coyotes vs. deer population

[rhino]

What are everyone's thoughts on coyotes moving deer out of areas? I have noticed a decline over the past 5 years in deer around my hunting area. We haven't had many hard winters recently so I don't think the coyotes are finding many sick and weak deer but something is happening. Just curious as to how much of an affect will coyotes have on deer populations.

P.S. I talked to a guy last night and just got permission to hunt his land. The land is river bottoms and coulees. Pretty prime coyote territory. This might be a good time to ask permission from landowners. Especially after deer season.

[Urbanhunter]

I don't know of yoties running dear out of the area....like where I hunt. I'm in lower Alabama. Good question though. Maybe your local resource office can help ya. I have seen the local coyoties run off or eatin the local raccoon population though.

[lyonch]

A few years ago levi and i went to hunt deer in his hometown during the muzzleloader season and in 3 days of hunting we saw one set of deer tracks out of all these areas he use to see tons of deer. All of this was during the time when the fox were becoming hard to see and the coyotes were very abundant at that time. Another thing to look for is if the fawn population is really high in your area than preditation isn't very high. If you see no fawns at all then you know preditation is really high. So to answer your question yes i think deer will move out of an area if they are harrassed too much.

[LeviM]

Thats a tough subject to cover. I know alot has been discussed with location vs food sources. What I have understood is that coyotes diet will consist of the easiest food source that is abundant to them. What I have read is that, if there are stong rodent populations then the coyotes diet will be rodents and so on. Also the time of the year. Spring time coyotes will eat more fawns as they hit the ground. Theres a lot to look into when covering this subject, I don't think there is one defined answer

[Tim Anderson]

I think alot depends on what part of the country you are in. In S.D. where i hunt the coyotes are more aggressive and do feed on fawns, calves, and sheep. One ranch i call on has a coyote killing deer problem but it seems to only happen if there is a large famaly group in the area. You go in and reduce the numbers the killing seems to taper off or stop completely. And even while the killing is going on there always seems to be deer around..
A place at home where i hunt deer has a large grove on the oppisite side of the property i hunt on. This grove is a safe haven for deer cause no hunting is allowed.. There canbe around 30-50 deer in this grove dureing the winter month's and i found out last year there is a small group of coyotes liveing in the same grove with the deer.
So i guess it boils done to where you live and how aggressive the coyotes are.. The problem couldbe over hunting an area or the deer are shifting to an area with a better food source, or maybe dogs are running them off.. Its hard to pin point the problem with out seeing the area first..

[huntinND]

Coyotes definitely use deer as a main food source in my area in the winter. But where I am from there are very high numbers of deer. I find a lot of fresh kills during the winter months, and have seen coyotes chasing deer often. If there is deep crusted snow that coyotes can travel on top of then they really hammer the deer. If you find a herd of deer yarded up you can gaurantee there is a group of coyotes close. I'm sure if the deer are being harrassed constantly by coyotes they may move out. A decrease in the population would probably occur if most of the fawn crop was wiped out by predators. Coyotes do take a lot of fawns but there are a lot of other food sources available at this time too. I think it would take a significantly high population of coyotes to see a drop in deer numbers.

[rhino]

The area I am referring to is highly posted private land. A lot of river bottom and coulee. Only the landowners usually hunt the land. I have been thinking too that if the coyotes are getting to the fawns then I definitely would see a decrease in deer. Talked to a landowner the other night and he was saying he had a bowhunter hunting his land and five coyotes came down the trail together. The hunter asked if there is a coyote problem. LOL Thanks for all the comments. Just curious what everyone else's thoughts are on this topic.

[Dcoy]

Well here's my 2 cents.First,don't see anything posted here I really disagree with.All of this is tough to verify and be precise on I suspect.On my place I see a lot of this and monitor it closely.No doubt they take deer when conditions allow(deer on ice,deep snow,right after birth,wounded or sick,etc).Meanwhile under normal conditions there's kind of a 'dance of death'that goes on.Just spent 14 days(averaging 8 hrs a day)on strategic stands hunting deer-really observing for the most part.On 7 of those days I observed deer/coyote interaction.
You get so you can instantly tell from deer reaction when coyotes are approaching.(ditto on turkeys).If there are fawns in the deer group,and particularly if there's more than one coyote,there almost always be a 'false chase'for a short distance.That scatters the deer,may send them 1/4 or 1/2 mile even,but they rarely leave the area and,if they do,not for long.The yotes seem to love it and have fun but.......
Occasionally bucks will run as well but often there's just a stare down with both species eventually going about their own business.I suspect a fawn that didn't 'dance'would be in trouble.
I have way too many here now but with buck season closed and the fur hating 257 W and 300WSM cleaned and put away,numbers will start dropping soon.

[lyonch]

Another point that i recently remembered, was a few years ago i had the opportunity to fly in an ultralight plane with a local individual who had one. What i observed, when we went over an area where the deer winter in central minnesota, is that there were coyotes right with the herd of deer and nobody was bothering each other. I quit counting when i hit 200 deer and saw at least 6 coyotes in with those deer. I also observed this past weekend, in the southern part of minnesota when deer hunting with my sisters boyfriend, a coyote that walked right by a deer carcass and never even looked at it or stopped to investigate. The carcass was found a week before i got there and was a small fork horned buck that was shot in the guts. It was about 75 yards from where we were sitting and i watched the coyote come down off of the ridge and walk right by the deer. I was shocked and thought that they just didn't find it yet but it seemed as though there was no interest whatsoever in the kill.

[Tim Anderson]

Not sure how far south you where hunting but where i live thats the way the coyotes are.. There is so much food around for them they have no reason to get up out of there beds to check out a dyeing rabbit.. Later in the season when the temps drop and we have more snow on the ground then they will start to feed on the carcasses.. On another note i gained some more ground to hunt farther north of me due to the fact the coyotes are feeding on dead deer..Some hunters wounded a deer and came back in the A.M. to look for it and when they did find it about half was missing..

[lyonch]

Tim i was around winona this past weekend when i saw that happen. I know there are alot of coyotes in the area but i also know as you mentioned before there is a large food source for them. I talked to some of the local guys a few times and many are unsuccesful at calling in the area. Most people that hunt them around there drive them like deer. I don't know if it would be worth it to me to walk those bluffs day after day trying to push coyotes

[Tim Anderson]

Winona and houstin county are just overloaded with coyotes a guy would think they would be a little easeier to call with such a high population.. If i lived a little closer i would love to call those two counties..

[lyonch]

I told the guy that I hunted with down there that i will be coming down sometime this winter to call coyotes he said that he knows where they always drive coyotes out of certain woods and that we can call those areas and i told him that once we call one in he wont wanna drive them anymore

[Tim Anderson]

LOL

[jaybic]

Lyonch, Tim,

Next time your in the Winona area let me know if you want. I am only about 40 miles west of Winona and call areas of Winona, Houston, Fillmore and Olmsted counties and would be happy to try and whistle up a coyote or two and enjoy a post-hunt beer and BS session.

Calling can be a bit tough around here tho. I hunt central/west ND about 20-25 days a year and on my average 10 day trip, I see more coyotes than I will see here all year long. I have a buddy who is probably the most successful caller I know of and he ended up with 12 for the year which is about average for him and pretty dang good for SE MN if you talk to other hunters at the range/bar/gun shop/fur dealers. If there is anyone doing better, I have not heard of it, at least for those 4 counties.

Good Luck,

jaybic