ORIGINAL: fastfire
ORIGINAL: Phade
ORIGINAL: White_Farm
ORIGINAL: WNY Bowhunter
You gotta stop and think that coyotes are not strictly venison craving carnivores and most of their diet consists of small mammals such as woodchucks, rabbits and lots of mice and carrion that they come across. The only realistic things that I can think of that can cause a serious decrease in the deer herd over a large area to such a degree would be a disease (such as EHD or blue tongue) and the harvasting of really large numbers of does by hunters.
Woodchucks? Rabbits? What are those? I haven't seen any since I started hearing coyotes howling at night 5-6 years ago. Also used to see 30+ turkeys at a time, several different groups of them. Now I see the same group of 12 every couple weeks. And we haven't had any real bad winters the past few years. Heck were halfway through December and I haven't seen anything more than a dusting of snow so far.
Also, I would assume if there was a disease taking out large numbers of deer in NY we'd have heard about it correct?
Tim
The idea of coyotes affecting deer numbers to the point of humans raising an eyebrow on it is complete BS. As mentioned earlier, the diet of a coyote varies by season.
At a few points, yotes may go after deer, but it has to be in the right circumstances. Some include:
Heavy snowfall creating poor foraging of non meat food, and other small game for yotes making them hungry, plus the effect of it on deer (poor food conditions making deer stressed and weak, suprisingly, deer are very manuverable in snow due to their design)
Fawn drop and early fawn growth. Obviously this takes place, but it is nature at it's finest.
And if any hardships result, then yotes make do some bambi hunting.
Coyotes much prefer smaller game that wagers less danger to them despite pack orientation. I am sure you would rather go punch a 5 ft 145 pound guy in the face than a 6' 5" 325lb offensive lineman. Same principle, coyotes do not want to get the snot kicked out of them.
Also, coyotes prefer the small game due to their ability to hunt it. Ask a farmer in farm country, you'd be suprised to find out how coyotes often follow farm machinery in the field. This is because the machinery disturbs small game and flushes them out creating predatory oppotunities. I have two pics of coyotes on my game cam this year, and it coincided with the harvesting of the corn field around the woodlot.
Until a legit experiment with established and confirmed data has been released by different organizations offering a consensus, coyotes having a sever impact is only BS based on rumors.
Must be you don't spend a lot of time in the outdoors or your is in
it's own little world.
Think about this!!!!!!
As yout population grows so does the need for food- fact.
Youts will take the easiest meal it can get - fact.
A new born fawn is a very easy meal-fact.
A new born to 2 mounths old are an easy meal for a yout
and mom will leave them for a short time & if you don't belive that ask a farmer how many fawns he has run tru his haybind or almost has.
I'm not blaming youts for all the deer herd problems but in my area
as the yout population got bigger over the years the deer herd seemed to shrink.
There may be other reasons for it but over hunting in my area is not one of them.
And you must not read very well....... Re-read my now in bold statement on fawn drop. I clearly acknowledged what you just....
PS. Any knowledgeable outdoorsman would know what was already explained.....Fawns hide because it is their only defense to predation...hence the common occurences of fawns becoming bales of hay.