I have been pondering this for a while now and am struggling to come up with any reasonable estimation to the coyote population density in the area I trap or how to figure out what the density might be for other areas of the state or country for that matter. Here is where I am at. I trap roughly 125 square miles, an area about 12 miles east and west and 12 miles north and south with some small areas I don't trap. It is mostly row crop farm land. I foothold trap anywhere from 25 to 35 days straight in November and catch around 25 to 30 coyotes every year. I am the only one trapping this area as I have never had anyone tell me that someone else has asked for permission and I have never run into someone else's traps. I have read that you need to remove 75% of coyotes just to keep the population stable. The fact that I consistently catch the same amount year after year leads me to believe that the population must be fairly stable year after year. Don't get me wrong, in no way am I saying that I am catching 75% of the coyotes in this area. That would mean that there is only 40 coyotes in 125 square miles. That is only .3 coyotes per square mile. I am more realistically thinking that my area has roughly 1 coyote per square mile and I am catching 20 to 25% of the coyotes in that area.

My question is, do you think that is realistic to think that I am catching 25%? How does one go about finding out what the real population density might be?

What do you think that the density might be in your area?

Schmattz

I always go back to sets a week after I’ve pulled everything and look at tracks. That has always given me a good idea of what I’m dealing with. I’ve taken 95 the last month in a 6 mile by 3 mile rectangle. I think I have a map of last year’s or the year before. I’ll see if it’s on my phone.

All depends on the habitat, cover and food. There are huge variations in the numbers of coyotes per square mile based on available carrying capacity.

I think also you need to consider dispersal route's and or dispersal. When I trap for coyote there's areas that you trap out a group and new ones don't move in for awhile then there's places that never run out of coyotes.

Problem with 125 square miles (which is a spit of ground from a coyotes perspective) and a decent population density, is you’ll likely never get ahead of them on that ground as they’ll filter in from surrounding areas as fast as you remove them.

Especially over such a short duration as just a few weeks. Depending on when your trapping, you’re very likely not even impacting reproduction in that area as breeders are moving in well before whelping after you’ve left.

I used to trap a lot of that SE ND country.

Back around 2008, the coyote population was off the hook in that country. Had single locations that would produce 15-20 coyotes every year. I’d say 2-4 family groups per township in those days. It was ridiculous.

You have traps out for 1/12th of the year that the coyotes have to live, hunt and roam in that 144 square miles. It could very likely be that they have quite different travel routes or cycles etc. during those 30 days. Also you may not be hitting the higher usage dispersal routes or the dispersion is either over or not started when you are setting out. I don't know anything about trapping wide open country but I would guess that there are specific square miles of that area that hold 2-4 times the amount of food base or prey then others do. If you have a lot of prey sign you should also find the coyotes. 144 square miles is about 4 townships and I know here where I live we would have that many yotes to catch and our densities I believe would be lower than most central plains areas.

Bryce