Thanks!

Was that one chasing a mouse too?

I acquired this property just a few weeks ago. Have no feeders or food plots or anything - still getting the lay of the land. Put one camera in the brush to look at the shop/barndo for security/curiosity purposes to see if any humans have been coming out there at all. Got a raccoon on first night and this on the second night after I put the camera up.

Property has wildlife mgmt plan in place for exemption. Plan calls for predator control for hogs and yotes.

Questions for the experts on the outdoors board:

1) Is it true that hunting coyotes actually increases their population?

2) best way to control or deter them from the area ahead of white tail fawning season? Shoot a hog or two and start a gut pile, set up upwind with red or green light and pick some off … or buy a call and set up upwind with R or G light and pick some off?

S.A. Aggie said:

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Mountain lion.

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Troll

Clearly a yellow lab.

Remove gut piles? I don't have any gut piles yet, but what do I do with hog carcasses once I start dropping hogs?

It was a general statement. If you don't want to attract predators to your place don't give them a food source. If you have a pile of guts or carcasses or household trash all kinds of varmints and predators are going to frequent it.
I buried ours. If you want to attract them to hunt them that's cool….. but remember they are going to learn to frequent there and will be more abundant when you have fawns.

Thank you

Good going on getting the land. Have fun and make good memories on it.

Quote:

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1) Is it true that hunting coyotes actually increases their population?

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I am no Ursusguy, nor am I sort of any proclaimed expert on the matter, but I'll add my $.02 on this.

If you're going to try and "control" the coyote population, it is really all out war or nothing. If you start removing 1-2 individuals here and there, it actually can create more competition in that area with other coyotes.

Their litter sizes are often a direct reflection on the availability of prey and competition with other coyotes. In other words, when food is plentiful and competition is low, they will have much larger litters. When the opposite is true, they will have much smaller litter sizes. This is their own way of ensuring they don't overpopulate beyond the availability of resources.

While I am not sure how true this is, I have heard that the howling/vocalizations coyotes make also plays a roll in their reproduction. The less response from other coyotes can apparently trigger a larger litter size as well. Not sure how true that is but on the surface it would make sense.

Our landowner used to run sheep and had a government trapper out there. It was a constant battle and we killed a bunch of coyotes annually. Once he got rid of his sheep, he stopped the all out war on them and it was a MASSIVE influx of coyotes for the first year or so. There was plenty of prey available and every coyote in the county (not really) seemed to rush into the Garden of Eden. It has since stabilized back to a normal level.

Long story short - shooting 1-2 coyotes a year probably isn't going to backfire on you just know that it is realistically accomplishing nothing and there is a small chance it could be making things worse. I'll still kill coyotes but I am not nearly as mad at them as I used to be.

thank you.

the camera on my new barndo spots this coyote just about every night. I think it's the same one though. I don't have good feel for population on my property yet. seen tons of deer in person and on the one camera, and tons of evidence of hogs; none caught on tape yet.

the wildlife management plan that has been in place on the property, which I plan/hope to keep in place so i don't have to run cattle out there for an ag exemption, does call for predator control and lists trapping or shooting hogs and coyotes. I just want to make sure i'm managing the right way.

This.

Gus Fring said:

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Black one

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No such thing as a black coyote. Obviously this is a wolf

I think you mean panther.

Would be cool if Ursusguy came on and gave his opinion on the black yote.

Found this. https://deerassociation.com/a-wolf-among-us-how-black-coyotes-came-to-be/

We see them occasionally here in the Ozarks. They seem darker in the winter months…and their coats are very thick.

I get pictures of a doggie almost every night, but got one of a bob last night…

…I don't really know anything, but I feel like I should shoot some preds… is that wrong?

The predator control part of your management plan is a generic statement. If you are finding evidence of multiple kills that happen on regular basis, then you probably need to take some action.
Having a balance of predators is a good thing. They are here for a reason. I occasionally will find a kill….and many times that animal was weak, sick, or something I would have culled anyway.
The other issue is a food source or something that is or could be attracting them. Remove the food source and you don't attract them.
You may be seeing the same animal over and over as they often travel the same areas.
Predators and prey need a healthy balance. If you decimate the Apex predators then you will have an excess of something else that will cause issues…..like rats and mice everywhere….which attracts snakes… or lots of varmints.
God put them here for a reason. When man entered the scene and started developing and bringing in livestock etc that balance changed. Now we have to help keep that balance by controlling predator populations ourselves.
You don't want them over populating but you don't need to decimate them as well.
If you find evidence of multiple kills of fawns etc on a consistent basis then I would say that is the time you need to work on it.
Mother Nature had it pretty well figured out till man came on the scene. Unless livestock is involved she will usually keep things in balance all on her own.
That's what I have experienced on our places, for what it's worth….
Nothing wrong with wanting to go out, call something up and hunt one for a mount or such though if you need to control your population.