We have been in a pretty bad drought here. Recent moisture is helping but this spring and summer was brutal.

I am however seeing more coyotes than I can recall ever seeing. I have not done a study but they seem thick. A dead wild pig I shot last night in the middle of a wheat field was gone this morning. At first light there were four coyotes finishing it off.

I know wildlife populations go up and down and maybe the down will be the winter after the bad summer, but has anyone else in drought areas noticed this? Anyone know if they are connected?

With drought, prey and water are down so they're probably moving more to find prey and water so sightings would be up. Especially the areas that have both.

Good point. It still seems like there are actually more. I have nothing scientific--just sights and sounds.

My personal observations: we are also in significant drought conditions, grass has been hayed everywhere and pastures are short. Not only does that make cover for prey harder to come by, but also for the coyotes; they are a LOT more visible in the short grass situations. Also, numbers do seem to be up here, when they sound off at night it is significantly more coyotes than last year. My personal opinion in the south central KS area, when coyote market tanked a lot of people just quit hammering them. They had been getting hammered for 5-7 years before that, putting them into constant recolonization mode reproductively. In the last 1-2 years I would bet they are still in that mode, but the take from trapping/hunting is way down. All that said, to someone who thinks coyote is the ultimate fun to harvest, I'm pretty excited for the prospects this season!! (although people who like low coyote numbers are not... I have ranchers getting antsy about calving season already).

P.S. looked up Blaine Co. Ok... your about a straight 75 mile shot south of here. Always nice to see people in the same region post!

Thx KS. My neighbors are already stopping by to make sure I'm going to set their places this year in advance of calving.

Always thought farms that calved in in January/February were crazy, especially to the ones rhat are soley cattle farms. Pros and cons for both but at least the winter guys will pen up the cows by the house so I can have a free reign trapping coyotes so its good for me i guess

X2
I have 3 farmers/property owners that call me every year

Blaine - we had an extremely dry / drought year.
The Canada geese lost most of their young.
Everything grabs them, but here locally the coyotes probably had more young survive because of the abundant goslings.
Any similar factors in your area?

Just like on the Serengeti Plains in Africa, - Predators always do better as the prey is concentrated, suffering and searching for moisture.......... just ask the gazelles and wildebeests! LOL.......................................... the mike

Droughts and especially floods are two of the easiest times to locate animals.


When there’s a drought, they tend to stay close to water sources. When there’s flooding, they’re on the high ground.



Feral hogs in Louisiana for example... during hot, dry spells, they stay close to the sloughs and wallows. When there is flooding, they’re pushed onto the ridges and islands and out of the basins, and they can be much more easily caught/shot.




Whether or not this applies to your situation is something I don’t know, but it certainly applies here.

Very noticeable on otters down here in deep South...

....low water = fat otters = easy to catch prey.

...high water = no fat on the otters = prey scattered out and harder to catch.