Cyclical as stated. When I was a kid in the Scouts we were camping in a field next to heavy woods in the Spring time. The mammas had a bumper crop of babies that year. There were so many you could just reach down and snatch em up. Must have been thousands in a 100 acre field.
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Originally posted by canny View PostSmall mammal populations are historically cyclical with the local predator population. Predators go up, small mammals go down. Eventually predator numbers go down allowing the small mammal population to rise back up.
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One of my feeder sites has several on camera every night—-the others seldom have any little critters other than ‘coons and squirrels.Last edited by dustoffer; 01-27-2023, 04:15 PM.
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Cottontail populations have been decimated in south Louisiana, especially the river parishes where we hunted with beagles all my life. Coyotes definitely took over as there were none when i was a kid. Also, the raptor population has quadrupled. We see eagles all the time, I had never seen one as a kid in the late 70s and early 80s.
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Originally posted by Landrover View PostCottontail populations have been decimated in south Louisiana, especially the river parishes where we hunted with beagles all my life. Coyotes definitely took over as there were none when i was a kid. Also, the raptor population has quadrupled. We see eagles all the time, I had never seen one as a kid in the late 70s and early 80s.
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Originally posted by PYBUCK View PostJackrabbits & Cotton tails in West Texas are way down. In the 80's you could count 200 in the bar ditch at night on a trip from Rankin to Midland and only 2 or 3 cars. Now it's 300 cars/trucks and no rabbits.
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Originally posted by okrattler View PostHave y'all noticed a big decrease in the rabbit population where you're at? I have a Cottontail that stays under my shed but other than that I ain't seen very many rabbits. Cottontails or Jackrabbits either one. A few here and there but nothing like there used to be.
I don't know if it's from disease or predators or both but something sure wiped a bunch out.
Don't let the predator numbers take off and get out of control, which coyotes can increase their numbers a lot in three to five years. Then they start hunting in packs and killing things they should not be. There is a balance in nature that should be maintained, but often humans who don't understand that balance, decide it's their place to do as they choose and they F up that balance.
Where I used to live, when I first moved there, there were close to zero rabbits. Then after some years, probably with me shooting coyotes, I started seeing more rabbits. Then within a couple of years, I would see a lot of rabbits around. That did not last long, then the bobcat numbers went up, and I started seeing bobcats quite often. Where I had previously only seen one over about a five year time period. Once the bobcat population increased, the number of rabbits I would see, very quickly dropped off. Then after a couple of years of not seeing hardly any rabbits, I quit seeing bobcats.
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