You would think after 14 years it would have helped if it was going too.

$200,000 has just been approved for a coyote bounty program aimed at helping mule deer survive. Utah doubled its payout to as much as $100 per coyote in key mule deer habitat, and the program received so many submissions that it needed additional funding to keep paying hunters and trappers.
Since the program began in 2012, Utah has already paid out more than $4 million for nearly 82,000 coyotes. State officials believe concentrated coyote removal around fawning areas can improve fawn survival, but the big question remains. After spending millions and removing tens of thousands of coyotes, has it actually increased the mule deer population statewide?
— Stephen Ziegler
Outdoor writer | Owner, DeLong Lures See less

I'm surprised that they didn't add mountain lions and bobcats to the list as both will hunt deer when given the chance .

I've caught some awful big tom bobcats after the mule deer came back into the area I was trapping in . Your results may vary .

I believe a study found that to reduce the coyote population you have to take out 70+% of the coyotes every year for 5 years. Miss a year and they rebound.

There are bounties for lions in specific units.

Already are bounty's given in the wild sheep areas of Utah, by the Associated Sheep Federation, DWR helps by having the people who want the bounty give more specific proof of taking in those particular areas ! The rest of the state is still open year round for taking lions. And has been for 2 years now !

As to the coyote bounty's one is supposed to give proof of area taken, what and how that criteria is seems to change with most areas where taken
One should contact the DWR or the Sheep Foundation for the correct info on bounty payments and tracking

Difficult to say just how many coyotes are taken in one area verse's another, and when the program first started there was not as much care taken for when and where the coyotes were taken, some were shipped in taken outside the state quite often until new rules were followed on tracking where they came from, still lots of of hunting left every year for coyotes though !

They can dump all the money they want into a bounty program but unless they are taking coyotes out during proper months it's not going to help the fawn survival.

Everything helps

In Oregon mule deer populations suck ......and almost nothing has been done about it

I made 3 sets for coyotes over the weekend after finding one on my buddies trail cam. He wants to go back up this weekend and set a lot more around that area where he elk hunts. I'm currently scouting OnX to find some good areas to trap some mountain lions, I have 12 bridger #5's and I figured if we are up checking coyote sets we better throw out some lion sets and our remaining 40 coyote traps. Summer trapping is a pain when its 100 degrees in utah haha

Even if mule deer populations have not improved - the trapping may have prevented a more serious decline.

I wonder what made the mule deer population drop to start with. It is not like coyotes are something new to UT. In ND habitat loss has really dropped out deer population.
They are giving out the lowest number of tags in 40 years this year.

Lowest in 50 years!

I firmly believe ND is in a predator pit right now.

Coyotes didn’t put you there, but they’re keeping you there. Habitat, sure. But you can’t tell me habitat is dramatically poorer than it was in the 80s, and there were more tags available than. There’s something else afoot these days.

ND is a bloody coyote factory!

I kill just over 22 coyotes along the north border (the ND border) of my control district for every one I do on my south border. And that is by no means an exaggeration, that is a hard number I’ve kept track of!

How much CRP has ND lost in the last 40 years? ND does have it's share of coyotes, but to me it always has.

How much CRP did ND have before 1995? ND hasn’t been loosing CRP for 40 years, heck, it only had CRP for 20! 1995-2010 was the big CRP years.


How many coyotes did ND have before 2000? A HECK of a lot less than today!

Pre 1993 a guy would catch a handful of coyotes for every 100-200 fox. How’s that work today? Lol




Everybody always wants to beat the habitat drum. And that worked for that 75 year period when there were no predators.

But predators are back on the scene. Coyotes, lions, bears, etc.

What did ND coyote hides bring this year, compared to ten years ago, compared to 20 years ago, compared to 40 years ago?

I hear this gripe all the time. While i agree more could be done if we didn’t have the Willamette Valley voting base. I don’t see what could be done that has a snowballs chance in actually lasting with the oregon political climate. Coyote and lion seasons are year round already. Very few people kill one lion, let alone two. Two otc fall bear tags with a small percentage of people killing two bears annually. Spring bear has low harvest rates with a high percentage of the unfilled tags reporting no effort. Hounds or bear bait would be a political mount Everest to get back. Aerial gunning, poisons by private citizens for coyote control, that won’t fly in this state. Coyote bounties? Coyote derbies aren’t allowed, good luck with a bounty program. Habitat gets blamed a lot but I don’t buy that as much as the predator pit we live in destroying fawn recruitment before winter hits and habitat becomes a bigger issue. We need to suppress the predation enough to allow mule deer to recover but there aren’t many tools left unless the era of $1000 coyotes starts soon.

There are large declines in mule deer numbers in almost all of the western states, especially in the rockies from what I have read. Haveing a large decline over that much of an area to me shows a very complex and multiple factors issue or issues. Have the mule deer gone through major cycles like this in the past? If not it is difficult to determine if and when the decline slows or stops before the population is below critical mass.

Bryce

Whitetail deer fawn recruitment is dropping all across the SE US. The majority of studies show coyotes are largely to blame.

Over 60% fawn mortality due to predation in one study. Over half of that attributed to coyotes.

It certainly is a multi-faceted issue.

Habitat loss and fragmentation is part of it.

I think this EHD cycle we seem to be in is part of it.

Increased human pressure I believe is part of it (certainly in areas).

And predators.

Go back in the hay day of mule deer hunting, the 50s and 60s, early 70s, what didn’t exist?

We had a good 75 year period where predators were pretty much a non-issue. The wolves and lions were gone, bears were at no where near the numbers they are now, no grizz to speak of, and coyotes were GREATLY suppressed over where they are now.

All wildlife biologists of the time had to worry about was habitat. Habitat habitat habitat.

Those biologists taught the biologists of today.

But now predators are back on the landscape. Amongst other things.

It falls directly on the shoulders of our odfw . At the end of the day it's their responsibility to manage the numbers

Not anyone else . They are paid to do a job . Forty years of mule deer decline equals 40 yrs of failure.

I would expect to be fired with that track record

We all know the issues .......

1. Human population has almost doubled in oregon in those 40 yrs

2. Vechile incidents have increased as a result I'm sure . Some steps have been taken to help , but not enough

3. Predator control under all the bs rules is not nearly adequate enough to keep a declining mule deer heard from declining further. The more winter range road closures increase the more dead deer I find .......no or very little predator control in those areas . As far as Dogs being a limited tool , Political push back should include odfw NOT taking care of " problem " cougars...... Allowing night hunting and night vision scopes is a very effective tool

4. Poaching........I'm guessing it's increased in the last 40 . Needs more attention

Lots of other factors , over harvest , tag reductions are usually too few and too late

Loss of habitat ? I'm skeptical..........over grazing , monetizing public game for private gains ,bla bla bla





I'll rejoin the big banquet clubs when they start bringing lawsuits and holding odfw accountable, instead of volunteering their members to perform slave labor for odfw projects ....lol