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SD tail bounty numbers

Posted By: Law Dog

SD tail bounty numbers - 07/05/21 10:08 PM

53,642 tails from 3,918 submissions for a average of 13.69 average tails per entry $10 per tail.
Posted By: martyd

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/05/21 10:16 PM

Can you give us a little more info on this post ?Is this coyote tails or Raccoon tails or what ? Thanks. Marty
Posted By: MChewk

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/05/21 10:34 PM

Guy would be better off selling his Fall/ winter furbearers tails...better average than fur.
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/05/21 11:02 PM

Originally Posted by martyd
Can you give us a little more info on this post ?Is this coyote tails or Raccoon tails or what ? Thanks. Marty



Coon, possum, fox, badger, striped skunks $10 a tail no spotted skunks or yotes.
Posted By: Trapper Dahlgren

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/05/21 11:31 PM

is it doing what they hope ? are there more pheasant ,and other small game
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/05/21 11:55 PM

Turkey population took off in places if we get some rain the pheasants will do better if it’s not to late, it has brought the vermin numbers down in places so I’d say yes. Only time you will get $10 for a grinners, never seen the roads so clean of road kills. I’m sure some get picked up for the tails but overall it looks like numbers are down in my area.
Posted By: Boco

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/05/21 11:59 PM

Why wouldnt they pay for coyote tails-they are a worse predator than all the rest put together?
Posted By: Broomchaser

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 12:03 AM

Because their hides bring enough money people are after them.
Posted By: Boco

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 01:38 AM

Hides are only good for a short while out of a year.
Predators do their damage mostly outside of the fur season.
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 01:40 AM

Originally Posted by Broomchaser
Because their hides bring enough money people are after them.


This and the State trappers are working them hard one guy said he cannot get the beavers he has giving him fit trapped because they are hitting the yotes now as a priority.
Posted By: Rat_Pack

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 01:56 AM

Never going to happen, but it'd be nice to have a bounty on all of the above here. Thinning out a few red-tailed hawks wouldn't hurt either
Posted By: 52Carl

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 02:12 AM

By removing 53,642 of these nest raiders, the remaining 1,000,000 nest raiders will have more available food to eat from reduced competition, leading to increased litter sizes.
If you cannot remove enough animals to keep up with the rate of reproduction, you are wasting your time, or in this case, making things worse.
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 02:43 AM

Always that one guy that makes things great. LOL This move added to a recent die off has reduced the nest predator numbers greatly in a lot of places I trapped ideal habitat locations last year and caught next to nothing in places I did well at before. Not that I wanted coons I caught around 20 last year.
Posted By: walleye101

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 03:05 AM

Always great to have that one guy on a trapping forum minimizing any possible value from predator management.
Posted By: Bigfoot

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 03:09 AM

Wether its effective or not . You all are lucky to have a fish and game dept. that tries . They dont just throw their hands up and say theres to many nest raiders lets shorten the pheasant hunting season . I wish MDC had a bounty program . Not only does it remove some predators but it helps preserve and nurture the skills needed to remove predators . If the coon mrkt ever turns around maybe in another ten years or so they will have some young trappers that know how to stack up some fur . Its not like they are hiring some G man to do it they are asking the community to get involved and help protect the game animals they cherish , then are giving a little subsidy to help with the cost . I can't think of a better summer time endeavour for GRANDPA AND THE KID . IMO the benifit go way beyond removing a few predators .
Posted By: NonPCfed

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 03:15 AM

Law Dog- I haven't been following it this year, the last year I sent in was the first in 2019. That first year I followed the "tail counter" pretty closely. In 2019, Minnehaha County (Sioux Falls' main county) was the leading county to return tails. Makes sense, it has the most people so there were enough guys who would take on the state's willingness to pay up to $600 for 60 tails.Last year it was only $5 a tail so don't know if Minnehaha people still handed in the most. Is it still about 85% coon being turned in...?
Posted By: walleye101

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 03:18 AM

What.......a game department that tries to manage nest predators rather than make excuses for poor game bird production?
Posted By: NonPCfed

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 03:26 AM

Quote
By removing 53,642 of these nest raiders, the remaining 1,000,000 nest raiders will have more available food to eat from reduced competition, leading to increased litter sizes.


52Carl- Sorry, I don't believe you. I don't see any more or any less of those predators in my part of South Dakota and my county turned in the most tails in 2019. Almost no one comes to Minnehaha County to hunt pheasants. I think everybody from Gov Kristi on down in state government knows this bounty program isn't really going to change the predator dynamics all that much, but that's how they sell it. Much harder PR-wise to say the truth that its her big DOUBLE BIRD to the antis and all the other social elite scum bags and snowflakes that South Dakota is going to support its traditional roots and the latte swelling coffee house drinkers CNN & MSNBC watching pukes can just kiss our collective ***...
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 03:38 AM

The bounty program is a addition to many other programs in SD, Pheasant Forever chapters, sportsman’s clubs run their own cage give away programs also. We have no seasons on vermin in the State cutting a lot of red tape kissing the ring to get permission for damage control needs. If You see vermin crossing the road you get out and let loose no problem as long as you can do it safely, you really don’t even need to get out of the vehicle even with vermin.

The bounty program has several goals in place the main one is to expand trapping to the younger generations and teach non-trappers the skills and the need for it to control wildlife numbers. This increases support for trapping in many ways and shines a light on the sport.
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 03:43 AM

Originally Posted by NonPCfed
Law Dog- I haven't been following it this year, the last year I sent in was the first in 2019. That first year I followed the "tail counter" pretty closely. In 2019, Minnehaha County (Sioux Falls' main county) was the leading county to return tails. Makes sense, it has the most people so there were enough guys who would take on the state's willingness to pay up to $600 for 60 tails.Last year it was only $5 a tail so don't know if Minnehaha people still handed in the most. Is it still about 85% coon being turned in...?



Coons were the lions share skunks and grinner then and way less fox and badgers. If you go to the GFP site and click on the county it has those stats for this season.
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 03:48 AM

I talked to my buddy in MO the other day he said he’s having trouble locating a coon dog down there, we talked earlier in the day about turkey numbers being low I said you think that’s related maybe. LOL He said ya he never thought about that less hunters/trappers more coon then.
Posted By: lee steinmeyer

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 12:01 PM

Originally Posted by Bigfoot
Wether its effective or not . You all are lucky to have a fish and game dept. that tries . They dont just throw their hands up and say theres to many nest raiders lets shorten the pheasant hunting season . I wish MDC had a bounty program . Not only does it remove some predators but it helps preserve and nurture the skills needed to remove predators . If the coon mrkt ever turns around maybe in another ten years or so they will have some young trappers that know how to stack up some fur . Its not like they are hiring some G man to do it they are asking the community to get involved and help protect the game animals they cherish , then are giving a little subsidy to help with the cost . I can't think of a better summer time endeavour for GRANDPA AND THE KID . IMO the benifit go way beyond removing a few predators .

Very good reply, Bigfoot!
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 12:29 PM

Almost forgot we have a large number of pay hunt places that do ADC work in the summer months along with the places that raise the birds for them so put that all together to make a combined control effort across the state every year.
Posted By: Wanna Be

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 02:17 PM

I wish our WMA’s would implement something like that. Wouldn’t exactly cover the cost of trapping, but it would definitely help the turkeys and quail and fill up a tank gas every now and then. Our public land numbers are way down and predators on these places are high.
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 05:52 PM

Several farmers also do control work around here skunks, possums and coon trapping mostly to keep the nesting predators down. Most target species are around the home places making trapping them a lot easier then going looking for them. You might have 1-2 houses per square mile East River with less houses West River with the best habitat around the farm/ranch places for the vermin to go to, denning areas here are a premium.

I took 9 cages down to a couple landowners last month the first guy caught 10 coons, moved the cages over to the others place he got 6 coons and a possum the next week.
Posted By: 330-Trapper

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 06:02 PM

Originally Posted by Rat_Pack
Never going to happen, but it'd be nice to have a bounty on all of the above here. Thinning out a few red-tailed hawks wouldn't hurt either

Turkey buzzards around here
Posted By: Calvin

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 07:56 PM

Is this why some on here buy beaver tails???????
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/06/21 08:25 PM

Nope some for tail oil some for leather I believe.
Posted By: niteprowler

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/07/21 06:39 AM

NonPCfed. - I like that answer !
Posted By: MJM

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/07/21 12:21 PM

I would guess the program has little effect on the hatch rate of ground nesting birds. From what I saw working for Delta Waterfowl for eight years you really have to get aggressive trapping to make any difference. Delta considered it a success trapping if you raised the hatch rate on ducks 10% or more. You had to work pretty hard to get that done. Taking a few nest eaters just changes which one eats it and when. The biggest advantage a pheasant egg has is it hatches in 23 days compared to 28-30 on a duck. I am sure SD lost a pile of CRP a few years back and that is a big factor in ground nester success. Predators take way more nests in small grass than large grass areas. It is something Delta figured out and now have their trappers trapping small grass areas. Large grass areas have a higher hatch rate on their own than small grass areas. I would bet the SD program doesn't raise the hatch rated more than a couple percent. Trappers working for Delta run 100's of traps from 15 March-15 July and take 100's of nest eaters off a 36 Sq mile block and show little difference. Someone catching 20 isn't hurting, but its not doing much to help. People trapping for $10 tail don't put in the hours and effort needed to make much difference. I feel the lack of grass hurts the ground nester way more than the predators. I don't think the program as dropped the predator numbers as much as they are saying. When you factor all the road kills, ones land owners would take anyway. How many extra ones are taken due to the program. It is great that people can get a few dollars for taking in tails, but I can not see it making a noticeable difference in the population of the predators or birds. Population numbers of both go up and down all the time.
Posted By: walleye101

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/07/21 01:29 PM

MJM makes some excellent points regarding the effectiveness of the program, and provided some interesting facts from the Delta Waterfowl studies. One thing that needs to be considered in this discussion is scale. The reason a 10% improvement is considered success is because nesting success rates are normally very low, so 10% more is both statistically and practically significant. These studies consistently show that it takes intensive effort to achieve this success rate, and that effort can only be accomplished on relatively small study areas. Since it's impractical to match that effort, large scale predator control is declared to be ineffective. But, again let's consider scale. If in fact the SD program raised the hatch even a couple of percent as MJM suggests, that would be huge on a statewide scale. It may be statistically insignificant but from a practical standpoint more nests would be effected by a half percent improvement statewide than a 10% improvement on a 36 sq mile block.
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/07/21 02:13 PM

Last year it appeared we got hit with distemper early in the summer or spring time of the year, if it hit later I would find more carcasses on the line like past years when we had outbreaks. Like I said places that produced good numbers of coon, skunks and possums years before produced very few last year. A guy would hit a few pockets of coon or skunks but overall the numbers were down except for a increase in possum numbers that seemed to be up overall.

Until they increase habitat your not going to see a boom in the bird numbers and the current farming practices are not supporting the habitat needs of wildlife. Haying during the hatch is not helping, farming fence to fence is more common now, when it’s dry the set aside lands get emergency cuttings that seems to be pretty regular. If a slough gets dry it plowed and planted. If cooperate type buyers acquire lands they slash and burn the trees and cover soon after the purchase.

The GFP has a habitat program in place but again they cannot do it all on their own.
Posted By: walleye101

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/07/21 03:02 PM

There is no doubt that large scale habitat programs would be far more effective, with longer term results, than predator reduction programs. What is frustrating for sportsmen is when Wildlife agencies tell them that predator control does little good, so let's do nothing at all.
Posted By: NonPCfed

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/07/21 03:53 PM

As I said before, the SD tail bounty program is more of a political statement than hard-core wildlife management science. Yes, I'm the sure the SD GF&P biologists know about the Delta predator efforts and results. These results aren't exactly new, they've been teaching such results in wildlife science for at least several decades. I suspect that the current drought (which started last year) has put the smack down on game birds much more than 3 years of trying to control predators.

Law Dog brings up the point of scale in how to spend some money. The key for more game birds is habitat, that has always been known but when most of the state is privately owned and farmers/ranchers are reacting to FEDERAL agricultural policy/management, there is little that the state of SD government can do. Gov. Kristi decided to spend the $500k she convinced the state agency to set aside for a little state resident trapping PR and "welfare". If the state would have put the same amount of money into renting farmland and placing into more game bird friendly habitat, they may have gotten maybe 2,500 acres enrolled (I'm basing that on $200 an acre cash rent for overall SD average cropland rental, it may be actually higher than that). 2,500 acres, which would have to be maintained for several years in their improved habitat state to be any good, doesn't translate very far across a state of about 49,280,000 acres. Ok, its a little "trapper welfare" but it will most likely be spent in state (some will come back as sales tax) and its more spread around than in some very specific local areas were pieces and parts of 2,500 acres could be rented.

It doesn't make biological sense but maybe some political sense...
Posted By: walleye101

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/07/21 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by NonPCfed
Yes, I'm the sure the SD GF&P biologists know about the Delta predator efforts and results. These results aren't exactly new, they've been teaching such results in wildlife science for at least several decades.



It is interesting talking with some of those wildlife science students, and what they retained. I have had Wildlife managers (past students) tell me that the Delta studies (and others) have proven that predator management does not work. That is the company line you will hear from most wildlife agencies. However, those studies actually showed that predator management can significantly improve nest success. The effectiveness of predator management programs become a matter of scale and economics. One reason wildlife agencies oppose predator management is that they almost always involves bounty programs. Bounty programs are expensive and compete directly with wildlife agencies for funding.
Posted By: NonPCfed

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/07/21 07:33 PM

Quote
t is interesting talking with some of those wildlife science students, and what they retained. I have had Wildlife managers (past students) tell me that the Delta studies (and others) have proven that predator management does not work. That is the company line you will hear from most wildlife agencies. However, those studies actually showed that predator management can significantly improve nest success. The effectiveness of predator management programs become a matter of scale and economics. One reason wildlife agencies oppose predator management is that they almost always involves bounty programs. Bounty programs are expensive and compete directly with wildlife agencies for funding.


And, as I pointed out, for habitat improvement for game birds around the state, $500k won't get much if your trying to rent and make some farmland better game bird habitat. Maybe spending that initial $560k on putting in more shrub thickets/thermal cover (gawd, spare me more pure ERC shelterbelts on state game land!) on their existing land might have been better money spent...
Posted By: Buck (Zandra)

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/07/21 07:42 PM

Say what you want about state run bounties,govt will always condemn money that gets paid out to the public that comes out of their pocket.
Posted By: walleye101

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/07/21 08:49 PM

Originally Posted by Buck (Zandra)
Say what you want about state run bounties,govt will always condemn money that gets paid out to the public that comes out of their pocket.


I'm not saying bounty programs are bad, I'm saying government wildlife agencies have a vested interest in claiming they don't work.
Posted By: bblwi

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/07/21 11:58 PM

I agree with several posters above that getting people involved in a project that will increase their likelihood of spending more time in consumptive outdoor activities is not a bad use of state funds. There are many ways that 500K could have been spent in even less productive manners. Unfortunately we live in a time when political "science" out plays any real biological science even in wildlife management. Unfortunate but very true in my opinion. The idea that a state is willing to utilize their own public funds to help promote not only a local bird population but a federally managed to an extent migratory waterfowl species sends a message to all states and outdoor users and researchers that we are willing to pitch in, where are you and what is your contribution?

Bryce
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 12:43 AM

The first year GFP gave out a bunch of cages if you signed up for them, very nice tru-catch cages, I passed I had plenty of cages. GFP is doing a lot of training trapper ethic instructors across SD they are paired up with a local trapper to do the hands on parts.

Supplies are given to the kids traps need to be returned at the end of the class sometimes you need to fill in the gaps for supplies to make things workout. The kids I had last year did very well trapping they made me proud nothing they did not catch between them.
Posted By: walleye101

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 12:56 AM

Great program any way you look at it. would freeze over before our MN governor would support something like this. But then 500K is just pocket change and would barely get his attention.
Posted By: Buck (Zandra)

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 12:59 AM

State agencies lose more than $500,000 a year in pencils pens and paper clips.I remember in the late '70's our DNR started a campaign to end Michigan's bounty sysrem,they were pa y ing out $15 for males and $20 for females on anywhere from 1200 to 1800 coyote s a year.The way they whined you would have thought they were going thru their entire budget to the public.Even back then it was a drop in the bucket.
Posted By: trapdog1

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 01:08 AM

I wonder how many tails come from road kills. For $10 why would you not stop?
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 03:04 AM

Originally Posted by trapdog1
I wonder how many tails come from road kills. For $10 why would you not stop?


The roads are clean now around here I made 2 hour haul today very few road killed critters on the roads if they are on the road its a sail critter.
Posted By: NonPCfed

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 03:37 AM

They may pick up or cut off tails in Law Dog's area, a little less traveled than around here. Most of the coon and pepes I've dead on the roads here this summer have been seriously greased. I don't remember seeing a road killed grinner. Maybe something is taking them out this year.
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 04:37 AM

I don't think we have that many to getting road killed tails from now but I'm sure people cut tails here if they come across them. Here a poacher tosses several carcasses on the shoulder of the busy roads for all to see I have disposed of a couple piles of them when I came across them. He's not very smart the roads are on both sides of his house about the same distance away maybe that's the message he is trying to send.
Posted By: 52Carl

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 04:55 AM

Originally Posted by NonPCfed
Quote
By removing 53,642 of these nest raiders, the remaining 1,000,000 nest raiders will have more available food to eat from reduced competition, leading to increased litter sizes.


52Carl- Sorry, I don't believe you. I don't see any more or any less of those predators in my part of South Dakota and my county turned in the most tails in 2019. Almost no one comes to Minnehaha County to hunt pheasants. I think everybody from Gov Kristi on down in state government knows this bounty program isn't really going to change the predator dynamics all that much, but that's how they sell it. Much harder PR-wise to say the truth that its her big DOUBLE BIRD to the antis and all the other social elite scum bags and snowflakes that South Dakota is going to support its traditional roots and the latte swelling coffee house drinkers CNN & MSNBC watching pukes can just kiss our collective ***...

What part of my statement don't you believe? I am pretty much saying that the program is a farce (as all bounty programs have always been).
Posted By: Ringneck1

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 05:22 AM

Look I've got a ton of respect for Gov Noem. I would trade our idiot for her in a quick minute. But the bounty program is pure political expediency. Worse there is no scientific way to determine the relative success or failure. At least Delta did a critical analysis of their work. This will end exactly like this thread is going, the trapper folk think its great, the state bios discount predator work, and the game birds lose. No politician is perfect at least she got some people out trapping, but its not gonna do much for game birds.

Having spent time hunting in as many as 5 states in a given season I don't feel like I am going out on a limb by saying the reason pheasants are down is because the large blocks of grass nesting cover are gone, or destroyed under the guise of the subsidized livestock forage program formerly known as CRP. Even the road ditches are hayed off in SD. No mystery that ground nesting birds are struggling. Not only SD, but ND, Nebraska, Kansas and here. put the pressure on congress to Restore CRP to what it was, and pheasants will be back in a few years, bounty or not. It really is that simple.
Posted By: Pike River

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 07:09 AM

Originally Posted by NonPCfed
Quote
t is interesting talking with some of those wildlife science students, and what they retained. I have had Wildlife managers (past students) tell me that the Delta studies (and others) have proven that predator management does not work. That is the company line you will hear from most wildlife agencies. However, those studies actually showed that predator management can significantly improve nest success. The effectiveness of predator management programs become a matter of scale and economics. One reason wildlife agencies oppose predator management is that they almost always involves bounty programs. Bounty programs are expensive and compete directly with wildlife agencies for funding.


And, as I pointed out, for habitat improvement for game birds around the state, $500k won't get much if your trying to rent and make some farmland better game bird habitat. Maybe spending that initial $560k on putting in more shrub thickets/thermal cover (gawd, spare me more pure ERC shelterbelts on state game land!) on their existing land might have been better money spent...

Such a great thread with interesting info.

Im not terribly familiar with much of what you guys are talking about so forgive me, what are ERC shelterbelts?
Posted By: walleye101

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by Ringneck1
Look I've got a ton of respect for Gov Noem. I would trade our idiot for her in a quick minute. But the bounty program is pure political expediency. Worse there is no scientific way to determine the relative success or failure. At least Delta did a critical analysis of their work. This will end exactly like this thread is going, the trapper folk think its great, the state bios discount predator work, and the game birds lose. No politician is perfect at least she got some people out trapping, but its not gonna do much for game birds.

Having spent time hunting in as many as 5 states in a given season I don't feel like I am going out on a limb by saying the reason pheasants are down is because the large blocks of grass nesting cover are gone, or destroyed under the guise of the subsidized livestock forage program formerly known as CRP. Even the road ditches are hayed off in SD. No mystery that ground nesting birds are struggling. Not only SD, but ND, Nebraska, Kansas and here. put the pressure on congress to Restore CRP to what it was, and pheasants will be back in a few years, bounty or not. It really is that simple.


No one is claiming that habitat is not the major problem effecting game bird abundance. That's understood. However, the reason large blocks of grass nesting cover are so important is because it reduces vulnerability to nest predation. That's a fact as well. The Delta work shows that predator removal improves nest success. Intensive removal resulting in significant measurable results on a relatively small scale. Just because results of extensive removal over the entire landscape are not measurable on a statistical level, does not mean there has been no improvement.
Posted By: Boone Liane

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 01:09 PM

Delta has it figured out.

Identify “small” tracts of premium habitat and intensively remove nest predators from that tract.

Huge benefits.
Posted By: Law Dog

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 01:45 PM

It’s a bigger program then just the bounty program as that is just one part of a bigger goal. Look up the SD Second Century Initiative program when you have time. GFP promotes trapping whenever they can that’s surprising in this PC world you should see the BS that the bunny huggers post on the Governors web page the typical idiot anti garbage.

The best thing I see them doing is teaming up with 4H to get new and younger trappers involved, they are teaching the facts and supplying the needed equipment to get it done right.
Posted By: walleye101

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 03:19 PM

Originally Posted by Boone Liane
Delta has it figured out.

Identify “small” tracts of premium habitat and intensively remove nest predators from that tract.

Huge benefits.


Huge benefits on a small scale, or small benefits across a huge scale, which one results in the most cumulative overall benefit?

Also, Delta is specifically interested in duck production so it does make sense to target efforts near prime waterfowl habitats.
Posted By: NonPCfed

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 03:22 PM

[quotem not terribly familiar with much of what you guys are talking about so forgive me, what are ERC shelterbelts? ][/quote]

No problem, my own self-created acronym. Eastern red cedar. For the greater Pacific Northwest guys, this tree is not actually a "cedar" such as you have there that produces a cone. "Eastern red cedar" is a type of juniper but because its has red interior wood and the eastern half of the country has almost no other junipers (that I know of), it got called "cedar". In South Dakota, its often planted as thermal cover for critters such as deer and pheasants because it grows so thick that it has insulation facor to such a planting. These shelter belts, especially if not very old, are just about impossible to walk through. To push deer out for other hunters to maybe get a shot out in the open, I've almost crawled through some of them. Not for people...
Posted By: USMC47 🦫

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/08/21 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by NonPCfed
Quote
By removing 53,642 of these nest raiders, the remaining 1,000,000 nest raiders will have more available food to eat from reduced competition, leading to increased litter sizes.


52Carl- Sorry, I don't believe you. I don't see any more or any less of those predators in my part of South Dakota and my county turned in the most tails in 2019. Almost no one comes to Minnehaha County to hunt pheasants. I think everybody from Gov Kristi on down in state government knows this bounty program isn't really going to change the predator dynamics all that much, but that's how they sell it. Much harder PR-wise to say the truth that its her big DOUBLE BIRD to the antis and all the other social elite scum bags and snowflakes that South Dakota is going to support its traditional roots and the latte swelling coffee house drinkers CNN & MSNBC watching pukes can just kiss our collective ***...
It’s time you quit beating around the bush and be honest. Lol.
Posted By: silkyplainscoyot

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/10/21 11:45 PM

It can be effective taking predators that affect ground nesting birds if done right. For example, take the least tern and piping plover that nest on sand bars or around gravel pits. Raccoons are the biggest problem. A friend has worked on a project in central Nebraska trapping raccoons extensively from the laying period through the rearing. (April - August) The hatch rate has went from 3% (when raccoons were wreaking havoc on eggs) to around 90% since raccoon have been heavily trapped. The least tern was on the endangered species list but was just recently removed.
Posted By: 52Carl

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/12/21 02:00 AM

Originally Posted by silkyplainscoyot
It can be effective taking predators that affect ground nesting birds if done right. For example, take the least tern and piping plover that nest on sand bars or around gravel pits. Raccoons are the biggest problem. A friend has worked on a project in central Nebraska trapping raccoons extensively from the laying period through the rearing. (April - August) The hatch rate has went from 3% (when raccoons were wreaking havoc on eggs) to around 90% since raccoon have been heavily trapped. The least tern was on the endangered species list but was just recently removed.

That has been my experience as well. That approach is a far cry from a random State-wide bounty system however.
Posted By: NonPCfed

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/12/21 04:07 AM

Not random, patterns do emerge. Minnehaha County has the most people so turned in the most tails. The Hutterites must really like the program, 5 out of the 7 James River counties show up on the map for high numbers, including the 3 lower counties that probably combined have 15+ "colonies" in them. Easy money for such multi-family but "single" farm type of operation...

https://sdgfp.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/e7bbbd6fa93b48c6a31985aa7c57c5ff
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: SD tail bounty numbers - 07/12/21 11:16 AM

As a biologist and trapper I support bounties (big and small) and harvesting critters.
Pretty straight forward.

Research in the wildlife management arena has been animal rights tainted since the 1970's. You have to sift through the thesis and the educational history and field workings of researchers to get a flavor for what "they" advocate. You will find that anti-harvest fanatics (as I call them) are often the most active in wildlife research as they have a personal agenda = a presupposition to any of their work = biased.

It is hard to find good researchers today since so much of academia is infested with liberal professors who teach these anti-harvest personnel who grow up to wear nice uniforms with state patches on them.

Just like this forum, we have all sorts of philosophies in our animal husbandry and wildlife management programs.
Sift through it carefully.

Blessings,
Mark
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