ORIGINAL: yano
Something I'v always wondered: How exactly does the PGCtrack predator populations (Coyotes, Foxes, Hawks, etc)? What do those population trends show for say the last 25years?
Coyote and fox populations along with other furbearers are tracked by the Wildlife Management Bureau through various research projects, the game take survey and the coyote complaint tracking system, all of which are administered and monitored by the Furbearer Biologist.
Each WCO fills out a summary each year of coyote complaints and that information gets tracked in trends for each year though I don’t have those results on hand.
The hawk and owl trends are monitored by Wildlife Management and the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service through functions such as the Breeding Bird Atlas and various monitoring of raptor migrations, plus each WCO records all migratory birds, by species, handled each year.
I would say that over the past 25 years in my area I have watched coyote populations increase and then decrease again to where they appear to be stable at a healthy population now. Fox populations have declined to very low levels compared to what they were 25 or even ten years ago, which always tends to happen when healthy coyote populations are present. Bobcat populations have increased. Hawks and owls appear to have stayed stable with no noticeable long term increases or declines.
Dick Bodenhorn
WCO, Elk County