I farm and am in the irrigation industry (self employed) and my take on it is that there are several reasons -- but i think that one of the biggest that has not happened recently was the banning of ddt. Our raptor population is thriving. The other thing that i have noticed is that farming practices do have an effect (positive or negative). For instance the populations of coon, possum, nutria have declined locally-- i think mostly due to the fact that we went from raising cannery crops almost exclusively and changed largely to hazlenuts and grass seed. now the squirels and geese loved it, their populations are thriving, and i am seeing quail again. but i think that the nutria don't like either the phosphide or one of the growth regulators used on the grass seed. The coon and the possum have had their food sources altered and are adjusting to that. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction and sometimes that reaction does not show itself for a while. It is a very complex system that we live in and I think that the city dwellers do not have a clue of where food comes from or how much that they play a role in affecting everything -- lets talk about cities waste discharge into rivers and plastics in landfills amongst many other items.

So all those coyotes are $10 coyotes? Hmm