Nick87
Well-known member
What does killing a critters have to do with not thinking something is cool or having respect for that animal? Serious question?
"Compensatory Reproduction" in Coyotes, why killing them equals more coyotes and less deer
- Thread starter Mustangs Rule
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Gerald Martin
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Nothing much more exciting to hunt than an open ground coyote called into close range. That’s super fun.
I’m also good with watching them do their thing and unless I am in the mood to skin one and I know the fur is good they get a pass more often than not.
I’m of the opinion that the two positions are not incompatible with each other.
Hawk Tuah
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Other than a very few exceptions, if I'm hunting something, then I see a coyote, I'm all of the sudden coyote hunting.
But I don't do it to help deer populations. I do it because it is fun.
Getting a coyote when hunting something else is like getting a basket in basketball and drawing a foul...then making the shot..."and one!"
But I don't do it to help deer populations. I do it because it is fun.
Getting a coyote when hunting something else is like getting a basket in basketball and drawing a foul...then making the shot..."and one!"
Nick87
Well-known member
We are in the same boat. I've watched them and given them a pass many times. Ive also killed a pile out of sheer oppurtunity. I don't hate them or any other predators. But I do love hunting them. Even when the fur ain't worth the gas to get there.
there’s a level of bloodthirstiness for coyotes that isn’t compatible with respect.
We are all hunters here, obviously we all know we can kill something and still respect it and revere it, but I don’t think you’ll find a lot of respect for coyotes in the sporting world, as evidenced by people who simply can’t not shoot them whenever presented the opportunity.
huntin24/7
Well-known member
In eastern MT where they are the only predators besides us, they definitely take their toll(mostly on fawns), so I don’t think you can discount the effect they have in a lot of areas. That being said, they aren’t as big of an issue as human take from mismanagement and weather(drought/bad winters). I think they’re cool animals and enjoy hunting them. They’re too smart and adaptive to be controlled by normal hunting means anyways.
WanderWoman
Well-known member
One of the tenets of the NA Model is “wildlife can only be killed for a legitimate purpose.” As a sportsman I personally struggle with killing something for the sake of killing it.
More often than not, when there’s not a specific need (livestock, specific localized instances to help prey animal X), or they’re otherwise not being used somehow (trapping, fur), it’s one of the harder things to justify to nonhunters or fringe anti-hunters when talking about how hunting is conservation, etc. I cringe when we I see a poster for things like derbies.
Again, my personal opinion. Everyone has their own set of ethics and reasons for doing or not doing things.
More often than not, when there’s not a specific need (livestock, specific localized instances to help prey animal X), or they’re otherwise not being used somehow (trapping, fur), it’s one of the harder things to justify to nonhunters or fringe anti-hunters when talking about how hunting is conservation, etc. I cringe when we I see a poster for things like derbies.
Again, my personal opinion. Everyone has their own set of ethics and reasons for doing or not doing things.
antlerradar
Well-known member
I think that this is key. I think it is a stretch for the authors of the article to conclude that shoot coyotes is no help for the deer. This is why. They did there coyote population surveys in the fall, when coyote populations are going to be near peak, The vast majority of people haven't even started to shoot coyotes then. With hunted Coyote populations, numbers are going to be at there lowest from late winter to when the pups leave the den. The would mean that the number of coyotes would be lower when the deer are most susceptible. When they are weak from just surviving winter and when the fawns are born. I think we can conclude that hunting coyotes means more coyotes for people to shoot.
The Powder River County paper just recently reprinted a clip from the paper fifty years ago. One fur buyer purchased 3500 coyotes from Powder River County in 1976 and that was just one of maybe a half dozen fur buyers working SE MT. We were killing a lot of coyotes 50 years ago. I have no doubt that coyote can breed there way back from that level of harvest, they can most certainly do so under the much lower take today. There must have been big swings in the coyote population fifty years ago over the course of the year to sustain that level of harvest. Having a high number of coyotes during the fall is not going to matter much to the deer, Having a low number of coyotes in late winter when the snow is deep or when the fawns are young is going to be a plus for deer.
