coyotes

[SEMO_HUNTER]

The deer, rabbits, coyotes, foxes, and wolves have been long before we ever showed up and they will all be here long after we are gone.

WE are the whitetail deer's #1 predator Not the coyotes. State Conservation Agencies need to adjust their quotas and number of tags sold and dispersed to accommodate what the coyotes are using. Hence the unlimited doe tags in my own home state in some areas. Most of the northern counties in my state of Missouri allows unlimited antler less deer tags during bow season and rifle season. That way of thinking has got to stop or you will definitely see deer numbers decline, I already have and by the time you notice the decline the damage has already been done.

Yes, We are our own worst enemy that's a fact.

The only thing we can do is practice good stewardship which means that all of us need to do our part keeping coyotes and other predators in check. The same goes for taking only what you need and not as many as you can buy tags for. That's just greed.

Then the State Conservation and Wildlife Agencies need to follow suit and adjust the bag limit accordingly.

That is the only way and the right way to approach the issue.
The coyotes are only doing what they were designed to do and what they have been doing since before man stepped foot into their home territory.

[Bonebuster]

SEMO, I totally agree that coyotes are just doing what they do best.

Having said that, would you agree that coyotes have adapted at much faster pace than in the past? Would you agree that they have LEARNED to hunt big game with efficiency, and therefore are more like a wolf in their behavior?

It is their "new" behavior that causes me concern. I killed three on Monday evening with a rifle. They were ALL sleek, and well fed. If you kill many coyotes with a firearm, you know that they often defecate when they are hit with a bullet. The scat is always full of deer hair.

The first coyote I ever saw was back in 1983. Few people EVER saw one during that time. Hearing them howl and carry on at night was VERY rare. By 1993, it was VERY common to see them and their howls were EVERYWHERE.

A single coyote in a hayfield was the norm ten years ago. Now, they are almost ALWAYS travelling in a pack. If you see one, there is at least one more close by.

I have learned to NOT be surprised by anything a coyote does. The only time I shoot at them is when I see them.

[Don Stokes]

A few years ago there were quite a few coyotes around my property. I regularly got them on my game camera, and every evening you could hear them. Then mange got into them, and I started getting pictures of them in various stages of baldness. Now they are uncommon, and I haven't gotten a picture of one in the last year. Nature has ways of compensating. The same thing happened with the coon population. They were a real bother, digging up potted plants on my deck and such. Mange got them, too.

[Longbowz]

Fact - in the history of this country we have shot, trapped, poisoned them for many, many years and all the coyote has done is expand his numbers and territory.  So don't have the slightest remorse about having at them to your hearts content.  The other local willife will thank you.

[Dirty Bob]

I live in southeastern ohio, and the coyote problem is simply horrible. I've seen four on one gut pile at a time, Have heard them howl and scream in packs while I'm walking to my stand before dawn. They even lured my mothers dog out of the yard into the woods, and ripped its throat out in the middle of the day. I think the only thing that will work is an aggressive snare campaign.

[4 point]

This is a little off subject but it's a good story.

 My friend was walking down the river bottom along a 20 foot cut bank. He heard some noise above him at the top of the cut bank. He looked up just in time to see a coyote come rolling down it. A second later he looked up again to see a Mulie doe looking over the edge. He must of figured the fall was going to be better than betting he was going to take.

[tradshooter]

Coyotes are one efficient, smart predator. They can adapt to almost any environment and are reaking havoc on the deer and antelope here in Idaho. The only thing worse is our wolf problem and for now we can't hunt them. They (wolves) thin out the coyotes, but the coyotes just shift areas and continue killing the deer. Fun to hunt and a real challenge with a bow, but I doubt hunting or even trapping will reduce their numbers significantly. In the early days poisoning was very effective but there was collateral damage to other wildlife. I doubt we will ever see poisoning again and I am not advocating it. Definitely no shortage of them to hunt.

Too bad coyotes are not very tasty.

[SteveB]

Originally posted by pavan:
Too bad coyotes are not very tasty.

Or grew horns.

[KochNE]

Jackayotes?  

We've got plenty of 'yotes here, but in eastern NE the whitetails are so overpopulated that this past year some state senators were advocating an unlimited open season for landowners.  Definitely no shortage of food for the deer nor the scavengers...nor the hunters within the corn belt.

[LKH]

One of the good things about coyotes is that they eat cats.

[Sharptop]

I've noticed the songbird population is way up from a few years ago. The cats were killing them all.

[Earl E. Nov...mber]

Boy with some of these posts, it makes you wonder how those adult animals ever got to be adults with the existing yote population.. I still see more than half the does in the fall having twins, and have never found a carcase I can say was a yote kill.. Yote cleanup you bet.. I have watched yotes work deer herds pretty good, never seen a kill or found one after that fact.

[LKH]

In Yellowstone before the wolves took over the estimate was that coyotes took about 1,200 elk per year.  

I don't think they have trouble with killing deer.

[LoneWolf73]

I say good deal:

2-4 lbs of coyote meat
16 oz of apricot preserves
1 bottle BBQ sauce
1/2 purple onion diced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Start eating.
Besides we gave up on the Fur Industry long ago. We are getting what we deserve. Most I know leave them lay in the woods. No respect for the animal. Buy a coyote fur or a predator call and Do something besides compain.
We have lost the creativity to get the job done in the USA. I thought it was open season on Coyotes all year for a reason! Plain Lazy I say.

[rdoggsilva]

Nothing more fun then a call and a Savage in 223 for hunting yotes. I do keep the pelts and sell them.

[Hoyt]

Yotes attacking a fawn.

I also have a link to a pack of wolves running down and killing a yote that moved in on their kill...but it's a little to gory for me to post on here.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUwzyAidzas&feature=related

[Huntschool]

I shoot them on sight with a gu-gun. Yep a gun.
We usually try and hunt them hard in Late Jan through mid March.  Lots of calls and gut piles. If the pelt is in good shape we keep it... mange, nope.

Nothing like rolling one at 250 plus while he is sitting looking for the darned "rabbit makin all that noise".

There are more then ever before.. more deer also.. Its a predator prey thing.

[Huntschool]

I shoot them on sight with a gu-gun. Yep a gun.
We usually try and hunt them hard in Late Jan through mid March.  Lots of calls and gut piles. If the pelt is in good shape we keep it... mange, nope.

Nothing like rolling one at 250 plus while he is sitting looking for the darned "rabbit makin all that noise".

There are more then ever before.. more deer also.. Its a predator prey thing.

[Thumper Dunker]

Well 99 percent of the ones I get never see deer. But the farmers have a hate love afair with them. They get the ground squirrels but they also ply with the iregation lines. And they do get the  feral cats that do way more damaged.
I like calling coyotes better than deer hunting.
I hunt them from sept to march keep the good hides. (quivers and stuff).