Coyotes repopulating an area

Can you over trap coyotes an a area? In high density/population areas I know they rebound fast. What about in low population areas across the country? I've known a few long liners in my home state that put several hundred on the stretchers each year. When I first started trapping a few years back. I had a lot of success my first year and was hooked. Talking with these guys going into my 2nd year. I was skeptical about trapping the same areas again. They assured me that I'd catch just as many and the population wouldnt be affected. They were right, ever since that conversation tho, I've wondered if it's like that everywhere for coyotes? It's been several years since I've read Mark June's book. But I remember he had some interesting statistics in there about coyote populations. I'd like to hear some other people's thoughts and insight from their states.

Coyotes will travel long distances to fill their bellies. This is especially true during the time of year when dispersing occurs. Removal of coyotes from an area allows their food sources to recover. More coyotes will show up to take advantage of that.

Coyote numbers seem to be down in my area. Local farmers like to hunt them mid to late winter when they don't have much else to do. Wolves have moved into this area and they have a tendency to chase off coyotes whenever they have the chance.

In order to keep coyote populations steady there has the be a 3/5ths reduction in population every year. I have heard that when an area sees a large decline in population the remaining coyotes have bigger litters, likely due to less competition for food. All I know is everywhere I’ve lived everyone kills every coyote they can, and it never seems to make a dent.

I've been doing this for 40+ years and agree with the majority research which is that you have to trap them hard for several years to really thin them. I do not agree with the very popular opinion now, built upon Mark Bekoff's work (animal rights biologist and VERY frequent writer) that trapping them "does little good."

I trap them hard for three years and EVERY time, we win, they lose.

Blessings,
Mark

I have trapped the same small area for several years. Every year I have taken more from that area. Partly due to experience and I believe like any wild animals, a good habitat will draw and support a constant growth. I use not only the same area but the same set locations year to year. I trap the small area due to time restrictions. Work tends to take more time than I would like. 😆

Starting back in the 90’s we had a group of farmer that were diehard road hunters killing over a hundred coyotes a year. They Said it didn’t matter how many they killed from an area , next year they could kill as many or more. This continued until two things happened. The price of corn went up and we got hit with parvovirus. High corn prices meant every farmer took every acre of set aside ground out of the program and went back to farming right up to the top of the ditch bank , the remaining fence rows disappeared and so did the coyotes.
Now I’ve always said if you turn a grass patch into a crawfish pond the coyotes will switch from hunting mice and rabbits to hunting crawdads. What I didn’t know was a lot more coyotes hunt mice and rabbits than crawdads, lol .
Long story short , if you’ve got good habitat you will likely have good numbers of everything, game and predators. If that’s the case you need to remove 70 percent of the coyotes for three years in a row to get the population down.

The areas I trap don’t have high numbers of coyotes, but for several years I would average the same number of caught coyotes per property. Well two years ago I caught a high number of females and lactating females. Numbers really dropped in sightings and catches the following years. But, we trap about 9 months out of the year on a rotation between properties.
Now there are areas in my county where no one traps and from what I’m told, if you shoot a deer and don’t recover it within 3hrs, by the time you find it the coyotes will have already beat you to it…day or night. It’s almost getting to the point these leases are talking about increasing dues to bring in a trapper.
I believe numbers can be controlled in an area whether it’s by removing them or running them off, lol.

Let me preface this by saying that coyotes are relatively new on the landscape in most of NC with the exception of the mountains in the western part of the state. Where I live, we started seeing coyotes around 20 years ago.

I am not a big numbers guy by any means but I have hit local populations hard the first year I trapped properties with plenty of coyote sign and great prey habitat. And based on what I have read and heard, I fully expected the population of coyotes to fill back in to sustain similar catch rates year after year as the locations have remained excellent prey habitat. But that is not what I have experienced. I have continued to trap those properties for 10 or more years now and i continue to catch a few coyotes each year. But the numbers and sign is nowhere near the level they were the first year before I started trapping them.

I have had this discussion with my local biologist and his theory is that our coyote population is not exceeding the carrying capacity of the habitat for the most part. So the coyotes on adjoining properties have adequate habitat to sustain them and there is little or no pressure for them to seek out new habitat so even ideal areas are slow to fill back in. That seems to make sense to me based on what I have experienced. There are lots of variables but it sure appears that constant pressure on on the existing populations does help keep the numbers down in my neck of the woods.

Very interesting topic. I really trapped our 2k acres hard. I feel I took 95% plus of the coyotes off the place. You can’t find a track on any road now. This was my first year trapping this place. It will be interesting to see how the population is this coming winter and what my numbers are. We currently have a bumper crop of fawns and it looks like they have mostly made it past the first month on the ground. We are really pleased with those results.

On 2k acres what you’re going to see, IMO, this fall is roughly the same number of coyotes, just most of them will be young of the year coming in from dispersal around your 2k acres when momma kicks em off the teat.

That really makes sense and it’s what I see. Most all coyotes I catch are young. Young unbred females and young males. They’ll always filter in I guess, but we don’t have coyotes running rampant on the properties.

So based on other accounts on similar properties in the area the second year is half as many. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. The last three yotes I caught where very young that was end of April and May. Young coyotes should be pretty easy to trap I would think. Can’t wait for deer season to get out of the way so I can hammer them again !

Here in PA we have a healthy population of trappers & hunters going after coyotes. We still have an over-abundance of coyotes

It's not at all uncommon for me to trap right on top of dens, snag the adult mated pair this time of year and be trapping the exact same location the following year.

I would think to have any effect at reduction you'd need to take out 80% over a few hundred square miles at one time but it would be quickly repopulated.

With respect to everyone's opinion, I'm sure they are all correct in their assessments. I try to look at things from a biological view and not just a HARVEST view point. As stated : when habitat and land use remains fairly stable, and the items of food, cover and water are in the same relative landscape position & amounts, then a person can expect an animal density to be as high (or low) as it was previously. Throw in Ma Nature's handiwork (disease, drought, easy or tough winters, floods, competitors etc.,) and then humanity's interference (bulldozers, concrete, logging, intense row cropping etc., set aside programs) and the population #'s respond to Mr. Darwin's Law (adapt or perish). Now everyone here focused on the HARVEST question as their assumptions were based on immigration in and the natural fecundity and fertility of the remaining individuals. My training and observations lead me to want to know a little more about the area, county(s), region before a HARVEST question like this can be answered. A land area may support X amount of coyotes per square foot, meter, acre, mile etc. If removing X number during HARVEST season is the habitat stable? Are there enough remaining individuals to maximize that habitat usage? Are the surrounding areas producing migrants to immigrate in? And is Ma Nature and mankind playing their games during less critical times of the year than puppy time? You can use all the algorithms and programs you want on a keyboard but "from my side of the fence" a scent post survey taken every month for 1 week, from July to October 1st , tells more about a population density than anything else I've seen. Its (biological) old fashioned scouting during the rearing time for your "CROP". Most of us can't manage the time for something this complex but a few game cams selectively placed would be an easy baseline to get started. Tom Krause wrote a very good article (from a Trapper's standpoint) about the very best habitat areas (quality) will always draw animals from lesser (quality) areas due to Darwin's Law. I guess this old man (me) has seen (and lived through) a few armchair opinions/predictions hit dead on but I couldn't get close to answering upcoming HARVEST questions w/o some type of field data (i.e. How many muskrats in that house - duh - How big is the house?). My take on it. .................... the mike

Some talented coyote trappers are able to determine coyote numbers by reading sign and the amount of sign & age. It dos not take long if you know where to look! A scouting trip in late September will show you a lot about the prospects for the up coming trapping season.

Depends on population density.

High population could filter back into a vacuum in just weeks.

Low population it could take months.

I’ve seen areas fill back up after being cleaned out in June in just a matter of two weeks. And June is not a month known for having a lot of coyote movement.

I’ve seen areas void of coyotes for many months in “fur season” after being cleaned out. And October through February can see some pretty massive waves of coyote movement.

What was the difference? Population.

More move in to take the losers spots. Hit them hard every time.

One thing i always thought interesting is that you can kill of the locals and the new ones always seem to move right in to the old neighborhood and set up house in the same spot.

When they stop hearing the neighbors they go and check it out and sometimes they move right on over.

I think what it takes to bring down the numbers is an all out coyote war year round. Buffalo county, WI is known nationwide as a mecca for deer hunting. That being said there is some great habitat which can hold a lot of coyotes. However, there never seem to be that many around. Why? Farmers in the area run them hard in the winter as others have mentioned. trappers are out after them, turkey hunters shoot them when they come across them, small game hunters shoot at them. predator callers call all winter. Basically anybody who has weapon is going to shoot at them whenever they are seen.

It really makes a difference.

Good habitat will always be filled.

Remove all the predators, more will fill that void in a short time.

There are coyotes that die of old age all over the country that mankind never see.

Coyotes have a hard go getting established here-but they keep trying and do hold out in pockets here and there close to towns.
As soon as they venture out to the bush the wolves eliminate them.Catch one every few years before the wolves get it.

I've heard this from too many sources to doubt it. Having never spent time in an area where coyotes haven't been established for millennia I can't comment on it personally. I can say that once they are established in an area they are very resilient and about impossible to irradicate. I've had people tell me here that where the wolves are thick there won't be many coyotes. I can say I have never seen any evidence of that. While I have seen where wolves killed coyotes I've never seen a drop in coyote population after the wolves have moved in. I assume it is in that vulnerable period when they are trying to get established that they are susceptible to wolf predation.

That's how fox around here are. Close to town they are safe from coyotes or at least safer

I have heard that a lot about fox and coyote.
It is funny that wolves tolerate foxes following them around and feeding off their leftovers.
Maybe the wolves find it harder to catch fox in winter(I doubt that though) or maybe they just dont see them as competition.

Makes me wonder if the fact that coyotes can successfully breed with wolves has something to do with the wolf's tolerance with fox which don't pose that threat.

Why do coyote kill fox then?
Coyote cannot breed with fox.

Perfectly explained LT!

I agree. Needs to be all out for an extended time. You'll never get rid of them if that's a goal.

Coyote in the south want tolerate the fox. Kind of like the landowners. LoL!!! We had. Had red fox in th 90 s. BUT when coyote moved in. Red fox went first. Then grey fox. Grey Fox is almost gone in some places now. Found lots of dead grey fox in traps. Where coyotes killed my them. I am afraid the fox of the south are almost gone. Coyote and landowners just dont wanr them around

The fox moved into town. I regularly get calls for reds, greys and coyotes all over Atlanta. The reds still like open areas like golf courses and playgrounds, the greys won't be far from the thick stuff and coyotes are everywhere.

I chalk it up to available food everywhere, namely free range and feral cats.

Matter of fact the wife's work regularly has me trap greys. When ever they spot one trotting across the parking lot with a cat in it's mouth a get message to set traps.

If you want a shocker Google Henry Medical Center and pull up the satellite image.

We have Grey's in just about every town. There was an abandoned hotel in Albany they started demolition on then quit over legal battles. It sat for several years in the downtown pet of the town and you could ride by and see fox walking the second and third floors.
I have one property that has a small population of Greys on it. But I’ll catch maybe one Red a year. Even though it cost me money, I release the Reds and just don’t even mention it.
When I was younger you’d see Reds everywhere. But I saw very few Greys and coyotes were very rare. Now the Reds are rare and the coyotes are everywhere. I think the Greys have a better survival rate living with coyotes simply because they can climb.

I would agree with this. It's the big PREY competition factor

Coyotes kill foxes because they are the competition

( I'm pretty sure he knew that )