I generaly hunt eastern Virginia including the eastern shore. This past deer season the deer population was down in my neck of the woods. I've heard rumors that the deer population is down because of the coyotes. Yestersay after a rabbit hunt some of the fellows were talking about how the coyotes have decimated most game species across the state. One fellow said the coyotes were trucked in to our state by insurance companies to reduce the deer population thereby reducing the number of deer/auto accidents. Im thinking that sounds a bit far fetched. Anyone have any thoughts on this subject?
Where did the coyotes come from?
- Thread starter e-bear
- Start date
kilimanjaro
New member
Nobody trucked them in, that's a crock. Coyotes are tough, prolific predators and will expand their territory rapidly. Urbanization means less hunting in semi-rural areas, meaning expanding populations and less game everywhere.
DocHoliday
New member
My guess would be more natural causes. Most likely in my opinion would be search of a food source or hunting pressure caused them to move from the areas they were before. If they are anything like the hogs down here it could have just been a large population growth.
In Illinois the weather has cause the normal feeding patterns to be totaly disrupted. Therefore, many people have said that the deer population is down. I'm not disputing that, but it could be that the deer are simply not in the areas they once saw them.
I am a sharpshooter for the local Forest Preserve District. Our job is to thin deer herds due to over population. We have suspended the operation for two weeks due to the travel patterns being hosed up. We've found that the deer are still there, they have simply moved to areas were they do not pose a managment issue.
Coyote populations are, indeed, exploding!!!! Friggin' things are moving into populated areas and are seemingly without fear of anything. Pretty soom I suspect that a bounty or something is going to be directed at them.
I am a sharpshooter for the local Forest Preserve District. Our job is to thin deer herds due to over population. We have suspended the operation for two weeks due to the travel patterns being hosed up. We've found that the deer are still there, they have simply moved to areas were they do not pose a managment issue.
Coyote populations are, indeed, exploding!!!! Friggin' things are moving into populated areas and are seemingly without fear of anything. Pretty soom I suspect that a bounty or something is going to be directed at them.
When I was young, there were no coyotes here in central Florida. Now there are plenty. I've always felt that the coyotes are just filling the empty niches left by predators which have been removed from the environment, like the red wolf and the panther. It was just a matter of following the interstates and feeding on roadkill.
johnwilliamson062
Moderator
I think ODNR re-introduced them in Ohio to reduce deer population. Right now in Ohio the deer population is supposed to be multiples of the population pre-European and it just isn't good for the deer. Farmers take millions in damage also(maybe billions).
warbirdlover
New member
Just introduce some wolves. That got rid of the coyotes on our hunting land.... 
Art Eatman
Staff in Memoriam
Ehhh, John, there has been commentary for a half-century that I know of about the general expansion of coyote range. It's just that now there are enough of them for folks to notice. And, with sites like this on the Internet, there's more chit-chat about them.
Through the 19th century, they were mostly a Plains animal. "Prairie wolves". Since then they've expanded into all the Lower 48, coming long before the deer herds expanded.
But, yes, they definitely impact fawn survival as well as the populations of rabbits and ground-nesting birds.
Through the 19th century, they were mostly a Plains animal. "Prairie wolves". Since then they've expanded into all the Lower 48, coming long before the deer herds expanded.
But, yes, they definitely impact fawn survival as well as the populations of rabbits and ground-nesting birds.
Coyotes are opportunistic scavengers, and as competition from other predators (wolves, cougar, bears, etc) decreased, hunting decreased (descrease in rural populations), and avenues for expansion increased (railroad rights of way, interstate highways, etc), they expanded their range. Must be a conspiracy.
30-30remchester
New member
A coyote was presented to Thomas Jefferson by the Lewis and Clark expidition IIRC. The most important factor in the advance of the yodel dog to the east is actually a man made convience, few think of. The lowly bridge that spanned the great rivers made it possible for the plains animal to migrate east of the Mississippi.
Don't know exactly where they came from but I know what they're doing.
At the risk of being flamed, broiled and BBQ'd...Just maybe it's hunters(or the lack there of) that's contributed to the coyote explosion.
If yotes are going to multiply on an average rate of approx. 4-7 pups a year and in many states have really no natural predators or in states that do have natural coyote predators,not enough of them to affect yote population, we hunters need to take up coyote hunting.
There's an older fella that lives close to me that is, and has been an avid trapper/outdoorsman all his life. We've had many a conversation about the yote explosion. We are in agreement that unless hunters start killing the yotes, the explosion will continue and there will be less and less turkey/deer. Seems that DNR here has no immediate plans of dealing with the problem as of yet. Whether that's due to $ constraints or not, don't know. One thing for sure, the yotes don't care the reason, they just keep multiplying.
There-again, up to us hunters to do our part if we want to help insure quality hunting of other animals.
Just my opinion....as I sit with Flame suit on.
At the risk of being flamed, broiled and BBQ'd...Just maybe it's hunters(or the lack there of) that's contributed to the coyote explosion.
If yotes are going to multiply on an average rate of approx. 4-7 pups a year and in many states have really no natural predators or in states that do have natural coyote predators,not enough of them to affect yote population, we hunters need to take up coyote hunting.
There's an older fella that lives close to me that is, and has been an avid trapper/outdoorsman all his life. We've had many a conversation about the yote explosion. We are in agreement that unless hunters start killing the yotes, the explosion will continue and there will be less and less turkey/deer. Seems that DNR here has no immediate plans of dealing with the problem as of yet. Whether that's due to $ constraints or not, don't know. One thing for sure, the yotes don't care the reason, they just keep multiplying.
There-again, up to us hunters to do our part if we want to help insure quality hunting of other animals.
Just my opinion....as I sit with Flame suit on.
I can kinda see your point rickyrick. But if we can get enough hunters killing enough females spitting out 4-7 pups yearly along with killing the pups when we get the chance, I think we could (not stop) but slow the explosion down a bit. Especially if us hunters could locate dens on the properties we hunt and clear the dens out.
Given the fact that many states have open season on yotes, if just a third of the total hunting populace, on average could kill a yote a year, I think, over time, a dent...or at least a marked slow down could be put in the overall population.
Course, my limited experience in the yote game has taught me, this would have to be a continuous thing as the yotes seem to move in rapidly as long as the food source is there.
One thing I have found is that I can get access to hunt yotes on farms with livestock(esp. sheep) that I can't get permission to hunt on otherwise. These farmers are estatic(sp) for every yote you kill on them.
I don't know the total yote populace but U.S. total hunter populace is about 12.5 million. Just think if a third of those hunters were taking a yote a year.
I know it's a stretch but the more yotes that are killed the better overall small, med. and large game hunting will be. Guess we could just call it the same as trying to improve our hunting grounds by planting food plots etc. Thinking about it, even more important then food plots.
No since in planting a food plot for your game animals if there's a bad yote problem cause the yotes know right where to go when they want to kill something.
I got a call from a sheep farmer I know in Western Ohio. He wanted someone to come in and hunt yotes as there are three sheep farms attaching his and in total, they were loosing one to two heads a week in the summer.
When a friend and I went to the farm, the sign(scat,prints etc) was just incredible in the pastures. We hunted every weekend starting out during daylight hours then went to night hunting. Killed several but the yotes soon moved to mostly the other three farms.
Before it was over, we were hunting all four farms, having a blast and doing a service for the farmers. They even went together and bought a small camper for us to stay in cause the drive was getting to us. Today we go there on a Friday nights and stay till Sunday.
I know it's a stretch but the more yotes that are killed the better overall small, med. and large game hunting will be. Guess we could just call it the same as trying to improve our hunting grounds by planting food plots etc. Thinking about it, even more important then food plots.
No since in planting a food plot for your game animals if there's a bad yote problem cause the yotes know right where to go when they want to kill something.
I got a call from a sheep farmer I know in Western Ohio. He wanted someone to come in and hunt yotes as there are three sheep farms attaching his and in total, they were loosing one to two heads a week in the summer.
When a friend and I went to the farm, the sign(scat,prints etc) was just incredible in the pastures. We hunted every weekend starting out during daylight hours then went to night hunting. Killed several but the yotes soon moved to mostly the other three farms.
Before it was over, we were hunting all four farms, having a blast and doing a service for the farmers. They even went together and bought a small camper for us to stay in cause the drive was getting to us. Today we go there on a Friday nights and stay till Sunday.
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