Coyote jagt fremme storvildtbestanden

[ran]

Coyote hunting to improve big game numbers
By Dave Frank For The Daily Times
Jun 1, 2006, 03:05 am

Need an excuse to break out the big game rifle or coyote gun? How about significantly increasing the number of deer in an area?

Contrary to PETA, the ASPCA and other like-minded organizations, coyotes are not friendly little dogs that you can tame and make a pet. They are successful predators, pound-for-pound the toughest animal this side of a badger or wolverine. Intelligence-wise, no other four-footed mammal comes close to them.

For 100 years the United States has waged war against coyotes, only to have them increase their range and numbers.

Mule deer fawns are born in June and weigh about 10 pounds. At first, the doe leaves her fawns hidden while she goes to forage. That's when the problem arises for the deer. Coyotes are also raising pups at this time and they have voracious appetites. Older coyotes purposefully hunt for the fawns to feed their growing broods, and inexperienced pairs of coyotes sometimes stumble upon the fawns while hunting other game.

Luckily, after a short while the fawns are typically large enough to escape the coyotes and, more importantly, they begin to travel with their mothers, who can easily defend them against one coyote. So as long as the doe isn't double-teamed, the fawn has a good chance of survival once it reaches a month or two of age.

Estimating the number of fawns killed by coyotes each year is very difficult because they are easily carried away and quickly consumed. It's like trying to prove what happened to the snacks in a house full of teenage boys. Was the food ever really in the fridge or did the teenagers eat the snacks?

By the way, this is the same problem that producers of sheep and goats -- whose young are only slightly bigger than fawns -- have when trying to prove predation problems.

However two people have recounted to me eye-witness accounts of single coyotes taking down elk calves. In both incidents, the coyotes had the upper hand when the humans intervened. In one case, CPR was necessary to revive a calf which had been strangled by a coyote. The persons involved took pictures before and after the successful resuscitation.

So if coyotes can take down an elk calf, they obviously would have no problem with a fawn. But it is generally accepted that a breeding pair of coyotes will kill up to four fawns each fawning season, depending on their experience and if their territory includes favored fawning habitat.

You can never eliminate coyotes from your deer hunting area, nor should you want to, but you can significantly improve the deer numbers in a micro habitat if you take out the breeding coyote pair. May and June are the prime months for getting this done. Any earlier and another breeding pair is likely to set up shop in the same area. Any later and the need is no longer there.

Alaska and Arizona have pioneered this approach with moose and antelope, respectively, helping them to rebound after population slumps by controlling wolves and coyotes in calving/fawning areas. If you save one female fawn from being a coyote's entreé, she will produce a fawn in two years and then every year afterwards. Her female progeny will do the same. That means that in five years there are potentially at least 15 more deer in the valley or canyon you like to hunt. At least a few will be legal bucks that would not have been there if you just sat on your butt and watched the basketball finals.

Image what the potential is in 10 years.

Never been coyote hunting before? Never fear, simply go to http://www.predatorsmasters.com for some sound advice and information about hunting the hunters.

Remember that only coyotes are fair game this time of year, and take your camera to record the occasional fox or bobcat that may also respond to your call.

.....når bare man har nok penge og krudt.....så går det ikke aldrig helt galt :-)

Favourite Quote: Vi løser ikke vore problemer ved at tænke på samme måde, som da vi skabte dem.....(Albert Einstein)