Do you believe this

[Hills of Texas]

Mb550’s are the best user friendly trap on the market.

[PondPopper]

Brother I see it everyday around here. I routinely hear they’ve called and killed every coyote onthe lease. I kinda cringe and say ok. Coyotes run a lot to of miles. Kill the residents and more move in. Look at historical records. The northeast of the country had no coyotes. Now they are covered up

We are covered up with them west of Brady now..
22 years ago there were basically none to speak of. We never heard or saw any, no tracks or sign of any kind.
Our fawn crops have been taking a serious beating the last 4-5 years.. We now hear and see coyotes regularly..

[RifleBowPistol]

In a lot of areas, that is not close to possible. Where we used to live, I kept pretty good tabs on the deer population and the coyotes. I would say there were typically around 18 deer that lived within 1 1/2 miles of our house. Of those about 10 to 12 would be does of various ages. We would typically see about four to five pregnant does every spring. Most of those does would give birth and most of those fawns would make it to get old enough to loose their spots. Then after that, it was difficult to keep track of what fawns turned into which deer.

I would say maybe every two, to three years a doe would loose a fawn. I think most of those were a result of the fawn being born with some problem. The most of the does where we lived like to use one 30 acre area of one particular pasture to give birth to their fawns. It was an area, that always had tall grass. I am about 98% sure, in the 14 years I lived there, that none of the fawns born in that area were killed by any predator. Now the does that gave birth in other areas, I was not able to keep as close of track of how well they did with their fawns.

That particular area that most of the does like to give birth, was in one corner of a large pasture. That same area, was also the spot the pack of coyotes that had a den back behind our house, would come out into the pasture every evening when they went out to hunt. They would follow a narrow clearing along a fence line, to the pasture, then out into the pasture for their evening hunt, almost every evening. There was typically five coyotes in that pack. They would pass right through the area, where the does liked to give birth and hide their fawns. I don't know of a single fawn being lost to coyotes in that area of the pasture. I usually knew how many fawns were hidden in that area of the pasture.

Also there were a lot of bobcats on the place. I still swear there were two subspecies of bobcats, out there. I have a bunch of bobcat videos and pictures. Most of the bobcats out there, were the typical sized bobcats, that are about twice the size of a house cat. We had a mating couple of bobcats that hung out around our house for months one year. Then later the female gave birth to three kittens, we watched the momma cat and the kittens. Those were all the common sized bobcats. But there were some bobcats out there, that were a lot bigger, with much longer legs, that I would see on occasions. Most of the time I saw those bobcats, were down in that one corner of the pasture, where the does like to hide their fawns. I did see one of those bigger cats, up near the house, once, and my wife saw one once, near the house. I kept seeing one on my way to work in the mornings, I kept thinking it was a boxer someone had dumped in our area, I was going to try and run it off or figure out who it belonged to. Then finally I got close enough to it, and then we trotted through an opening in the trees, where sun light hit it. The dang thing was covered with spots, and it was a cat, not a boxer.

The majority of the times I saw those larger bobcats, they were in the general area of that one corner of that pasture. I know it had to be multiple different cats, because I saw them off and on for the whole 14 years I lived there. So it was not one cat. I got pictures of one of those larger bobcats, on one occasion. That was the time, I saw one up near the house. The pictures I got, the cat almost looks like a younger cougar or a female cougar, but it definitely had a short tail and spots. The spots are not that clear in the pictures I took.

To sum things up, every year, we would see around five pregnant does and then by late summer early fall, we would usually have the same number of fawns, that we had pregnant does, that spring. But by later winter, it was common for one of the fawns to disappear, maybe two. I don't know those fawns died, but we definitely would not see all of the fawns that had been around, back in October. I think some time after the mothers kick the fawns away, as they are coming in heat. That some of those fawns left to fend for themselves, do wind up getting killed by coyotes or bobcats. But the mothers do very good jobs of hiding and protecting their fawns after they are born and up to the point, they kick them away.

But if any one pack of coyotes was successful at killing five fawns in a single year, they would have wiped out our deer population completely in four to five years. But that did not happen. The biggest factor in deer population, around where we were, was when the old guy across the road died. The old guy and his wife, took care of their place for many years. Each year, the old guy would kill one, to two deer for meat. But after he died, his kids and grand kids took over his place. they showed up, and it sounded like a war was going on across the road. They would show up typically with three truck loads of people. Then every weekend they showed up, we would hear a bunch of shots. By the end of the first season, they had taken over the old guy's place, our deer population had noticeably dropped. Back then we would typically have around 24 to 28 deer in the area, after that first year, the kids and grandkids took over. The population dropped to around 18 deer, then by the second year, it dropped to closer to 12 deer in the area. It looked like they were going to wipe out the deer in the area. But I guess by the third season they were seeing so few deer, they mostly quit hunting. Then after that, the population started to rebound. We eventually got back to having around 18 deer in the area. Those first two years, they did a lot of damage, to the deer population, and killed most of the bigger bucks.

As for coyotes, we had on den behind the house, that typically had about five coyotes in that pack. Then there was a pack across the road, where the old couple had lived, there was commonly seven or more coyotes in that pack. I had killed a couple out of that pack, in the afternoon, after I got home from work, that's when I would see that pack. Then one afternoon, I caught that pack coming across the pasture, turns out there were seven in the pack that afternoon, I shot four of the seven.

We could count 13 groups or packs of coyotes, howling around us at high, when we were cooking on the pit in the backyard. I would guess, on some nights, there were upwards of 20 to maybe 25 coyotes hunting on the piece of property we lived on. There were areas along the creek where the ground was covered with coyote tracks. I set up a stand in that area, I would almost always see at least two coyotes from that stand. I had seen upwards of seven coyotes on one hunt, on that stand. That area has a very healthy coyote population. At the same time the deer do very well there, as long as people don't get greedy.

Then I know there was one guy who lived down the road, who poached at night, he regularly killed the biggest buck I was seeing on camera, I know he was killing those bucks at night, before the season started. I am sure he has a walk in cooler he was storing them in, then would show them off, opening weekend. Every year, about one to, two weeks before the season would start, the biggest buck I was seeing on camera would disappear, never to be seen again. Till it showed up on that guy's facebook page. That guy lives over two miles away, strange how every year, he would kill the biggest buck that I was seeing on camera, that always disappeared a week or two before the season started.

Then I know there was another guy who was poaching the area at night. That guy, I don't know where he was from, but multiple people, that lived around us, knew about him. Both of the regular poachers, would come out after I was a sleep. I kept saying I was going to stay up and catch them, but never did.

[McClain]

Predator/Prey relationships are certainly complex with a lot of variables and surely varies geographically. I recall another study, in the southeast I think, where they examined food items in resident and transient populations. I believe they found deer as a significantly higher percentage of the diet in the transient coyote population. The assumtion is that the resident population, being more familiar with food resources of the area, was more reliant on small prey. If this is the case, then perhaps it can be argued that killing a high percentage of the resident population of coyotes, resulting in transients quickly moving in, would be more detrimental to fawn recruitment. So yes, predator/prey relationships can be very complex.

[RifleBowPistol]

One more crazy thing on the subject of deer and coyotes. The year I finally found that coyote den that had been back behind our house, since long before we lived there. I found that den finally, in early spring, when the coyotes are having to go out and kill a lot to feed their pups. I set up two game cameras on the den and then left the area for three weeks.

When I went back and picked up the cameras. I got lots of cool coyote pictures. They had or have three tunnels dug down underground within 10 feet of each other. The thing I found really crazy, was I had more pictures of deer walking all around the coyote dens, during that time, than I did of coyotes. But when the coyotes were there above ground, I got a lot of good pictures. What I figured out from all of the pictures I got, is that coyote den was right on a trail the deer used twice a day. The deer would hang out and graze all around the coyote den, day after day, on their way to their bedding area and the pasture they liked to graze in. Which was the same pasture the coyotes hunted every night. The area the deer, or at least one group of does, like to bed down, was not far from the coyote den. There was a large area, they liked to bed down, in during the middle of the day. That one coyote den, was right on the edge of the area where the deer liked to bed down.

For years, I have found some very large bucks, very close to camp. My theory was that wise old bucks, like to keep track of human activity. I kind of wonder, if that's what that group of does did. If they bedded down close to the coyote den to keep track of them, and would walk right through where the den was, to sniff around, to get an idea of the coyote activity, of that pack of coyotes.

I don't think it was possible, the deer, did not know that spot, was a coyote den. There had to be a very strong coyote sent in the area, more so, if you are a deer, with their sense of smell.

I don't know what was really going on, with those doe and the coyotes from that den, but it was a huge surprise to see so many pictures of does, all around a very active coyote den.

Then in late afternoon the coyotes, would take off right through the area, where the does would hide their fawns, on their way out to hunt. I would assume the coyotes, would come back through that same area to get back to their den, when they quit hunting for the night, but that I am not sure of, I would be a sleep at that point.

[okrattler]

Population density has a lot to do with it. I'm sure if there's that many fawns laying around that's how many will get eaten if coyotes find them.

But even if it were true, shooting coyotes only helps their population so that means even less fawns. Nature has a way of balancing itself out.