^^^^^^ gone be a dandy

I named this young buck Stickers.


He is really feeling his oats on the secondary rut.

Awesome up and comer Tejas. Getting lots of outside pressure on my bait but one slipped through the thermal
army. #12 for the year, #154 out the kill window.

When did the thermal hunters hit your neck of the woods YG?

Do they call, run the roads, or shoot off baits?

Are there a lot of these folks out there?

Every farmer and his kids have a thermal around here anymore. There are some really talented yote killers here. But the vast majority are just after their pic with a few dead yotes for facebook. After deer season it’s really bad here. I sat out in my bait last year and had two different trucks thermal me and haul butt. They all know I kill a few yotes so they are always trying to pick up an easy one here.
We have guys killing 30 or 40 yotes a year who don’t even know which end the turd falls out of. I’ve had some trouble with them shooting yotes in traps to get their pics. Bad thing is they waste the yote when they were worth something.
Neighbor got busted shooting deer at night with his thermal a month ago. Heard him shoot three times Saturday night. Guess he hasn’t been to court yet.
This has got worse every year and my kill numbers reflect that. But with the fur market in the crapper it’s about the only yote control we have. Sad as that is. Most call but they take a yote anyway they can.

Got bored so I decided to take up deer hunting. Haven’t done much in about 13 years. Killed 13 so far, 9 the last weekend in December. Couple of big girls in the bunch. 450 bushmaster and Cva crossfire.

Nice Work YG!

What do your bucks and does weigh in at up there?

That one girl looks like a real heavyweight.

Good job Rob! Yote numbers on my trapline are way down( but you wouldn't think that now...breeding season). Some farms that kick out 5-10 coyotes have produced 1-2 ....some none. My treasure farms that used to kick out 10-20 coyotes are down to 5-7. Weird. And thermal hunters
are possibly one angle that covers this situation. It seems everyone has thermal gear. One guy who does real well with the thermal stuff said he gave up because the number of coyotes is down. So there might be something else in the mix of things with the low population of yotes. Lord knows it ain't the lack of deer...lol.

Tejas two of those girls dressed 145lb. That’s big for here. Biggest I ever killed dressed 152lb

I think a lot of the thermal pressure is disrupting the family unit. They really effect the population as they can hunt till March 15th. Any female killed after Feb that is pregnant means no litter that year. That happens on a large scale for 4 or 5 years and it has to have some effect on population. Younger females breeding equals poor mothers,more pup mortality and smaller litters.
We even have outfitters offering thermal yote hunts just east of us.
The decline in the yote population here also was at the same time the bobcat population exploded. More litter survival do to less yote predation???

We had a at our gun range that had 4 kittens. Everybody is getting pics of cats on the game cams.

Good info Rob.

At least you have a season. It’s turned into year round fiasco here. I own thermal but it’s reached point it likely should be substantially curtailed here.

I’m trying to make them extinct down here and y’all complaining about low numbers, lol.

YG , a few years back we had a flash flood that wiped out our rabbit population.

The bobcats all but disappeared shortly after that. At the same time coyote numbers remained steady.
The absence of rabbit was of no consequence to Wile E.

Unlike the coyote, the cats here appear to be highly dependent on cottontails as a food source even though we have a huge rodent population.

These last two years rabbits have made a great recovery almost back to their previous numbers. The cat population mirrored that increase seemingly overnight.


It may not be the main cause for more bobcat sightings in your neck of the woods, but it could certainly be a factor.

That is just what I've noticed down along the border.

Primary or preferred food sources can certainly impact some animals / predator populations. It just stands to reason. Acquired taste and certain nutritional needs are innate attributes I believe. I recall a study I read years ago regarding Artic fox and the lemming population in Alaska. Same effect, low lemming population poor reproduction of the fox.

Or if the fox is bred, she may abort the litter size by cannibalism if she determines that the food source isn't adequate to raise a full litter. I also think nature may also have a way thru the animals DNA that when it perceives certain nutritional deprivations to the body it may affect their reproduction or how many offspring are produced during those lean years..

Just my thoughts.

I’ve been after this big guy with a camera for quite a while now.

Hopefully I will get some better photos in the near future.

It’s good to see a buck of this caliber hard at work in the field.

Good gracious that looks like a young elk

20deg and snow flurries up here

Tejas the rabbit numbers here aren’t that great. Have been low for a lot of years. What I see is the cats exploiting another resource. Squirrels. Squirrels here have a few predators such as hawks, owls and I’ve seen some evidence of coons killing squirrels at night. I’ve never thought of yotes having any impact on the squirrel population. Don’t know how many pics of cats I’ve seen carrying a squirrel. I don’t know much about these things it’s just what I’ve noticed.

Man that buck is nice!!! Is he a big 8? Those are my favorite bucks. Big and simple.

Rob, squirrels here are BOOMING! All over every where! Feral cat pop. is up also but I had to put the hammer down on the squirrels around the house as literally you'd see 8-10 in your yard at a time. Now they are filtering in from around the area again...it won't be long before they are back.

He is a straight eight with one small sticker on the right beam and left G2.

I believe he has a bigger frame than the 70’s eight with the fork & extra I posted earlier.

Hopefully he will not get into a late rut fight and break off before I get some good photos of him.

A rear view of the rack makes an impressive buck even more impressive. That is a FINE rascal!