COYOTE TRAPPING
Occasionally, more than one coyote runs deer sometimes up to three. All this physical exertion can put stress on the whitetail negatively affecting impregnated does, nursing does, as well as hindering bucks from developing good antler growth. This chaotic activity also disrupts whitetails from feeding uninterrupted and can change where and when whitetails forage.
These occurrences may provide hunters with answers as to why some mornings or evenings they see whitetails feeding in plots and why some days they don't. Coyotes keep the whitetail wary and so both does and bucks are not only evasive because of hunting pressure; the animals are also eluding coyotes and other predators. Also, some geographical locales may be impacted more so by coyotes than others depending on the habitat and how it's managed.
Coyotes are also the most common and the most serious predator of livestock in the western United States. Westwide, they cause a majority of the predation losses of sheep, goats and cattle.
In attacks on adult sheep and goats, coyotes typically bite the throat just behind the jaw and below the ear, although repeated bites made while shifting their hold may obscure the initial tooth punctures. Death commonly results from suffocation and shock; blood loss is usually a secondary cause of death. On small prey such as young lambs and kids, coyotes may kill by biting the head, neck or back, causing massive tissue and bone damage.
Coyotes exceeding uncontrolled numbers need to be managed despite recent environmental claims that the animals are able to self-regulate and control their numbers through natural acts such as starvation, cannibalism, and dominant hierarchy dispersal. This is the theory of natural regulation where man is eliminated from the predator food chain. It is not proven scientifically and is highly controversial. Ultimately, man and the traditions of hunting and trapping need to be incorporated into a management agenda if coyotes are going to be effectively controlled.
Trapping is a very effective and selective control method. A great deal of expertise is required to effectively trap coyotes. Trapping by inexperienced people may serve to educate coyotes, making them very difficult to catch, even by experienced trappers. Trapping for coyotes should take place in the fall and winter.
(Tommy Kirkland, writer for the Ohio Valley Outdoors Magazine, contributed to this article.)
