Yotes affecting deer population?

[Hunting Teacher]

I used to be one of the people that believed the DNR and "scientific" types that coyotes didn't affect deer very much. Now I don't believe it.
This summer we noticed way more yote tracks and scat on our property than ever before. We also noticed very few fawns this summer on our trail cameras.
Overall, this past hunting season our yearling sightings were down significantly than in the past.
Saturday AM I had a doe come out and take a quick look behind her and then run off in the bottom. About five minutes later here come 5 yotes hot on her trail.They were aout 100yards away in some pretty thick stuff. I hit my doe bleat and the last one in the group peeled off and came running to me like she was on a string. I mean she came in head up and really looking! There is no doubt she was looking for a deer to catch! That was her last mistake.
The others went past my best friend's 13 year old and one old boy that had to go 60 pounds got his ticket punched too.
I am totally convinced the stupid trash yotes are wiping out our accruement of new deer.
I'd never seen a yote while hunting our land before this year, and now the vermin are everywhere.
I know hunting then won't get rid of them, but is it possible to at least put a dent in em?
Teacher

 

[hunterb]

newborn fawns....ever jumped one in the woods?......well you have to get right on top of them......like 15 feet before they scramble...then they only go....20-30 yds.....now yotes in the woods with that.......I would say that yotes are getting a fair share of fawns

 

[kevincox]

I would have to agree. Yotes are filling up their bellies in the spring on fawns, and the older yotes know when that time of year comes around what they are looking for

 

[swamp hunter]

Had a big ole yote run a fawn right under my stand last year.Caught me by suprise or he,d been done. I think most adult deer can out run them or fight them off, But them fawns can,t. Also I have a place in Ala. where the deer bedding area is within 500 yards of where the yotes seem to live,I hear them at night on the same ridge and I see the deer going to bed in the hollow there every morning?Maybe they worked something out

 

[Rockin Randall]

I agree, the last couple of yrs I've seen very few fawns. I've heard several packs of yotes every night that I was at camp. I posted this ? last year. I finally killed my 1st yote ever in December, he was eat up with the mange. Hopefully the mange will have a devistating effect on them scoudrels.

I thought there was a spell check on this site?

 

[jbarron]

I don't know what effect they're having on the local deer population but it can't be positive. My property in Washington Co. is covered up with them. I'm seeing a lot more sign and you can walk outside in the middle of the night and hear them howling and yelping all over the woods. We very seldom see them in the daylight but when we do its goodbye yote.

 

[Alan in GA]

somebody had a GREAT idea,,,,

IF you know where an active coyote den is,,put a trail camera THERE!
Someone said they had a trail cam at a den entrance and counted 13 fawns get carried into it????
Anyone know who that was?
I'd like to hear all he had to view and learn on that.
Now to find a den...
We've got yotes all over our club and the dirt roads show tracks everywhere [yes, yotes, not dog, I know the difference].
We hope to start out our February WORK DAYS with yote calling,,then onto building stuff [stands].

 

[brofoster]

There was a big article on GON recently about the affect of yotes on a deer herd. Come to find out this big plantation was doing everything it could but couldn't raise the herd numbers. After a lot of research the yotes got the blame. A professional hunter/trapper was brought in and killed 23 yotes in no time flat. I have lived in Ga all of my life and 10-15 years ago we never even heard of yotes on the costal side. I held back the trigger on one last year figuring it was someone's dog until I got a good loot at the coat. We had a yote kill and drag off a few of our rabbit dogs as well. They are definitely here, and it looks like they want to stay. I hunt Ft Benning a good bit and it is loaded with pigs and deer, but right at sunset that place sounds like something out of a vampire movie with all of the howling.

 

[Alan in GA]

I used to give a pass,,,

to a yote while deer hunting,,figuring I may mess up an oportunity at a deer nearby..........
NO MORE.
Now if I see one,,he gets a bullet or arrow.
Here's one that was passing by at 95 yards ON the used deer trail. She fed the buzzards.
I'd say I've saved a few fawns.
Going back for yote specific hunts in February.
.
..WARNING,,BLOODY!

 

[HighCotton]

Yote Fun

Shooting a Few yotes sounds like fun. I know we've got some on our place. Any strategy or ideas on how to hunt them during the daytime?

HC

 

[rex upshaw]

get some predator calls, like a rabbitt in distress or something similar...do your calling early morning or late afternoon. try to set up on field edges and take a wooden stake with you if possible and attach something white and light in weight to the stake, so the breeze will move it around...it will help make it look more realistic to have an object out there that the yotes might think is being attacked. use something like a white feather or something that will blow around freeely and attach it with some fishing line or something similar.

 

[JBowers]

Sure, coyotes kill and eat fawns when they can catch them & when they are available. In some areas, this may be a good thing. In some, it may be less desirable. Coyotes effectiveness at catching fawns may be greater in some years than others and in some locales than in others. For example, rainfall affects vegetative growth, which provides cover for many wildlife including fawns. Some areas have better habitat than others and the affect is less of a concern.

Are you concerned about the impact on your club? Then instead of armchair WAG'in it why don't you kill a few a coyotes during the fawn drop and cut open their stomachs and see what they are eating? Probably would be a good thing to do each year on your clubs. While you are at it, do the same during the hunting season. Some folks may be surprised.

If fawns are showing up in the stomach's frequently, then your best effort may be to intensively hunt and shoot coyotes just prior to and during the fawn drop. And, expecially during periods of drought.

 

[DelphicSharpShot]

It's not just fawns! I think it was just last year that GON had an article and a picture of a yote and a doe lying dead next to one another, the yote's jaws were wrapped around the doe's neck. The article said that they were at the base of something like a 40' cliff. The author could only figure that the doe had been grazing at the top of the cliff and the yote ambushed her a little too hard and they both took a tumble over the cliff, and the yote never let go of her...

 

[7Mag Hunter]

Yep, I agree Yotes hurt deer and turkey polulations ....
We have a major problem in Heard County...I am trying to
learn all I can about Yote hunting and welcome any/all
comments and assistance on Killing em !!!!!!!!
Lets have a Yote hunt !!!!!!

 

[Chippewa Partners]

In most predator control studies you will find bobcats are just as dangerous to fawn survival as coyotes. Georgia has plenty of bobcats but hunters see far more coyotes. If you are really serious about coyote control and not just wanting to pay lip service to putting a dent in your local population then you should do a smart thing and contact a GTA (Georgia Trappers Association) member and have them come in and do the job right and far more effectively than any hunter. Traps are working 24/7 week after week, it's just a matter of time before they make a visit to a set location given the proper urine, gland lure, call lure and bait combination at your set area.

In my 30+ years of trapping fox and coyotes I know good trappers can usually take out a couple of dens fairly quickly, hunters seldom make a serious dent. Shoot the coyotes during the winter and there will be far fewer mouths to feed in the coyote dens with fawn meat. If you try to go on a killing spree in the spring when fawns hit the ground, good luck trying that between the weather, huge amounts of available food for the adult dogs and the fact that taking out one adult won't wipe out the den, they can raise the pups with just one adult.

 

[jbarron]

.... If you are really serious about coyote control and not just wanting to pay lip service to putting a dent in your local population then you should do a smart thing and contact a GTA (Georgia Trappers Association) member and have them come in and do the job right ....

How could I get in touch with such a person working the Washington Co area?

 

[evan gourley]

the georgia trappers association has a website-i am sure you could get some trappers to help out-i will trap anywhere in south ga. if needed-just send me a pm.evan-by the way-i caught three big yotes today on a small hunting club.also caught two bobcats

 

[mockingbird]

Got my first coyote a couple hours ago in north Florida. Sitting down in a creek bottom and a giant doe comes by behind me at about sixty mph! Got my grunt tube in position to try to slow down the giant buck that I thought would be in hot pursuit. Nothing for a couple minutes, then I heard a noise in the bush and blew an urgent grunt. Guess what comes slinkin' right toward my stand! I knew it would end the day and probably the week because I hunt such a small piece of land, but after reading the GON article in December's(?) issue last night, I put that silly sucker down. Since I hunt such a small plot, I took that sucker out of there in a trash bag. No more yotes or bobcats are walking by me anymore. Maybe the deer will understand... Well, gotta go make a deposit at the dumpster!

 

[Dixiesimpleman32]

I piled up wiley yote jr. first of bow season this year.Starting to see more and more of um.

 

[Coastie]

The only 'Study' that I have found that merits any serious consideration cannot be applied directly to our situation here in the south east. This study was completed over a six year period by a researcher named Brent Patterson in Nova Scotia. Mr. Patterson is today the research scientist for the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. His studies, conducted during this six year period by himself and his coworkers were labor intensive, boots on the ground, practical research at its best. Tracks of Coyote/Deer encounters were followed up from inception to conclusion and the results recorded. Overall the conclusion was, yes Coyotes do kill deer on a regukar basis and may well have an impact on deer populations. The caveats are that while Coyote success rates on mature deer are fairly high, about 40%, the sucess rate is higher where deer populations are low. This is where the geography comes into play, these chases were tracked in deer yards where typical northern habitat winter conditions exist, that is, deep snow within the yards with beaten trails throughout, the more deer, the more trails and the more difficult for the coyote to be successful. If you allow a bit of Kentucky windage for this situation and interpolate our souther climate as easy escape routes for deer, then you may assume that the coyote success rate here in the south should be lower than for ares in the north where these conditions exist. The overall success rate for a given coyote was set at .5-3.5 deer killed per coyote per 100 days. The number of fawns killed was not calculated due to the increased difficulty in tracking during the fawning period of early summer/late spring. A significant number (not enumerated) of fawns are killed by coyotes each year, but to date there has been no definitive research completed to calculate the effect of coyote predation on fawn crops.
Having said all of that, consider this. Coyotes are not an indiginous species here in the south east having been introduced by one means or another over the past 20 years or so. They are likely here to stay regardless of the means used to try to get rid of them. They can, do and will eat almost anything they can get their teeth into from watermelons to whitetails and everything in between. They will likely make most of their meals from mice, rats, birds, rabbits, bugs and fruit fulfilling an important place in the natural scheme of things. Again, though, since they are not native to the area that is not necesesarily a big plus on their behalf. The one thing that bothers me beyond all others in regard to the little critters is the constant reference to full grown, armed men being driven from the woods by an animal that weighs, on the average 35 pounds.