coyotes
 

I think this is the right place to post this by what I read in the description if not sorry.

Anyone have any advice on how to handle a coyote problem. I shot 16 yotes this season while deerhunting!! The things are growing rapidly and need to be thinned or abolished totally. So I figured the off season is as good as time as any. How do you guys go about hunting them? Any calls, scents, techniques, etc... If I killed 16 from stand, I can't imagine how many are lurking around. thanks.

RE: coyotes
 

NY Bowhunter- Holy moly that's a lot of yotes. Sounds like you could just beat them off with a stick! I personally, have not been able to ever get out (although I would love to but never have time) but I have heard of guys having great luck with the electronic calls at the end of the day right before or just after dark. I have also heard that using a stuffed animal in conjunction with the call works really well.

I hope your selling those pelts. You could make a few bucks by the sound of it. Enough to pay for your hunting license and a new call at the very least. I hear yote hunting is a blast. Have fun. TGK

RE: coyotes
 

i am not an expert, the problem with coyotes is they are very adaptable to outside forces, if you are trying to thin the herd they will respond by reproducing more pups

btw 16 coyotes in one year is a whole bunch.

RE: coyotes
 

16 yotes' is a lot o demmm!!! Yotes' are the plate lickers of the animal world. They thin the sick and old. Your doing about all you can do at this point except to poison and that will be indiscriminate to any carniverous animal. Enjoy yourself!!!

RE: coyotes
 

that's what I was thinking. Holy crow!! Seems like it's been the last 2 years they are getting ridiculous. I killed 6 of them on opening day of gun season here!!! Not a very good way to increase your chances of taking a deer, but I couldn't pass them up. The landowner asked me to get rid of them if I see them. thanks for the replies guys.

RE: coyotes
 

You just helped out the deer herd, yotes are big killers of deer fawns, hopefully the rest will get the mange and die off.

RE: coyotes
 

There's a member here that goes by the name James White. This is what he does for a living, he lives in Md and the link below is to his web site that he puts in his signature. I'm sure he could give you some hints.

ACS Wildlife & Snake Management
Md,DC,VA.
http://www.animalcontrolsolutions.com

[Deleted]
 

[Deleted by Admins]

RE: coyotes
 

I'm not saying it isn't a good idea to harvest a few coyotes, but....

Do any of you guys with high coyote populations ever figure out your fawn recruitment rates? On my property, for example, I'll get 600-800 photos a year from my game cameras, and can't help but get at least 1 coyote picture in every roll-sometimes 3 or 4 pictures or more. In fact, I've heard up to 5 different packs, in totally different directions, at 1 time. Yet, even with these very high coyote numbers, I still have had 1 fawn to 1.3 fawns per doe the past 2 years....all in an areas that a ratio of 1:1 is about as good as it gets for an average. I also got 15 or 16 bear pics last year, and several bobcat pictures.

I know a coyote will get a fawn or two, but I have just about as many predators as anybody, and still get a fairly decent fawn recruitment rates each year, despite the threat. A coyote, different from a wolf, will eat many, many different types of animals to fill it's stomach and aren't to determined in their hunting pursuits. Red squirrels, rabbits, grouse, pheasants, road kill, beaver, mice, mole, and basically anything they can get a hold of, including a fawn, make up the diet of the coyote.

The appearance of many coyotes may seem like there may be a problem with numbers, but is there a problem? The main way to tell is to study fawn recruitment rates. If you are still carrying between 1 and 2 fawns, and maybe even more into fall, you many not actually have the problem you think you do.

Just curious.

RE: coyotes
 

Jeff, I hear ya........

I've never gone throught the math like you, but 2 fawns per doe is pretty common around here too - I think the highest losses we receive is right now, when the deer population is stressed, yarded up, and the snow is 3 ft deep like its been for a month.

Deer and coyotes will migrate this time of year in search of food in my area - Quite honestly, more deer are probably killed by dogs & cars as they lose their fear of man and feed on the edges and in town. The coyote hunting can be good, but when the snow is deep, if protecting deer is your goal - then its best to not invade on their bedding areas or yards - once you displace the deer, and they are forced to run across a large expanse - any deer can be run down by dogs or coyote.

Like you - we have Many Large coyotes - I've found that we could probably never get rid of them. So we feed them, by improving small game habitat and feeding areas. A coyote content to feed on rabbits or voles, is less likey to prey on our deer population. In fact- in the fall months - its not uncommon to see coyotes "mousing" in the same field, at the same time as deer feeding there.

I've found where coyotes have killed 3 deer (all winter killed 9 month old animals) over the last 6 years on our land - so I'm not saying they are not a threat - If you remove them - more will fill the void.

If you enjoy hunting them, well thats a different story - But I wouldn't count on eradication as a management plan.

RE: coyotes
 

Farm Hunter,

I like what you alluded to about coyotes..."So we feed them, by improving small game habitat and feeding areas". I've personally found that all my deer management efforts have greatly benifited the small game populations, especially snowshoe rabbits and grouse. I may not have as much of a problem with the predators due to the fact that there is simply so much else out there to eat for them. One of my game pics last year was of a bobcat walking by with a red-squirrel in it's mouth...lots better than walking by with a fawn in it's mouth;)

RE: coyotes
 

Good reply farm hunter - this is called "optiaml foraging theory"
An animal will not expend more energy then necessary to obtain food.

RE: coyotes
 

I read a biologist report from state (not PA for those cynics out there) that you need to kill a whole lot of a local coyote population before making a dent in that population of coyotes. The number that sticks in my mind is 75% before numbers start to drop off. Litters enlarge, other coyotes move in etc so it's a really tough battle. We run them with dogs, which is great fun and a heck of a lot of time, committment and work, but again if your a hound fellow it's terrific. The most effective means of killing thme to me seems to be trapping. We've noticed an increase in coyote numbers in the places we hunt them with dogs in.
We've followed a bunch of yote tracks over the years and find them eating roadkilled deer, carcassess dumped after butchering, deer shot or otherwise have died in the woods, but very very few running down and actively hunting them. We've found tracks of five together once, Four together several times, three a bit more, two frequently, but not as frequently as a lone track. Find they do a number on rabbits and pheasants and other small game. PA game commission study found coyotes and bears taking fawns in about equal numbers in the spring.
Enjoy, Juniorpc

RE: coyotes
 

A friend of mine - G kraatz - works for the state. They just finished up dropping rabies vaccination baits, and today should have finished up their helicopter war games.

They fly around in samll copters used for cattle herding and shoot coyotes and pigs. It is a state sponsord project that takes place on some of the biggest ranches in S. Texa. It is also done regulary when cows start dropping their calves. The yotes actually go in for the afterbirth. Last year he shot over 500 yotes and pigs in 10 working day. Thats no joke. He also uses cyinide bait , fence snares, and good ol 22.250.