53,642 tails from 3,918 submissions for a average of 13.69 average tails per entry $10 per tail.

Can you give us a little more info on this post ?Is this coyote tails or Raccoon tails or what ? Thanks. Marty

Guy would be better off selling his Fall/ winter furbearers tails...better average than fur.

Coon, possum, fox, badger, striped skunks $10 a tail no spotted skunks or yotes.

is it doing what they hope ? are there more pheasant ,and other small game

Turkey population took off in places if we get some rain the pheasants will do better if it’s not to late, it has brought the vermin numbers down in places so I’d say yes. Only time you will get $10 for a grinners, never seen the roads so clean of road kills. I’m sure some get picked up for the tails but overall it looks like numbers are down in my area.

Why wouldnt they pay for coyote tails-they are a worse predator than all the rest put together?

Because their hides bring enough money people are after them.

Hides are only good for a short while out of a year.
Predators do their damage mostly outside of the fur season.

This and the State trappers are working them hard one guy said he cannot get the beavers he has giving him fit trapped because they are hitting the yotes now as a priority.

Never going to happen, but it'd be nice to have a bounty on all of the above here. Thinning out a few red-tailed hawks wouldn't hurt either

By removing 53,642 of these nest raiders, the remaining 1,000,000 nest raiders will have more available food to eat from reduced competition, leading to increased litter sizes.
If you cannot remove enough animals to keep up with the rate of reproduction, you are wasting your time, or in this case, making things worse.

Always that one guy that makes things great. LOL This move added to a recent die off has reduced the nest predator numbers greatly in a lot of places I trapped ideal habitat locations last year and caught next to nothing in places I did well at before. Not that I wanted coons I caught around 20 last year.

Always great to have that one guy on a trapping forum minimizing any possible value from predator management.

Wether its effective or not . You all are lucky to have a fish and game dept. that tries . They dont just throw their hands up and say theres to many nest raiders lets shorten the pheasant hunting season . I wish MDC had a bounty program . Not only does it remove some predators but it helps preserve and nurture the skills needed to remove predators . If the coon mrkt ever turns around maybe in another ten years or so they will have some young trappers that know how to stack up some fur . Its not like they are hiring some G man to do it they are asking the community to get involved and help protect the game animals they cherish , then are giving a little subsidy to help with the cost . I can't think of a better summer time endeavour for GRANDPA AND THE KID . IMO the benifit go way beyond removing a few predators .

Law Dog- I haven't been following it this year, the last year I sent in was the first in 2019. That first year I followed the "tail counter" pretty closely. In 2019, Minnehaha County (Sioux Falls' main county) was the leading county to return tails. Makes sense, it has the most people so there were enough guys who would take on the state's willingness to pay up to $600 for 60 tails.Last year it was only $5 a tail so don't know if Minnehaha people still handed in the most. Is it still about 85% coon being turned in...?

What.......a game department that tries to manage nest predators rather than make excuses for poor game bird production?

52Carl- Sorry, I don't believe you. I don't see any more or any less of those predators in my part of South Dakota and my county turned in the most tails in 2019. Almost no one comes to Minnehaha County to hunt pheasants. I think everybody from Gov Kristi on down in state government knows this bounty program isn't really going to change the predator dynamics all that much, but that's how they sell it. Much harder PR-wise to say the truth that its her big DOUBLE BIRD to the antis and all the other social elite scum bags and snowflakes that South Dakota is going to support its traditional roots and the latte swelling coffee house drinkers CNN & MSNBC watching pukes can just kiss our collective ***...

The bounty program is a addition to many other programs in SD, Pheasant Forever chapters, sportsman’s clubs run their own cage give away programs also. We have no seasons on vermin in the State cutting a lot of red tape kissing the ring to get permission for damage control needs. If You see vermin crossing the road you get out and let loose no problem as long as you can do it safely, you really don’t even need to get out of the vehicle even with vermin.

The bounty program has several goals in place the main one is to expand trapping to the younger generations and teach non-trappers the skills and the need for it to control wildlife numbers. This increases support for trapping in many ways and shines a light on the sport.

Coons were the lions share skunks and grinner then and way less fox and badgers. If you go to the GFP site and click on the county it has those stats for this season.