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Why are Coyotes bad?

I think keeping the coyote population in check is easier said than done. The area where I live there is very little cover, and gets coyote hunted very hard. It just seems like each year there gets to be more and more. Last year we shot around 20 and were having a hard time finding many more. Now this year we are all ready to 30 and have alot of hunting ahead of us. I just don't get it, you thin them out then the next year there are twice as many
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I just don't want to see our pheasant population take a hit!!!!
 
In my mammals class we talked about coyote's and learned that they eat mostly voles, mice, and other rodents and occasionally upland game. So there staple foods aren't what we hunt. But still people blame them for the decline of pheasants, quail, and rabbits. Habitat descrution is the number one cause for decline in these animals.
So all and all coyote's aren't that harmful, and they add to our diversity in our timbers.
 
I'm going to agree with Jason. Though they will hunt deer, deer are alot tougher for a coyote to get than say a rabbit or a grouse or a mouse. We have ALOT of coyotes and they do get the odd deer but they don't get that many. they clean up the dead ones in a hurry but unless they are starving I don't think they even bother with trying to pull down the deer. Coyotes are very resourceful and I'm sure that in an area with game populations and climate like you guys have they'll continue to flourish.
 
OK guys, the sound of a planter is a turkey's dinner bell, they all come a run'n.
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My point was, I don't think those two situations are quite as frequent or to the extent as most people would believe. As far as I can tell, small game populations depend way more on habitat condition than coyote population. I'm all about shoot'n a coyote if I get a poke at one.
Matter of fact I've had the itch lately to take it a step further. I envision myself out on a clear, full moon, snow covered night in the near future. Well that's if we get anymore snow.
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Jason. Don't believe everything you read in a book when it comes to wildlife and wildlife management. That's the problem with half of the DNR biologists. They have read too many books and haven't spent enough time in the field observing wildlife. Wildlife evolves just like you and me based on their environment. They prey on what is the easiest and most available at that time. That may be a mouse, rabbit, pheasant, quail, deer, calf, sheep, nest of eggs, roadkill, stray cat, ect. When those books were written there weren't as many deer or coyotes. I will assure you that the information in that book hasn't been revised reguardless of what edition the book is. I have heard many DNR biologists spout the same crap. That is "coyotes eat mostly rodents" and that "coyotes don't eat many pheasants". I have watched many coyotes work small grass patches and buffer strips. I have seen them come out with a pheasant in their mouth more times than I can count. How many times have you seen a bird dog catch a pheasant while you out hunting. Now think how proficient a coyote would be when it's trying to get supper. I watched 5 coyotes push a herd of deer out onto a small frozen pothole in South Dakota where the deer could barely stand let alone run. Well I'm sure you can figure out what happened next. The pack had pushed the deer almost a mile and a half before getting them onto the ice. I'm sure that the pack would have chased them as long as it took to get one killed. I just sat there and wondered how many times they had done that before. I'm not going to say that they don't eat their share of rodents. I will say that quail populations have declined by about 66% from 1980-2000. Pheasant populations have gone up and down during those same years dispite the CRP program putting millions of row crop acres into habitat. There definately hasn't been a 66% decrease in habitat over those years. I would bet there has been less than a 15% decrease in habitat over those years when including the number of CRP acres enrolled. One thing has consistantly increased over that time period and that is the number of predators (coyotes, raccoons, skunks ext.) Not all of the population decline of upland birds and ducks can be blamed on coyotes. All of these predators contribute and need to be managed. I would recommend that you shoot every coyote, raccoon, opposum, and skunk you can because for every one you kill there are 10 more out there that you wont even see.
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You don't have to just take my word for it. Check out some of Delta Waterfowls reserch on predator control and it's affect on nesting success rates.
 
Sweet writing iowaqdm!
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I tried to say the same thing earlier in my post, just couldn't deliver the evidence as well.

I do agree with your post 100%!!!
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I really admire coyotes and dont dislike them at all. Natures ultimate survivalist. That said, 20 years ago we had alot of Red Fox and hardly any coyotes. Now we have plenty of yotes and you would be hard pressed to find a fox. They are said to be mortal enemies, and I dont think their disappearance is a coincidence.
To me coyotes are like deer. I really like them and they have my respect, but I dont lose any sleep over shooting one.
 
I shot a coyote this morning eating out of our bird feeder
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I'm glad the slug gun was still sighted in
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