Coon numbers must be down

Last year I think boys caught 10 coons on our farm. So far they have only gotten 2. I'm not seeing any track I guess numbers are just down thos year.
I don't think we reduced the number much since we didnt start tell January they caught all males but 2.
I'm glad ther aren't many chicken killers just suprised. We are close to a large creek that flows into the Ohio river and but ul to one of the largest woods for several miles.

Their coyote and fox catch has gone up with half as many traps out.

I agree, the coon numbers must be way down. The last couple of years I have caught 50 by this time of season. This year my catch number is 18. Not sure what the reason is.

I have caught a bunch of coon, but all boars and only one female. I have not set for a coon, but they have plugged otter trail sets, beaver castor mound sets and lots of coyote sets.

Most game follows a +/- 6 to 7 yr. cycle of up and down. We are prob in the middle low point of the cycle.

They’ve been on a 4 year high around here. Its hard to believe how many I’ve caught just between my house and barn the last few years.

I’ve caught a third as many as last year too. Maybe different weather or disease hit, trapper error.

Mother Nature rules. When prey # drop, the preds drop too. It usually follows a 6-8 yr cycle. Not counting disease or human pressure.

I noticed this spring I had more rabbits than I ever saw on the farm. I thought trapping last season really helped. But now they seem to have vanished. I'm thinking resident hawks yotes and fox got them.

For 2 years before I started trapping again in late winter I found 6 -12 dead coons while shead hunting. I figured distemper. I didn't find any yeast year after trapping and figured trapping must have helped. I'm not sure but hopefully my chickens, goats,sheep and wild life will fare better with with less predators.

I didn't set for coon this year, but have had a few in k9 and beaver sets. I had a corn feed out late summer/early fall for deer and only got one coon on camera in 3 months. Normally there are six at a time pounding it every night. Even added molasses and no coons. I guess with prices so low it's good timing.

We got hit pretty hard. I normally catch +- 100 coon, this year I caught 17. To be fair, I didn’t hit it as hard as I normally do, but some of my best locations I’ve trapped for 10 years didn’t produce a single coon. Also found a lot of dead ones, and a couple just sitting around looking dazed and miserable.

Distemper gets them around here if they are not managed. I've found over the last 30 years that if I trap high density areas every other year the population stays healthy and stable.

Same Here

been slow here for also even for coyote here at home
J

I trap in the suburbs. Annoying nuisance garbage picking coons mostly. This year, I have 10 without really trying. If I really tried, I could get 2-3 a night.

We are covered up with coons in Georgia. No one traps them much around us.

Nebraska is filthy with coon. Every one I caught in yote sets got released, except for 3X or bigger. $4 dollar coon not worth my trouble.

Not worth my time either, but I dam sure ain’t releasing any. They end up as a bait pile that gives the coyotes a destination to check out every few days. I’d rather feed buzzards then turn them loose.

Plenty running around here in Nebraska. Mother nature will wipe them out soon. Distemper cleans them up when we don't. Only brought 20 home to skin this year but it was a small fraction of the ones culled. We were shooting them out in broad daylight while trapping. That's when you know they are about to go poof.

I do find them to be quite a pain for what they are worth so i have started to tan them for wall hangers and once i get proficient maybe start making then into things! Best time to experiment are on cheap coons!

My wife really wants to shoot a bobcat, not in a trap. We were night calling last weekend and in 2 stands called in 9 coon. All big boar coon.

My wife called and told me my boys had a large boar coon this morning. Now they are up to 3.

I think my total for coon this year is around 12 or so. Not a big line. Funny thing is every single one I’ve caught has been a boar. Also I have the same issues as the original poster, on one farm last year I caught 13 coon and this year I only got one from there.

I would have to say way down here in my area of PA. Ran a small mink line and only remember seeing any kind of coon tracks at one spot. The others were void of any streamside.

According to the research, racoons are susceptible to both canine AND feline distemper. Different diseases for different hosts. Plus they are a major vector of rabies the farther east of the Mississippi River you go. Not so much west of it (almost rare but not quite). In 2012 (the year of the drought) coon #'s plummeted in Nebraska as shown in the 2013 and 2014 harvest data. while everyone bemoaned the EHD with the deer in the corn belt,,, the coon were also susceptible to a midge transferring feline distemper in many spots (dried/drying up water holes). Lots of dead carcass coons found while fellows were hunting and trapping. Along with the high pelt prices they (remaining population) were hunted and trapped pretty heavy until about the 2016 season when prices started declining. But to answer the original question......................... since about 2018 I can't keep them out of my coyote sets - this year is the worst!................. the mike

I think it was last year when our Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife was dropping some type of pellets from the air in an effort to combat rabies in our coon population. I don't know how widespread the dispersal was but they were dropping right over where I trap. We have a ridiculous number of raccoon in this area. I don't target them but pick up an incidental here and there.

Not here. They're a 'dime a dozen', but nobody wants them

A lot of coon here, so the diseases have not hit hard yet. They get Parvo as well as the two distempers. With our coons bringing about $3.50 averages in the grease with 10-20% out we won't see too much harvest in the near future. When watching the you tube videos if one waited here until November 10th and trapped until Christmas and left about 30% of the coons in the woods and finished them and shipped them one might average 7-8 bucks. That is not encouraging.

Bryce