Thoughts on Coyotes

Status
Not open for further replies.
M

milani74

Joined
Feb 15, 2009
Messages
1,237
I was deer hunting today and had a really good hunt. Didnt see any deer, but seen a few red headed woodpeckers, armadillos, 2 hawks, million squirels, and a red eyed duck that I wasnt able to identify. I also had a coyote bed down just under my tree stand for about 5 mins. Later, I found out that it's open season all year on them. Seems most folk think they are pests round here.
I typically hate killing animals unless its for food, but I do understand if they are a danger to humans. I didnt ask why but thinking later made me post here.
What are your thoughts about killing coyotes and why?
 
I have coyotes around my place which is at 9700'. They were there first and I don't kill anything I don't eat. I'm just saying.
 
Kill them all. They are becoming a huge problem around here. They kill deer, turkey, quail and have even started attacking people in some areas. They will eat anything and most of them stink very badly.
 
Kill them all, they killed young calves on our farm, often just for fun of the chase and didn't even eat them.

They are canine vermin, disease ridden pests.
 
They are getting pretty cocky here in Michigan too...it's open season on them...they been getting after domestic pets and chickens, etc.
They still scatter when they see me however....I must smell worse than them.:p
 
SOS - Shoot on sight. As the above members have stated, they have become a huge problem due to overpopulation. They decimate the local deer herd and cause havock on the rest of the wildlife as well. I wouldn't say this if I thought there was any risk of them being hunted to extermination, which I wouldn't want. Given how they can adapt to any enviornment, they will always be survivors.
 
I'm not bloodthirsty, and I have a lot of respect for the animals.

But-

The reason coyotes are a nuisance and overpopulated and expanding their territory is- us. And as far as it goes, we're the "control" in their food chain.

So, yeah- it's varminting season.
 
koyote said:
I'm not bloodthirsty, and I have a lot of respect for the animals.

But-

The reason coyotes are a nuisance and overpopulated and expanding their territory is- us. And as far as it goes, we're the "control" in their food chain.

So, yeah- it's varminting season.
Click to expand...

I'm in total agreement with you.:thumbup:
 
Haven't had any problems with them in my neck of the woods. There is a pack that wanders through the woods on my family's property up north. They keep to themselves and take down the occasional wild rabbit (and presumably some other things, but I only ever find rabbit bits). I have left them alone for years, and they have given me no reason to do otherwise.

All the best,

- Mike
 
Any time I'm hunting anything it becomes a coyote hunt as soon as i see a coyote. That being said I am east of the Mississippi where they are not a native animal.
Roy
 
It's a tough topic to discuss. Most people of the SOS opinion have had first hand experience with them and their effects on personal safety and livelihood, making it hard to defend allowing the coyote to co-exist.

I have had no direct experience with them other than seeing them in the woods where I live. They're big NE coyotes but all they've done is run away from me or my dog. That said, knowing that they inhabit the area, My young kids do not play outside without supervision. I must admit that on this latter point I have greater fear of some sick human eyeing my kids than a coyote.

Taking all of the above in mind. I think that coyotes have a right to exist in their habitat. The reason that there is an overpopulation in some areas is that before humans upset the balance, coyotes were kept in check by wolves. Wolves being top predators, are pack animals and possess larger territories, intrinsically maintain a lower density than coyotes do. They also tend to give a wider berth to humans than coyotes do, and will less readily mate with feral dogs. The removal of wolves from their original ranges facilitates an increase in numbers of coyotes which generally live in pairs and offspring vacate the family much sooner.

What we have now is an unnatural state where there is less territory to hunt and even the dynamic among coyotes is thrown off. The existence of bachelor packs is much more common than in the past. Nowadays, by killing coyotes on sight, and not fully understanding the particular population in a certain area, the risk is that an established pair which can keep younger bachelors out, can be eliminated, inviting a less balanced group in with greater food requirements.

Another factor is that coyotes are often blamed for the actions of feral dogs and coy-dogs. Yet another consequence of our encroachment.

I have pondered before the question of why as humanity developed, in some areas of the world the relationship between humans and their competition was one of hatred and fear while in other areas it was one of reverence and kinship. The only answer I can come up with is human population density. The unfortunate reality is that our planet is too small for us now and we do and will decide the fate of all other species. Well, except for germs, and mosquitoes, and black flies, oh and cockroaches. All these I kill on sight. :o. Never spiders though.
 
It's one of the only animals I would kill (and I did this year) and not eat. Largely because of the need to keep them in balance.
 
Most of my life we have raised livestock. They are bad news to young critters and tough on deer and the nests of game and wild birds. We shoot them anytime we can and there is a bounty on them in many places.
 
Yeah, no shooting the ones with a K :D

Mike- what you describe is a balanced, natural coyote population, which is great. (BTW, I got a letter today...)

I don't advocate eradictaion, hardly! But the population problem with coyotes, much like some species of birds and rodents, isn't just a hole in the food chain- it's our waste. Coyotes feed- ravenously- on our civilization. A few years ago the estimate by an anthropologist of the coyote population in the city of LA was 50,000!!!
 
I guess I'm a bit biased because my country killed off the wolf and bogus accounts of problems with foxes and badgers are legion. We don't have Coyotes either but for simplicity I'll peg them somewhere between a wolf and a fox:

There are only two recorded human deaths due to coyotes in the US, and one of those was an infant. No person was killed in the 28 year period between.

Although episodes of people being bitten are apparently on the increase the amount of incidences is still what I'd consider trivial. For example; in the period 1998-2005 an mean of less than 10 per year were bitten. Most bites happened in Southern California with human stupidity being a large feature at the "suburban-wildland interface".

"Coyotes are presently the most abundant livestock predators in western North America, causing the majority of sheep, goat and cattle losses.[15] For example: according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, coyotes were responsible for 60.5% of the 224,000 sheep deaths that were attributed to predation in 2004.[47] However the total number of sheep deaths in 2004 comprised only 2.22% of the total sheep and lamb population in the United States."

"According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service USDA report, "All sheep and lamb inventory in the United States on July 1, 2005, totaled 7.80 million head, 2 percent above July 1, 2004. Breeding sheep inventory at 4.66 million head on July 1, 2005 was 2 percent above July 1, 2004." Sheep and Lamb Inventory, US data. Released July 22, 2005. By virtue of the fact that coyote populations are typically many times greater and more widely distributed than those of wolves, coyotes cause more overall predation losses. However, an Idaho census taken in 2005 showed that individual coyotes were one-twentieth as likely to attack livestock than individual wolves."

-Source
 
When our neighbor lost over a 100 lambs last spring to Coyotes, the stats didn't help his pay check one darn bit. If they don't concern your income, let go if you want to. We will keep shooting them.:confused:
 
Yeah, those 2.2% numbers mean a little more when it's your small family farm that's losing income from the livestock killed.

Seeing newborn calves on the ground with their throat tore out tends to give someone a better view of coyotes and what they do, than cut and pasting from wikipedia.
 
Last edited:
The facts in the wikipedia article are true, but incomplete- They ignore the inscrease in the range of the coyote over the past couple hundred years, the increase in the overall population, and the actual effects of human predation on them.

edit: also, note importantly that coyotes were very nearly two thirds of the total predation deaths of sheep/lamb.

Now, 2.2% mortality might not mean a lot to you or I in the right context, but if something that I could go shoot was taking 2% of the KIDS in Davis, I'd be losing sleep stalking it, damn sure. I realize the analogy isn't completely sane- but if I bred chickens as livestock and 2.2% of my birds were being killed by rats, I'd kill the rats. Right?

If the coyote population were endangered, I'd see a reason to worry about limits and control- but it isn't, despite a de jure or de facto open season for the last hundred years throughout the West.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top