Coon Mating Season

Here in Northern Michigan it's been a real mix of cold snaps and a few one or two day warm-ups, so not a lot of coon moving on a regular basis. With the mating season around the corner, should I be expecting movement on a daily basis when it's here? Or will they just be coming out of their dens once a week or so? Thank you in advance for the help.

I've already caught some large boars in dry land sets.

Your PM.

We've had some mild nights in the high 20's and even low 30's, I caught 5 big boars in coyote dirt hole sets this week when we had a 10 degree low. It's a rut, so when love is in the air they're moving.

I was wondering the same

Caught my first big boar of the year last week so I was thinking they were close or in it.

Its on here. The boars are checking out dens.

in my area once the breeding starts the boars just keep moving except for new snow or high winds.

I was reading up on coon mating season and coons can mate from February until June. I never realized they could or would go so late in the spring. Maybe that is a regional thing with coons further south having longer mating seasons. Anyone have better data on that? If that holds true for WI it can explain why some years one can see such small coons in November. With a 63 day gestation that means that females can have litters from early April to the middle of August. That could be last year's YOY females reaching the body size to reach puberty and YOY males too. Also females that get missed early or lose a litter can be mated again.

Bryce

They will continue to come back into a heat cycle until they breed. I always look for coon pups clear up till Sept in attics. Some years there seem to be more late litters than others. Coon born in attics will make it where coon giving birth that late in the wild will not. Food sources and consistent temps in the attics allow the mortality rates to be lower. Another interesting tidbit is the average coon home range will be 2 to 4 squire miles but can go as high as 18 square miles at times. males will really travel this time of year, and again the circuits will be dictated by the amount of food, weather, and den locations for the sows. and how many sows are in an area for the boars. Coon go solitary after a year to year in half except for the sows with pups until her heat cycle then she kicks them away and the young groups may stay together. If you watch feeders the one thing most folks will see is lg and smaller coon will be together feeding, but the real big coon most of the time will be by themself. Even though I have seen the after math of boars killing pups and have had many customers tell me what they heard while it was happening, I was able to witnessed watching this past spring a male-killing the pups and the female trying to defend them. All of a sudden she went nuts and kicked the boars tail all over the attic at the same time attacking me.

It's on here. I saw one yesterday morning in my pasture moving through. I have gotten 16 off a 1/2 mile line in the last 10 days. Some were females at first but now all are boars.

It's on here. I saw one yesterday morning in my pasture moving through. I have gotten 16 off a 1/2 mile line in the last 10 days. Some were females at first but now all are boars.

Still hibernating here

Coon don't hibernate. They just hole up during bad weather.

The bad weather must be all of late December,jan,feb,and part of march

I know this is trapping only but I would like to expand this discussion regarding coon denning up. I know they do not hibernate but does their metabolism wind down considerably while the den? Or does this depend upon if they den for say 3-7 days or say a couple weeks or more. One of the reasons I ask is we fleshed a couple boars today. They skinned very hard and fleshed hard to, but it seems that the fur was showing signs of losing color, brightness and texture etc. If their metabolism does change and they mobilize mostly fat there may not be enough protein and fur is 99% protein to maintain the pelt in good condition. I seem to notice this more on the older males and have caught some YOY coons in very late December that had great fur and was wondering if they did not den as they were still working on growing. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Bryce

I've seen coon laying out on limbs In below zero weather soaking up the sun, they just never came to the ground.

In 5 feet of snow?

Limbs at the den site. Like I said they just don't go to the ground.
I don't know how many of you do any coon calling but even on extremely cold days you can get them to come out of a den tree. Most of the time they won't come to the ground but they will exit the den.

I don't know the specifics of it, but you may be on to something. I remember fleshing late winter coons when working for a buyer. They were unlike anything I had seen before. Very stringy fat...not grizzle and not like early, blue leather. Just strange. They did not really clean up on the beam, the stuff just melted off when boarded.

I can recall trapping late winter (Feb/March) coons in bodygrips and I kept finding holes cut in the belly....almost surgical and precise. I was told this was in fact other coons pursing the stomach contents of the deceased. This actually made sense based on how the scene appeared.