Population is key knowing population density is key.
Kansas, Nebraska . Nevada new mexico, texas.
Catching coyotes are as simple as cover the ground getter done.
Coyotes per square mile or township .
Here in Montana 1 per square mile or ,,,, 6 a (family unit ) a town ship it varies a bunch . WWS , wolves, etc. Here in Montana it takes 17 ranches 640 acres or better to produce over a 100 coyotes spread out over 100 miles.

I've trapped 18 states and hope to trap a few more. There are vast differences in coyote densities. Vast. Dispersal corridors are the ticket as you'll run out of resident coyotes (unless you're in LA.... I don't think they end in Louisiana!!!).

I trapped NLP Michigan for 29 years and it's like much of the lower portion. I stayed in Hillman in Zone 2 and trapped a 80 miles radius, give or take. Zone 1 - bigger. Zone 3 - much bigger still. I put 3-5 miles between stops unless a long running feature existed where I could cram farms tighter. Fur harvesting numbers requires a big time strategy.

I know a guy who wrote a book on all this .

Blessings,
Mark

Nothing wrong with carpet bombing sometimes.

Especially in new country you don’t know well. Fast way to clean up the resident animals and identify the long term barn burner spots.

Another important note, good spots (and poor spots) aren’t necessarily the same year to year.

A hot spot one year could be a dud the next and vice versa. Different weather, habitat changes (especially in cropping systems and rotations), different food sources one year to the next all play in to it.

Here it’s about the habitat at the stops. A few years ago I caught 60 in 4 miles of line. 24 in one spot 22 of those were in a 100 yards of waterway. Two miles away I took another 21 yotes.Two miles from that I was seeing yotes quite regularly but didn’t trap due to a pit bull problem.
Here we have a large lake and RR tracks to funnel the travelers through. Stops here can be five miles or 1/2 mile apart depends on how the ground lays.

I hope this post does not hijack this thread but to me it has a common base point. I have trapped for many seasons but very little coyote. I live in an area that is about 60-80% farmland, developed with small woodlots and larger marsh type areas. Habitat and food supplies in my estimation would be very good. Any answers that you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Our field sizes are still quite small by comparison to most of the Midwest. We also have many abandoned farmsteads so our red fox population can hang on but that is another issue
1 Do coyote pairs or family territories change by the season? I.e. smaller in spring, larger in fall winter?
2. Does territory size change more by the behavior of the family group leaders or by the availability of habitat and food?
3. Does dispersal impact the behavior or aggressiveness of the groups that stay in their range or more so with the dispersing animals?
4.It would seem to me that with better habitat and food that family group ranges could be smaller which could mean that there may be many more overlapping sites if there are more family territories in total. If so does that more frequent interfacing with other families make coyotes more or less suspicious or leery?
5. I have noticed over the years that on a mile or more of my river the rat populations are pretty stable but shift their locations mostly on feed availability from my perspective. It seems to me that I will see and hear coyotes in a couple locations at some times and then there is little to know evidence of their being there.
6. My canine line this fall (weather permitting) will cover quite an area but many of those sites will be 10-15 miles apart. Do to limitations I will only be able to set out a line for about 6 days and move if I want to get to most sites. I Know this limits coyotes a lot due to their rotations, but my thoughts are if I have activity in certain locations they may be these overlap areas and may be good in the future as well.
I don't know why but I always seem to see more coyotes in very late winter or early spring then any other time and that is when the numbers should be the lowest.

Thank you

Bryce

Mike thank you
That is a very common a lot of high numbers guys catch a bunch because alot of them give instructions good for them I say. But if anybody wants to learn how to catch coyotes in the weather learn from a guys that traps in a bunch of bad weather.
Imo you are spot on .

Mike thank you
That is a very common a lot of high numbers guys catch a bunch because alot of them give instructions good for them I say. But if want to learn how to catch coyotes in the weather learn from a guys that traps in a bunch of bad weather.
Imo you are spot on .




My question would be this,,, what do you do with a population density of 1 family group per township 5 average let's say,,, or even in extremely high population in part of in my state where its 1 coyote per square mile or most likely 1 coyote per 1 1/2 per square miles.

Kinda surprised this only went 3 pages. I got a spot a few miles from home that is mostly crops with deep ravines/draws running out from a cedar choked section. The neighbor dumps roadkill deer for him cameras to watch eagles. I have seen just a couple sets of yote tracks and had it set up for a couple weeks with one set that got rolled on twice. Guy claims he rarely sees yotes on his cameras, but he was also kinda (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) that i got permission to be on “his” ground, so im not 100 percent sure i believe him. Snow will tel more, if it ever stops being 60 degrees. Ive only been living in this area for 2 years, so definitely still trying to learn the area.

We all get a little too "hung up" on acreages, fence borders and numbers, myself included. 500 acres, 20,000 acres, 50 farms,11 states, etc.. Experience in differing land - forms, landscapes and land usage is good but for a person starting out I always try to ...... Begin with the THE BASICS (again) ---- Habitat is Food, Cover, and Water ............the distances between these components dictate the Quality of Habitat you have for mammals and the more/closer they occur, the Quantity of the land for producing a wildlife crop.... Coyotes could care less about fences, limiting and changing human use/access. --- end of the story (or if you have some biological curiosity - the beginning of) !!!!!!!! There are some VERY VERY good fur harvesters that can't tell any difference between an excellent denning area or a major landscape funnel, but come trapping season with $90.00+ coyotes, they know where to set a trap to catch one. Nothing wrong with that. If you trap on a ranch of X thousand acres and are the only one with good mobility to your trap sights wouldn't that be a Great setup to feed your addition. LOL! But should you try to harvest fur under tougher conditions (winter snows, monsoons, rocks for soil, all types of competitors, limited access, human livestock and land use etc.) a catch of 10 animals might equate to 5X's that many for areas of quality habitat with good conditions. Hope i didn't High-jack this but I still preach to know the animal's requirements as best you can for 365 days and then estimate where and what you have to to satisfy them. That should help tell you how many critters you can expect from a farm, ranch, acreage, etc. long term.................... the mike

Anyone else? Great thread!

I vote this thread to be archived upon conclusion----

What part of Louisiana did you trap? Do you still come this way?

Tracy knows things and I listen to him.

Michigan is different than Georgia is different than Kansas is different than Nevada is different than Missouri.


I have caught 20 plus in 10 nights along a 2 mile stretch of pineywoods logging road that had no obvious attraction features...it was just one of those travelways. I made sets at every road intersection.

Swamp Wolf is 100% correct. I trap 2 of the largest acre tracts in Alabama. In 1 peice of property that is. And its amazing how things go. I have had a 2 mile road where I caught a hole family group of black and black gray coyotes. 6 in 1 day. And have NEVER caught another black colored 1 since. That was like 6 years ago. On big timber leases. The land often changes every year. I have 1 that 30000 acres of all pines. I sware its like starting all over every year. Cause it changes so much. What is big pine in winter. Is cutover in summer

I have been on another larger tract of land for 9 years now. It has everything from = seedling pine trees to 40 year old pine trees. I trap it 3 times a year So for a while. You catch coyotes like crazy in a spot then. It goes dead. Then a new cutover opens up. When it is cut like = the moon landing. I dont catch much there. BUT 1 year latter. When it greens up. Look out. Coyotes every where. Land changes. So does go locations. Make sure when it changes. You do too

Do what Lazarus said to get a census of what is there then set accordingly. Another way is to look for sign and guess how many you have.

Great information guys. Thanks

Mac

This exactly.

But I would like to add a caveat as one who has planted and cut those trees. Yes, things change BUT some things don't.

On my bit of planted land I can point to two maybe three exact locations that almost always produce. Maybe not every year or not always accessible based on current tree growth but the underlying terrain doesn't change.

One is a saddle road crossing between two major hollows and the other is a hillside cut by two parallel washes about fifty yards apart. The third is similar.