In the 70's and 80's we still had a lot of red fox around here. In 1979 my wife saw the first coyote in our area on a farm my father trapped. We both thought she was nuts but that same week he caught the coyote. My father used to catch about 80-100 each year. Now we mainly have coyotes and only a few red fox. In the last 3 years, I've taken 98 coyote off my line. The first year, no red fox. The second year I had 3 and last year I had 6 so it seems we're getting a few more fox around. Our coyotes are worthless, averaging less than $5.00 but I'm still going to trap them this year just to keep the numbers in check. I'm also seeing more deer on the farm I hunt that I trap heavily for the coyote.

Lance that's the only reason I trap coyotes. Sad to say but they all got tossed.

In the early part of the 20 century there are no mention of coyotes here in the U.P. of Michigan,bountied predators were wolves,fox and bobcats,in Hardings "Fox Trapping" there's a chapter of a homesteader trapping fox and wolves are mentioned but again,no coyotes.Some writings from that time mention fox being numerous in different localities.Then sometime in the early 20th century as wolves disappeared coyotes starting showing up.In my experience here the only time fox are numerous is when coyotes get smacked good with disease.When mange showed up here in the 70's it really hit coyotes hard,then it was followed up by Canine distember.For a number of years for some reason these diseases didn't get into our fox population and with no coyotes to speak of they really took off,our 'cat population did real well too.During this time our fox population grew to some unbelievable numbers.Then the same diseases went thru the fox and they've never came back.We've had some pretty high coyote numbers periodically until diseases run threw them again,but fox have never rebounded.They seem to stay mostly in areas where coyotes are leery of like around town or close to farm homes.These are red fox that I'm talking about.

Still plenty of reds here. Coyotes don't seem to have reduced their numbers, but greys are very scarce

Around here it happened just like you described there Calvin, around the same time. The only difference is in the last couple years red fox have made a little comeback and not just in the urban areas. I worry though with our coyotes being basically worthless now, that that trend will be reversed. High fuel costs will keep a lot of shooters and trappers home more often as well.

My trapping buddy in college was from Dunkirk/Fredonia area and he used to clean up
on grey fox trapping the vineyards in Chautauqua & Cattaraugus Counties in the late 1970's.

He became an Encon officer after college,

You might know him: Kevin Budniewski.

He always caught more greys than reds.

Times change.

w

don't have many coyote around me, at least if and when we start getting more knocking the deer herd down will be an upside.

I don't trap canines much and I am not very good at it either. I started trapping in 1980 where I live now. I caught my first coyote in 1983-84 and was one of the first in our area from what I heard. most years single digit to a dozen reds with my best year 16 reds. A couple of greys the first years too. Now reds are scarce and ebb and flow with the mange. Yotes dominate in the more open areas, especially from where i live and west where field sizes are much larger. Reds den around abandoned farmsteads, on the edges of villages and in areas where quickness over speed is essential. Compared to the posts I review we don't have heavy populations of yotes and foxes are now limited at best. The area along Lake Michigan say from Kewaunee County all the way to say Port Washington and inland about 15 miles or so would be very good red habitat with coyotes around but the mange just decimates the reds, especially when the young are denning.

Bryce

My grandfather told me of a season that him and his partner bountied over 50 brush wolves in northern WI before WW I , he told me that when I was a boy, so over 60 years ago. At the time I did not know those were coyotes, but not timber wolves according to the guy that wrote the book on Wisconsin wolves 30 or so years ago. Same season they bountied over 100 bobcats, he never mentioned fox.

Eastern NC had no groundhogs when I was a kid, about 30 years ago they became numerous. Coyotes appeared later and groundhogs are gone.

Late sixties early seventies red and grey fox were abound in Illinois. Since the the song dog moved in we still have a few reds but greys are nonexistent