No Nelly...not what I was refering to...lol!

But twice in the same year...50 miles apart...I stop for a cup of coffee and I hear a few farmers talk about a flat bed truck that got pulled over by state police last month. The farmers go on to say that after investigation the truck is carrying 20 pairs of coyotes from Texas. When asked where they were going the driver of the truck says "a nursery about 20 miles up the road"????
Different diner two weeks later....Police stop a semi..the diner is in full view of the road where the truck is stopped. Police investigate and find 30 coyotes...destination a tract of land owned by a landscape outfit???

Three years later...trapping beaver for a very wealthy landowner who is involved with politics. She asks me if I heard anything about coyotes being released into our state???

Coincidence?

Not sure why someone from Texas would be going thru Illinois to get to Caswell Co. N.C.

Before someone freaks out..This is a joke....its illegal to do this!LOL

A very thought provoking subject to be sure. Coyotes were plentiful in Michigan's upper peninsula for over 50 years before anyone ever seen one in the lower peninsula. The two peninsulas are seperated by the straits of Mackinac which is frozen over every winter other than a swath kept open by ice cutters on the coast guard ships. Yet no coyotes, or any to speak of ventured across during all of that time even though they were pressured by droves of bounty trappers and packs of timber wolves. Whether they eventually crossed the straits of Mackinac or moved into the lower peninsula from the South I don't know. I suspect they moved in from the South but of course would have to have migrated from the West before they could have done so. Its a real mystery to me and I guess Slims theory is as good as any i've heard except for the coyotes not crossing the frozen over straits for so many years. Ace

Not to long ago I was talking with 2 good trappers one from TN and the other from KY. Both put blame on the live market for brining in mange to there area. They both thanked some tree farmer for introduding it from transporting coyotes from the west.

When the settlers came here there were no coyotes in the east. Wolves were found through all the eastern part of the country but the only coyotes were the small ones of the western plains.

Then wolves were exterminated in practicaly all the east and most of the west too. Especially in the 1800s and through to 1960s there was extensive predator control on western coyotes and wolves by use of poison.

Then poison use stopped in the 1960s or so. Coyotes increased in numbers in the west and began to expand into the east where there was now no competition from wolves and no more poison to keep them down.

Some say the eastern coyote developed into a larger animal due to the early coyote migrants interbreeding with the few eastern wolves still remaining. Apparently when both wolf and coyote numbers are very low they will interbreed.

So the eastern coyote has filled the gap left by the eastern wolf.

Sounds like BS.....

There would be no need for a landscaper or tree farmer to pay $100 + per coyote to be released on his farm to take out mice.......

Anyone that would believe such a story needs to think about it for a while.

$100 x 20 coyotes being delivered up the road 20 miles....ummm okay

Thats $2,000 dollars from the tree farmer........can he write it off on taxes...nope...cause they would be illegally imported...
A tree farmer or landscaper isn't going to spend that kind of money for mouse or rabbit control with all the other sure fire options avaiable.....
like I said, its a story and very, very hard to believe
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Maybe Tim...just what I heard...thats what the post suggested..."reasons for coyote invasion"....seems like alot of coincidence.

BillFrank no insinuation meant...just what I was told...by the way this happened in the early 90's.

At 3-7 hundred dollars for a tree Tim ...money problem?? Don't think so. Illegal?...of course but then so are alot of things that occur.

caught the first one in this area 1976. Had never heard of or saw one before that. That was bout the time the deer herd was startin to boom. Just figured they followed the food

I would have to agree with this.

I never saw a deer around here until 1970. Also, I never saw a coyote around here until 1971. Only I had no idea what it was I saw.

Caught a coyote in 1974 and learned very fast that they can and will destroy a trap and show you every weak part of that trap. And, they do not care if it hurts your feelings when they do it.

In the 60's, every Spring, Mrs. Meadows would come storming up to our place yelling about dogs chasing their sheep. She saw our dog with them, but it was not chasing the sheep. She always said they looked like German Shephards. Hummmmm, coyotes look somewhat like a German Shephard. Wonder if she was seeing coyotes?

How they came here, I have no idea. But it does seem that they got plentiful after the deer began to get thick. Perhaps they were here all along. The Wabash River is good size and some of the bottom land is grown over.

They could cross the Mississippi River by the bridges crossing it. Especially after the Interstate road system was completed. Those bridges would give them a good travle route. Plus, no one in his right mind would try to run one over while crossing a bridge that may be a mile long. Too good of a chance of driving off into the River.

Also, they could come down from up north, Minnesota, or Michigan with ease. Or even Canada.

I beleave they have had alot of help. Here in MS the first recorded release by fox hunters was in the 1930s 6 pair were release in central MS and there are a good number of recorded releases since. I also have heard the other stories but don't have any proof of these.

We have a bridge here called the Confederation Bridge. It is about 10 miles long that connects an island with the mainland. It is 2 lanes with about a 4 foot high solid concrete railing along the sides.

My uncle was driving across the bridge one night and spotted a coyote running ahead in the headlights. When the vehicle got too close to the coyote it panicked and went over the railing.

It is a loooong way down to the water - 361 feet to be exact.

http://www.damianpenny.com/archived/021.Confederation%20Bridge.small.JPG

i caught my first one in ohio in 1976 , had heard a few reports of others just before that time , didn't catch another until several years later then after that they just kept coming .

an old farmer told me 20 years or more ago that back in the late 20's and early 30's , there were several shot on his fathers farm in s.w ohio along the little miami river. i doubt anyone brought them in and released them back then .

slim's ideas on rivers frozen over hold alot of merit , they have some confirmed wolves in the northern lower penn. of michigan that got there that way they figure .

i read somewhere once that what were thought to have been wolves by the early settlers in the east , may very well have been coyotes , atleast in some areas .

i just wish we could get rid of all the flea bittin things , i'd much rather have the red fox population back once again we used to have .

mark

In our region:

the 7 year drought in the '50's & then the end of the drought
eradication of the screwworm in the '60's
the banning of strychnine and compound 1080 in the '70's
selling of tracts of land to retirees in the '80's
dropping rabies laced baits in the '90's and the continuation of it
current selling of land for recreational and hunting purposes.

The yotes are just ticked off because all of us white guys are invading from East of the big river. So they are invading back. lol