Nightmare!

[mpwarrak]

Why would you pay a trapper? Is there no market for the fur down here? As hard as it is to get access to land here you would think you would not have a problem getting someone to trap for the fur. Just asking.

Yotes not the problem. You think they're only staying on your 300 acres? Yotes have gigantic home ranges.

And why would the trapper above recommend a complete predator removal? Can you explain to me how killing fox, raccoons, and opossums is going to help the deer?

Obviously, you guys have never tried trapping. I've never trapped for money, but the price of pelts will hardly come close to paying for your gear and fuel, and the amount of time that goes into trap prep, setting, checking, skinning, fleshing, etc., etc.

By the time your done, you are either in the red, or working for 50 cents per hour.

The only way a trapper can make money is by getting a few dollars for the pelts AND charging the landowner for pest removal. Even then, it's only very seasonal job, and still not a very lucrative one considering the time spent.

And if these guys had to release every bobcat, fox, and coon, they wouldn't make money either.

Have you read the recent study that suggests that the presence of Eastern Coyotes actually benefits turkey populations by reducing nest predators like snakes, raccoons, fox, opossums, and armadillos?

Coyotes are pretty harmless to any critter that can fly so they are only a viable turkey predator for about a day and they have not been noted as a significant raider of nests.

I highly doubt the results of this study.

First of all, yotes do not eat the above stated nest predators very often. We've put numerous possums in front of our trail cams and the coyotes sneer at them while eating deer guts, dog food, or anything else. The only thing that touches them is vultures. I can't see a yote messing with a coon or fox very often, as they are very fierce. Maybe if they are hungry, but not usually. Armadillos and snakes I would think would be a rare meal as well.

I am part of a 3000 acre lease with roughly 50 members. Our deer numbers were decreasing steadily. And although I'm not much of a turkey hunter, I would see turkeys while deer hunting a couple times a year.

So about 3-4 years ago our manager brought in a professional trapper. Let him trap it for a year, then learned it himself and has been trapping ever since. The last count I heard was they had killed over 120, and that was a year or two ago.

The results? Within one year, the turkey population exploded. I see turkeys nearly every deer hunt for the last 2 years. And not a few, I've kicked up flocks that will darken the sun. I've counted more than 40 at a time.

The deer took a little longer, but are definitely growing in numbers. We went from doing well to see or shoot a deer or two, to letting many small ones walk the last couple years.

Hunting yotes would have yielded probably 10-20 yotes, and the hunters would have thought they did a great job. But trapping told the real story!

Since I started trapping 2 years ago around my house, I've killed 13 yotes. I believe I can feel the difference in fawn survival, as I let 4 yearling bucks walk during bow season.

Trapping works!

 

[j_seph]

schleylures wouldn't like being called a vulture.
http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=282338&highlight=possum

 

[trapperjim30557]

How many people have been turkey hunting and called in a yote with a mouth call?He aint being curious that's a diner bell.Auburn university did a study on fawn recruitment with and without coyote trapping and found that fawn survival went up almost 90 percent.

 

[Hammer Spank]

Obviously, you guys have never tried trapping. I've never trapped for money, but the price of pelts will hardly come close to paying for your gear and fuel, and the amount of time that goes into trap prep, setting, checking, skinning, fleshing, etc., etc.

By the time your done, you are either in the red, or working for 50 cents per hour.

The only way a trapper can make money is by getting a few dollars for the pelts AND charging the landowner for pest removal. Even then, it's only very seasonal job, and still not a very lucrative one considering the time spent.

And if these guys had to release every bobcat, fox, and coon, they wouldn't make money either.



I highly doubt the results of this study.

First of all, yotes do not eat the above stated nest predators very often. We've put numerous possums in front of our trail cams and the coyotes sneer at them while eating deer guts, dog food, or anything else. The only thing that touches them is vultures. I can't see a yote messing with a coon or fox very often, as they are very fierce. Maybe if they are hungry, but not usually. Armadillos and snakes I would think would be a rare meal as well.

I am part of a 3000 acre lease with roughly 50 members. Our deer numbers were decreasing steadily. And although I'm not much of a turkey hunter, I would see turkeys while deer hunting a couple times a year.

So about 3-4 years ago our manager brought in a professional trapper. Let him trap it for a year, then learned it himself and has been trapping ever since. The last count I heard was they had killed over 120, and that was a year or two ago.

The results? Within one year, the turkey population exploded. I see turkeys nearly every deer hunt for the last 2 years. And not a few, I've kicked up flocks that will darken the sun. I've counted more than 40 at a time.

The deer took a little longer, but are definitely growing in numbers. We went from doing well to see or shoot a deer or two, to letting many small ones walk the last couple years.

Hunting yotes would have yielded probably 10-20 yotes, and the hunters would have thought they did a great job. But trapping told the real story!

Since I started trapping 2 years ago around my house, I've killed 13 yotes. I believe I can feel the difference in fawn survival, as I let 4 yearling bucks walk during bow season.

Trapping works!

Coyotes are the one and only reason that fox have been on such a strong decline in GA. All canids kill lower order canids to eliminate competition.

And fine, glad you called in a turkey with a mouth call but coyotes are not significant predators of adult turkeys. Radio telemetry has proven this. Live turkeys arent decoys.

The number one predator of male wild turkeys is humans. Number two is great horned owls.

Glad we have so many biologists on here.

 

[mpwarrak]

Coyotes are the one and only reason that fox have been on such a strong decline in GA. All canids kill lower order canids to eliminate competition.

And fine, glad you called in a turkey with a mouth call but coyotes are not significant predators of adult turkeys. Radio telemetry has proven this. Live turkeys arent decoys.

The number one predator of male wild turkeys is humans. Number two is great horned owls.

Glad we have so many biologists on here.

About yotes being responsible for fox decline, yeah, yet another reason to trap them out!

I called in a turkey with a mouth call? Did I say that?

I'm not saying whether the yotes eat the turkeys as adults, poults, or eggs. I don't know that.
All I know is when trapping started the turkey population exploded. We used to see hens with 2 or 3 young turkeys left. Now we see them with a dozen or more.

I guarantee on our club humans are not the number one predator.. there's only a few guys that hunt them.

And about biologists... Though it has its place, higher education, studies, research, and stacks of paper have a strange knack for getting in the way of common sense.

If you don't want to hunt, leave the animals alone and they will balance themselves....


But if people want to kill deer and turkeys, they need to make room for themselves by also killing predators. Trapping is the best way to do this.

If you like to listen to biologists, there are many articles which include studies and biologists opinions which prove my point, such as:

http://www.365whitetail.com/predators-coyotes-and-whitetail-fawn-recruitment/

 

[trapperjim30557]

I said I called in a coyote with a turkey call.