Why Deer Hunters Should Be Coyote Hunters

By eleaf, November 25, 2013

Why all deer hunters should be coyote hunters (PDF):

To date, the SRS research has found that coyotes are, in fact, taking a tremendous toll on fawns. Of 60 fawns monitored over the course of the work, only 16 have survived until autumn, when they are old enough to be safe from predation and can be considered part of the huntable population. That means that 44 fawns, or 73 percent, did not survive. Predation by bobcats and coyotes has accounted for all but one of the deaths. The great majority of the predation, though, has been by coyotes: 36 of the 44 (82 percent) have been either confirmed or probable coyote predation, 6 have been bobcat
predation, and 2 have been attributed to unknown predators.

The risk of predation is greatest in the first month of a fawn’s life. By about 6 weeks of age, they seem generally able to evade predators, and no fawns have been killed by predators after 10 weeks. Genetic analysis has revealed that many different coyotes kill fawns, with only two individual coyotes being responsible for more than one kill.

Population models show that this level of mortality is more than sufficient to explain the decline that has been seen in the SRS deer population, but does it mean that coyotes represent a threat for deer across the Southeast? The density of the SRS deer population is very low, so the effects of predation may be especially magnified. However, the statewide deer population in South Carolina has declined approximately 30 percent since the mid 1990s. How much of that broader decline can be attributed to coyotes versus other factors such as large-scale changes in habitat conditions is uncertain, but the SRS data demonstrates that coyotes are capable of inflicting severe losses on deer populations.

Coyotes are relatively new to the east. Both research and anecdote verify that coyotes didn’t have any kind of stable population east of the Mississippi River until the latter quarter of the twentieth century (1). They now exist in abundance in every state. Coyotes are particularly damaging to deer populations in the east because eastern subspecies of deer didn’t evolve traits and behaviors that minimize coyote predation like their western cousins. Eastern whitetails never had to adapt to coyotes, which makes them especially vulnerable when one considers that the coyotes that have moved east are the direct descendents of western coyotes which did evolve to find and kill deer, particularly fawns (2). The thirty percent drop in the South Carolina whitetail population, though not definitively attributable to coyotes as of yet, has a strong correlation to coyotes moving in and establishing resident breeding populations over the last twenty years (7). Simply put, as coyotes have settled in, the deer population has fallen dramatically.

Those who manage leased or owned properties for the purpose of hunting deer should be especially concerned about coyotes and should take action in an attempt to minimize their impact on local deer populations. The problem is that there is no quick fix to coyotes. Now that coyotes have established populations, many factors contribute to it being virtually impossible to make much more than a minimal impact on their overall population numbers, but there are steps that the land manager can take to minimize their impact on the localized deer herd. According to Kip Adams at QDMA, even if a land manager engages in a concerted trapping campaign only during the few weeks leading up to the deer fawning season, the likelihood of coyotes predating on the fawns and drastically reducing deer numbers on the managed land will be minimized greatly. Coyotes will quickly move back in, but it will be after the new fawns have learned most of the skills necessary to avoid coyote predation. The SRS study supports his view in finding that none of the fawns in their study died as a result of coyote predation after nine weeks of age (none died of bobcat predations after six weeks) (6). You may not be able to get rid of coyotes, but as a land manager you may be able to disrupt local coyote populations long enough for newborn fawns to avoid being eaten in large numbers. You may also be able to keep coyotes from predating on mature deer as well if you engage in long term, omnipresent trapping regiments. Coyotes will never be eradicated, even with widespread trapping and killing campaigns, but you can minimize their presence in a localized area if you keep at it.

Individual hunters, however, even those who engage heavily in hunting coyotes, can’t have anything other than a minimal impact on coyote populations and their depredation on newborn fawns. Because of the high intelligence levels in coyotes, it’s tough to actively hunt an area for long enough to be anything more than a blip on the statistical radar in terms of both coyote population numbers and their resultant depredation on newly fawned deer. In short, we coyote hunters can’t have enough of an influence on coyotes to lower their depredation on fawns more than a token amount. There are simply too many coyotes, and they are too cunning to continuously fall prey to hunting in a small area.

That said, it shouldn’t be taken to mean that because coyote hunting will only have minimal impact on the coyote population that it’s completely fruitless. Even though we may not be able to have a drastic impact on overall coyote numbers, if each deer hunter actively hunted coyotes during the winter and very early spring, we may have enough impact on the fringe of the overall coyote population such that “that one buck” might not be eaten after being fawned, and it’s that many fewer coyotes remaining to harass local deer causing them stress. Add to the idea that we might have just enough impact to make a difference in “that one buck” being there in a few years, coyotes are fun to hunt. The action is fast and intense. They are the smartest thing in the woods that any of us will actively engage, after all, and the challenge is immense. It also extends the hunting season (I.e., time in the woods) by a not insignificant amount, and that can never be a bad thing.

It should also be noted that not all coyote predation on fawns should be considered as detrimental to the overall deer herd. Not all places are like South Carolina where more coyotes correlate with a significantly diminished deer herd. In some places the local deer herd is far too large, bordering on disruptive to local human populations in the form of increased car crashes, deer eating gardens and the crops on small farms for lack of other or better food sources, and more diseases among the herd due to population density. In these places, encouraging, or at least not disrupting, coyote predation as a means to help with deer herds that are too large and cumbersome for hunting efforts to control may be an acceptable part of the overall land and game management plan (9). In short, widespread trapping of coyotes is probably not a good plan for managing the health of the local deer herd in these areas. But it’s a plan that can become a double-edged sword, particularly when the herd stabilizes at desirable levels. The herd will be smaller and under control, but the coyotes and their depredation will remain.

For those interested in the full published study of coyote predation at SRS, you can find it here (PDF).