Why Deer Hunters Should Be Coyote Hunters

[slagmaker]

I'm happy if something comes by so I can look at it. 

+1

[Okanagan]

P.S.  Should have also listed the domestic/feral dog to the list of killers.


For sure where I hunt the feral dogs get special attention!!! cc

Domestic dogs chasing deer in winter is a huge problem anywhere housing development approaches wintering areas. 

Re the tensions of this thread:  The title is a good one for a magazine story because it has a strong slant or opinion.  It advocates an opinion and a cause instantly.  Of course, that automatically raises counters from anyone with another opinion or who thinks the original opinion needs some qualifying info to be more accurate.  It is the nature of words, not personal at all.  Hang in there, eleaf!  You post good stuff.

[riverboss]

All part of life when you have to eat! I wish coyotes tasted good because I would sooner hunt them than deer.

[KySongDog]

I wish coyotes tasted good because I would sooner hunt them than deer.

Here ya go, Dan.   This stuff helps a bunch with that gamey taste.   Try it.

[gravesco hunter]

I can't hardly stand to skin one.some of them stink so bad I don't even touch them

[JohnP]

I just take exception when someone tells me:  "All Deer Hunters Should Be Coyote Hunters".   I been doing this hunting "stuff" long enough to make up my own mind on what I'll hunt and not hunt.

I have found that the outcome of most "studies" are slanted in the view of the people/organizations who pay for the study to be done. 

Take coyotes out of the picture - would the mortality rate still be seventy percent?  "DNA tests from around the site where the collared and constantly monitored fawns were found dead shows that the vast majority of the deaths were caused by coyotes, over 70%."  It would be interesting to know how they came to this conclusion.  Just because they found coyote DNA on and around the fawns does not mean that a coyote did in fact kill that fawn. 

Hey Semp that coyote helper is a big seller out here.  I always have a box or two in the pantry. 

[JohnK]

Take coyotes out of the picture - would the mortality rate still be seventy percent?  "DNA tests from around the site where the collared and constantly monitored fawns were found dead shows that the vast majority of the deaths were caused by coyotes, over 70%."  It would be interesting to know how they came to this conclusion.  Just because they found coyote DNA on and around the fawns does not mean that a coyote did in fact kill that fawn. 

That's what I was wondering. I would say virtually 100% of dead fawns exhibit some coyote dna on the carcass. As far as the deer herd in Georgia it is 9 does and 2 bucks with a long rifle season. That is what is doing away with our deer. I know coyotes kill fawns and have seen them running them on several occasions. If you coyote hunt when fawns are dropping you will see it but mainly I think it's hunters killing does.

[eleaf]

I just take exception when someone tells me:  "All Deer Hunters Should Be Coyote Hunters".   I been doing this hunting "stuff" long enough to make up my own mind on what I'll hunt and not hunt.

I have found that the outcome of most "studies" are slanted in the view of the people/organizations who pay for the study to be done. 

Take coyotes out of the picture - would the mortality rate still be seventy percent?  "DNA tests from around the site where the collared and constantly monitored fawns were found dead shows that the vast majority of the deaths were caused by coyotes, over 70%."  It would be interesting to know how they came to this conclusion.  Just because they found coyote DNA on and around the fawns does not mean that a coyote did in fact kill that fawn. 

Hey Semp that coyote helper is a big seller out here.  I always have a box or two in the pantry.

They try and account for depredation v scavenging fawns in their analysis. The research team openly admits that there is certainly room for error, but part of what they do is look for wounds that are typical of coyote depredation. If you read the study, they do address this issue in detail.

As far as mortality rate with or without coyotes, you can't take coyotes out of the picture, but you can extrapolate data from survival rates before coyotes arrived in the area. In the southeast we didn't have steady coyote populations until fairly recently. Though correlation doesn't mean causation, when there are much larger rates of fawn deaths than there were before coyotes arrived, it certainly can't be ruled out that coyotes are probably a big reason for that.