Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum Whitetail deer home range…

Why should it be that states problem ? Buy a caller or a couple traps and kill ever one you see .

What are they supposed to do? There’s already no closed season and night hunting permits. Bounties don’t work and never will. You’ve got to have large scale buy in on a level we will never see to make any difference in coyote populations. They’re here now. The best deterrent to fawn depredation is improving habitat and adjusting harvest accordingly.

Studies on coyotes have been very eye opening to me. Recreational hunting/trapping is not a long term solution. Habitat improvements are.

What about trapping them hard right before fawning season on a property? Create a void while they are most vulnerable? Is this worth doing or should we just shoot fewer does?

Yeah , cover in one of the main 3 things they need

Yes that is the recommended practice at the moment. The voids are quickly filled by transients though. Long term studies concluded after 2-3 years of trapping that fawn recruitment rates were right back where they started before trapping was initiated. There’s no shortage of homeless coyotes looking to fill a void when you make one. I’m not suggesting that trapping is entirely ineffective. It’s really a cost/benefits analysis on whether saving a couple of fawns is worth the effort. We do very little to no coyote control on several properties and have high recruitment rates, but habitat condition is superb. That’s the most important factor.

I kill ever one I see . It ain't there it ain't eating . Of course over time another one will move in but the one you killed ain't there. That new coyotes has to find his way around too .

Yeah we have a timber lease so we can’t manipulate habitat much.

Yeah a lot are in that same boat.

Imo , one thing about good cover it gives coyotes more food resources. All a coyote wants is a full belly .

Great bedding cover increases small rodents, reptiles and rabbits, which coyotes will readily rely on instead of fawns. Once a fawn is a couple of weeks old they’re hard to capture if healthy. Also hard to detect in good cover.

I currently have what I’m sure is the same dog that will find me on the tractor and hunt the field behind me as I clip staying 100 yards or so away. I should shoot it but I kinda feel like Kasey and that wolf on Yellowstone.

They are. Have a cash cow in the night time hunting license. They don’t want coyotes going anywhere just like corn

Poison

So if I were to create good fawning cover what would the minimum effective size be and what would the best cover be? It would seem small areas of good fawning cover might actually make it easier for them to hunt. I have 310 acres with about 180 ac of planted pine, of which about 120 ac is mature saw timber, 30 ac are about 10 yr old and 40 ac are 2 yr old CC. The 40 ac cut two years ago runs basically right through the middle of my property pretty much line to line and was done specifically to provide cover. Right now the plan is to do another 40-50 ac cut in about 5 years and the rest in another 5 years. I am 67 and realistically have another 10-15 years of hunting if I am lucky. I also have about 12 ac of old pasture in one spot I could do something with. Also have another 25 ac open field, the bottom 8 ac I plant in Eagle beans/rr ready corn. I have been considering doing something along the north side of my summer plots to create a travel corridor from my woods to my neighbors woods and trying to decide the best width. Optimally it would be wide enough to mow 1/3 every few years to keep it in the early secessional stage. Luckily since I own it I can do anything with the place I can afford.