com/tag/coyotes/

Correct. You'll rarely see a yote lounging around. Theyre always on the move in a trot

 

[Bob2010]

My landowner has allowed a landowner across the road to trap coyotes on his property after this past deer season. That is good, as I hunt this particular 400 acre parcel of land in Chattahoochee County. The trapper (one man) across the road has about 100 to 200 acres. In just three months this year he has caught 19 yotes.

I don't know much about trapping, but 19 yotes in three months on about 600 acres seems high to me. I don't know if you can take those numbers and extrapolate anything about the problem in Georgia, but it's awakened my landowner, who's seen his turkeys just about all disappear. I have warned him years ago that he was covered up with yotes.

I saw my first coyote on this property in 1972 and it looked like the kind out west. But the ones today are bigger, meaner, and stronger. As I mentioned in a post last year there is a YouTube video of a GA hunter who was knocked down few years ago and mauled by several. If he had not found his gun to fire a shot he said he would have been torn to shreds. A guest on my property was completely surrounded by a pack several years ago in the dark when he descended his stand. He strobed them off with his flashlight.

In this month's Deer & Deer Hunting magazine there is awful trail cam footage a hunter captured of a huge buck being taken down by several coyotes. Why the buck didn't put up much of a fight is a mystery. It is speculated that he was chased for miles and winded. The yotes tore at his rear, and then his under belly, eating him alive.

I don't think the DNR has a true grasp of the seriousness of the problem. Their bounty program apparently wasn't a success. But I am glad to see private landowners take matters into their own hands and trap them. You can never get rid of all of them, but you can put a dent into a local population. I am sure (and thankful) that this trapper has removed so many, thus ensuring the survival of many fawns and some adult deer, and turkeys, too.

They are a big problem. They tend to zero in on a area and exhaust the resources there. I have learned much about yotes. Rabbit hunters will leave with thier dogs when rabbits run a straight line instead of circling. Yote rabbits will ruin a dog. The deer will swap from rabbit to fawns. When rabbit populations are good deer are often devastated. Then vise versa when deer population is good rabbit populations are down. The prolonged rut in GA leads to many fawns killed. The DNR is more aware of the problem than you think. Georgia partnered with another state to research coyotes. It was a big expense! I was told the research showed that yotes will target one area until resources run out. Then they leave. One side of the highway will be infested with coyotes. The other side will be less impacted. They seem to struggle to get solid data because of this behavior. Also in some parts of our state paid trappers get paid and then go release the coyote. Job security. Don't ever pay a trapper until you see the dead yote.

 

[Son]

Some say our southeastern yotes may have wolf DNA. Have seen some large one's, and that could be. Two were shot in a club I was in, Macon Co. Al, they weighed over 60 pounds each. They were chasing deer. IN SW Ga, have seen yotes in normal color, black and red. The red variety seem to be shorter than the others.

 

[buckpasser]

If you want to understand why a trapper can catch more than a dozen coyotes on a small tract you should listen to this podcast. It's the transient population of coyotes that travel 100+ miles looking for habitat without a resident pair of coyotes. The facts are that even intensive trapping has a very short term effect on your land. As soon as you trap a resident coyote a transient moves in to fill that void.

https://georgiaafield.com/tag/coyotes/

It’s not the same everywhere. I wait on them to show up at my house (tracks) then trap them. I can sometimes go for months without tracks using this technique. At work it’s about the same. I’m letting them hold the territory right now and beginning next week they will be trapped hard. There won’t be many on the place through the summer I can assure you, and it is effective for fawn recruitment, you just have to be very intentional, present, and proficient as a trapper or hunter. Just wildly pursuing them can be counterproductive.

 

[Silver Britches]

Some say our southeastern yotes may have wolf DNA. Have seen some large one's, and that could be. Two were shot in a club I was in, Macon Co. Al, they weighed over 60 pounds each. They were chasing deer. IN SW Ga, have seen yotes in normal color, black and red. The red variety seem to be shorter than the others.

I can think of two solid black coyotes I've seen, and I will say, both appeared to be larger than your typical light gray and reddish coyotes. Saw both at different times, while riding through the woods. We may not want them around, but those were 2 pretty dogs.

 

[Nicodemus]

Do some research on the Bartram`s wolf.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Some say our southeastern yotes may have wolf DNA. Have seen some large one's, and that could be. Two were shot in a club I was in, Macon Co. Al, they weighed over 60 pounds each. They were chasing deer. IN SW Ga, have seen yotes in normal color, black and red. The red variety seem to be shorter than the others.

It's not "some say." It's valid and documented by scientific studies.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I don't mind coyotes in general, they're pretty fascinating critters.

 

[sleepr71]

Another nuisance animal,to be managed by us. Between them & Hogs...our Deer & Turkey have a lot of competition!