Thing is a litter of coyotes are born in the spring and will not effect the fawn crop to much for several months. With aggressive hunting those young stupid pups fall to the gun at a high rate where the hunting pressure is strong. There fore when the fawns are the most likely to fall to coyotes hunting them is kept down by taking all those young ones before they get fully call/gun shy.

:D Al

Yooper, there is a catch to that observation. When coyotes are feeding young they need more food so there will be an impact even before the young are ready to hunt. Coyotes bred in Jan and Feb, with a 60-63 day gestation period they could be out of the den by may and June, fawns are easier to catch than adult deer but it takes more of them to provide enough food. The pups won't directly affect the fawn population but they sure do indirectly affect it. In addition, if, as research suggests, when coyotes are pressured by hunting they have larger litters, it would require even more fawns to feed the pups and themselves. Is there a point of diminishing return in the goal of reducing coyotes to save deer? It just may be.

I just had a lot of excitement. I watched a coyote walk through my backyard so I grabbed my bow and predator call. Within 10 minutes I had a fox walk up to me within 10 yards before I spooked him. I was also not in a camo etc and was in a bright blue jacket. It really got the blood flowing.

to answer original post.if you already have a coyote problem, killing them will not make it worse , no matter what anyone tells you. it's like saying ,drinking water will dehydrate you.sounds like a liberals arguement. just makes no sense. kill all you can,it may not make a dent in population but it most certainly is not going to make it worse

How in Hades do you get a "liberal argument" out of the truth? Presuring coyotes, acccording to those who do the research, not those who think they know, will cause larger litters. I did not see one post that said don't kill them, I did see some that said the results you get may not be the result you want.

relax oldtimer ,don't stroke out :biggrin: I'M JUST SAYING IF YOU DON'T KILL ,THEM , you will never control them.ALL THE TALK ABOUT LARGER LITTERS IS irelevant .if you kill them they will breed ,if you don't ,they will breed . you will never control them by doing nothing ,so why not kill them? there is no downside.

if you read my post I said it "sounds" like a libs arguement , in that it makes no sense, not it is one.

Kill them all!

Metallica

:)

"...............and Ive heard that i should kill all that i see."

.................and that guy was right !!!

The study, actually a fact sheet, I read (paraphrased)said, the increased litter size is due to some sort of magic sense that the females have. The more available territory, the larger the litter. It's probably (just a guess) also tied to the availability of game.

In my mind, it is six of one, half dozen of the other, you either deal with the Yotes you have or deal with the Yotes yet to be born.

Pretty high mortality rate in Yote Pups, they have to fight for territory, learn to hunt, many starve or disease gets them because they are weakened by hunger.

Thinning them out likely benefits both prey and predator and helps smooth out those feast and famine cycles. Some years the Predators do well and then kill off most of the food animals, then they starve and/or die of disease and the game animals can recover. Usually a multi year cycle.

The magic balance many liberals always talk about is a myth.

The red "X" is a predator den. The green circle is where the Pheasant and Ducks hang out. Darned if I know why they pick that spot year after year, It looks just the same as any other stretch of Creek to me. That den has been there for a long long time (best guess a hundred years or more), the Pheasant and Ducks are there every year, for as far back as I can remember.




Point is there seems to be something going on that nobody fully understands. Why and the heck would predator and prey pick the same spot for a family for decades or even centuries?

I can show you spots where exactly the same thing is happening, so this isn't a one off occurrence.

You betcha, because there are God knows how many more that are around that you will never see!