|
Post by Steve Gappa on Jan 7, 2006 21:28:44 GMT -6
I was asked this question in PM, and thought it would be a good one to discuss.
The question was this- can experienced coyote men break down locations into separate, finite classes?
I've been thinking on this a couple of days, and look at it like this.
You have denning areas, you have summer range and you have winter range. If you insist on calling it- you have dispersal.
But here and I suspect many areas, it all blends in together. Winter range is for all practical purposes summer range- just has different areas emphasized with the seasons.
But thats general. So lets be specific. Lets look at Fall trapping/early winter coyote locations. Can locations fall into certain categories, have certain properties. So one can say....with X present and Y over there, add Z (no relation to the NY Z's) on the corner...and this spot shouts coyotes.
I don't think you can categorize then by saying "a feeding location" "a sleeping location".. but you can, knowing your area- put together certain things that COULD be labeled a category.
Here would be an example on my line.
1) Pocket gopher locations. These location, locations where pocket gophers have mounds, are visited by coyotes very regularly and I believe daily. Since gophers are in hay- you have flat, smooth, short grass fields where coyotes love to run. You have food- gophers themselves and all the little critters that live on the fringes. Coyotes absolutely love to stand on gopher mounds- I think that (don't laugh) they like the feel of it on their feet and 2) it gives them some height so they can see farther.
So - for my area- with the type of hay fields/farming practices, pocket gophers mean coyotes. It seldom fails me and in setting new farms, I'll pick an area with gopher mounds every time.
Another-
2) Animals. Coyotes like being around animals. In some areas its predation. Here, its not a factor. With a easily accessible prey base, coyotes seldom kill cows and only at lambing are they a threat to sheep here. With exceptions, of course. In any case- coyotes just like sheep and cows. If you have long, hilly pastures with ponds- what I call my Western Locations, coyotes will be there. Same with sheep. A farm with sheep, gets extra attention from coyotes. Once again, I stress that HERE- this seldom means killing sheep.
It must be instinctive.
3) Social areas. I find that I have areas that always have a lot of action. I can trap them for 6 weeks and catch coyotes continually. I have one location where over a 300 or so acre stretch I take 12-16 coyotes every year. This area has a long field road/old township road going for several miles- with excellent habitat almost in each direction. But nothing in the middle but hills and and old dike. I personally think this is a social area, where many family groups come to play, visit, howl at the moon.
4) Woods. I don't trap woods much- although we are snaring in big woods.
5) Travel lanes. In may areas, its long waterways that are the pathways. Some waterways go for 10-15 miles or more from farm to farm, crossing roads, fields, pastures, etc. Like conveyor belts in a way. Set up next to "something" and the coyotes will come. I have more of my GOOD locations that are this type.
6) The last major type of location I can think of would be crp type areas- Willow bush, cane-grass, goldenrod/grasses/shrub mix. Hunting areas, cover. Right at hand. Any such, deserves a second look.
So my main type of locations would be: 1) gophers/hay 2) pastures/animals. 3) social/interaction areas 4) woods 5) travel-ways. 6) brushy cover/hunting/resting areas
Put 2 together or more, and the chances for success increase.
I guess one other location would be 7) Random. That is- places I know that, even though nothing jumps out at me, if I set a trap and wait long enough, I'll catch a coyote. I set up a few of these locations every year if convenient to do so...if I catch one bonus, if not, it cost me nothing.
----------------------------------
I'd be very interested in hearing your thoughts.....
|
|
|
Post by conibear on Jan 7, 2006 21:44:08 GMT -6
Steve great post I have about the same around here minus the water ways or sloughs like you have there. You got me thinking about the gopher mounds and how coyotes like to run in them maybe feels good on there feet? I notice in the summer, fall, winter the fox and coyotes love to run up and down these huge gravel piles maybe the same as the gopher mounds. Great post
|
|
|
Post by coydog on Jan 7, 2006 21:56:13 GMT -6
To keep it simple in my own mind I look at all locations as general locations. Meaning places I look for sign that coyotes are most likely to visit and leave sign if they are there, and more than likely to return . Ex.. blowouts, features, intersections, creek crossings, cattle trails, carcass's and so on. When I find coyotes at one of these general locations, they become trap locations. Im not trying to sound simple minded about it, but then again I am.
1 Learn where to look (general) 2 find sign 3 set traps
|
|
|
Post by walkercoonhunter(Aaron L.) on Jan 7, 2006 22:37:48 GMT -6
here in central pa where we are about all mountain region,the farms are not hooked togather by drainage ditches or stuff like that...its hard to pin point them here...they could be in one place 1 day and 10 miles away the next....but i do have alot to learn when it comes to behavioral patterns for coyotes....but for the most part here anyways i will worry about that when they become as plentyful as our fox...for right now i set for fox mainly BUT in locations i have caught yotes in the past i have been taking more time in these places looking for sign and tracks....but for here i have found that the coyotes travel is much like a fox only in greater distances...if there is a farm road they will travel it....fence row they will travel it,a dip in the field connecting 2 wood lots ,they will travel it....i dont look at any type of feeding,sleeping,social,locations...all i see when i look across the farm is locations i try not to classify them....
|
|
|
Post by trappnman on Jan 8, 2006 5:58:44 GMT -6
the point of this exercise IS TO classify them..... for fun and maybe to learn a little....
|
|
|
Post by Possum on Jan 8, 2006 6:51:59 GMT -6
There's so many friggin gophers around here the coyotes would go nuts trying to trample down all the mounds so I don't worry about setting on gopher colonies. Most of the gophers live on field lanes and edges which I'll cover in a minute. Not much livestock, either so I don't worry much about pastures or hay ground.
My locations are predominently associated with travel ways: 1) Travel ways--ditches, field lanes, fence lines. Any sort of linear break to the landscape. They don't have to be brushy or overgrown to work but I do gravitate towards wooly travel ways just because it makes more sense. 2) Crossings--places where it's easy to cut across a travel way--a culvert crossing, a break in the fence, places where the trees or brush isn't as thick. 3) Corners. A coyote travelling across an open field is more likely to enter or exit at the corner. 4) Habitat area (like CRP, willow swamp, slough, etc.) I set the travel areas leading to the habitat rather than in the habitat. If it's on private land and the habitat area is square I set the corner of the cover--set made out in the cropland. If there are natural points in an odd shaped piece of cover, I'll set there. There's a large public hunting area near me. No trapping allowed but lots of coyotes taking advantage of the food supply there--mice, birds, pheasants, you name it. I set the fencelines, ditches, field lanes which lead to the public land a quarter or half mile away. I don't trap in the spring so denning areas don't mean much to me. I don't trap in woods, but I will set travel lanes leading to woodlands. I don't worry about bedding areas cause I think coyotes just curl up and sleep just about where ever they happen to be. I can drive along a grass-line ditch bank 6 days in a row and on the 7th, roust a coyote who had picked that spoil pile as a sunny, dry spot to take a nap. I don't set on sign. If I happen to see a turd or footprint, good. If not, no problem, the coyotes will come along anyway.
|
|
|
Post by SgtWal on Jan 8, 2006 12:24:50 GMT -6
My 2 cents, I do ADC. Most land animals use 3 areas. Denning/resting, travel, and feeding areas. The denning area is the main or central part of the home range. The feeding areas will be scattered around the denning area. The travel lanes connect the 2. Which feed area is in use will depend on the weather and time of year. Grasses year round, crop fields in the fall, livestock areas will vary. The animal will have a network of prefered trails between these areas. When leaving the den or resting area they will travel toward the feeding area along the prefered trails. If the feeding is slow they have a prefered route to the next feeding area and so on. Around here a coyote group on the move looks like an infantry squad on a sweep. One or two on the trail and a couple out to the flanks so the trail its self is just a reference point. I trap alot of wooded areas, and fringes of them. I look for sign, and set on sign. A great location may produce in time, but a good location with fresh sign will produce now. If I have sign along a wooded trail it marks a travel way to one of the above sites, Animals along these trails are either hungry or just fed I keep that in mind and use lure and bait to suit. Where the trail and feeding or resting area meet is a better set location as the attention is looking ahead and the guard is down.
wayne
|
|
|
Post by martybaxter on Jan 8, 2006 13:05:16 GMT -6
Can you categorize coyote trap locations, not just coyote locations, the specific location you catch them at.
example:
point saddle linear feature intertsection contrasting or unique feature those sorts of things.
|
|
|
Post by trappnman on Jan 8, 2006 13:19:10 GMT -6
Yes and no- because there are an infinite number of these type of specific loctions.
All of my traps are at interections of linear points, and the intersections themselves are points, which are often in low spots (saddles) next to unique features.
LOL- but true. General locations are what I look for. Locations that attract coyotes or which are travelled regularly by coyotes.
At the general locations- you look for the specifics. You make sets that fit the area.
Some of my specific locations are:
color lines in fields weed draws that extend into fields soybean clumps that didn't get picked (a favorite) corners on field roads high spots in flat land "ridge" points in contoured fields crop changes long connecting waterways (another favorite) sand pits quarries bald knobs overlooking flatter areas stock ponds snowmobile trails CRP edges plowed land next to short grass edges of gopher areas old badger diggings carcass dumps old round bales
|
|
|
Post by SgtWal on Jan 8, 2006 15:26:48 GMT -6
I look for crossings and choke points. Places where travel ways cross, or the area narrows significantly. Where a deer trail or path crosses a lane or tree row for example. Where a game trail crosses a stream. I look for places where pastures and weed lots pinch in between wood lots or other terrain features. Some are recognizable as the edge of a field and the farm lane, and some more subtle. I read the sign and set where the animal says he will be.
wayne
|
|
|
Post by terminator1 on Jan 8, 2006 19:08:08 GMT -6
Trapping in the mountainsof pa. logging roads and pull offs deer trails out of mountain laurel beds along the edges of deer fence at wood plots power lines and pipe lines, especally ones that intersect with mountain roads. food plots stream crossings around beaver dams and houses yards around hunting camps/ after deer season old logging yards with junk log piles
|
|
|
Post by BK on Jan 9, 2006 20:25:22 GMT -6
I can't seem to categorize canine locations,.....too many things seem to change on me. Someone cuts the corn, builds a house, spreads sh1t, drags out a couple dead cows, a waterway freezes, they plow some soil bank land,..........the list goes on. I think I do best categorizing them as good and bad depending on if canines there.
|
|
|
Post by trappnman on Jan 9, 2006 20:42:25 GMT -6
You bring up a good point BK. The Butterfly Effect if you will.
I've pondered over this thought many times. Specifics are easy to see in this regard. For example, I had a location this year that was a little new seeding strip. It bordered a fence, and across that fence was plowed corn. Below the little strip, waas a very big corn field that had been chopped. So picture it as a square. Put a line down the center from top to bottom. The right was plowed corn. On the left, the bototm half was the seeding (hay) and the top the chopped corn. A field road came by the farm and ran along te fence , wnet over a little hill and there it was. Down in valley on other side of chopped corn, was hayfields, lots of brush.
I trapped a week and got 2 coyotes, 2 fox with 1 set. Then they plowed the picked corn. I got nothing in 3 more weeks. And I knew it wouldn't. The trap location was now a dead zone, with no conveinent access. Before, the canines traveled the fenceline up from the valley- a good location.
So- how far way does this- esp on a larger scale, have with a ripple effect. I often think on farms that are good year after year, and you have a bad year- that something occured miles away that you didn not know about, and it changed the coyotes pattern so that farm, was no longer conveinient. A domino effect.
But thinking about my locations- the ones I've kept and added to the line, the vast majority are situated with permanent - go back to my original cassification of locations- structure.
Travelways that are waterways- are always there. No matter the rotation, they stay.
Hills, fencerows, pastures, ponds, brushy patches, field roads, cow dumps, crp (are at least long term) all stay the same. This structure is what MAKES the location.
Now- specifically, things change. Its beans this year, corn the next, hay, etc. But the field roads...and the corners- are always the same. Corn abuts beans abuts hay- no matter what the pattern, the corners remain.
So the general location is the same year after year- I know for example I'll set 2 traps at Ted's farm. Each year, they will be within a 50 foot area. Exactly where, depends on this years patterns.
|
|
|
Post by SgtWal on Jan 10, 2006 16:44:16 GMT -6
I agree with trapnman to some degree and the example is a good one. After the corn was turned under and the feed source distroyed the animals chose another feed area. That made the old travel way a dead area. The animals didn't relocate to any major degree, just changed to another feed area, with a different travel way there and back. I believe that if you kept good records you will see that in the area you describe where the crops change that the best catches will be against the field with the best food source. Say the cut corn while it's there, then the hay. This is where a good overview of the area helps to spot those sheltered areas that support the denning/resting sites and their relationship to the feeding areas.
wayne
|
|
|
Post by terminator1 on Jan 10, 2006 17:08:49 GMT -6
So whats your answer to trapping 100's of thousands acres of all mountain ground
|
|
|
Post by skidway on Jan 10, 2006 18:26:22 GMT -6
You'll be hard pressed to get an answer on that terminator. It doesn't look like there are many that trap the woods because they have those picture perfect places that you see on all the videos. Your locations are real close to the same as what I make sets on here except there are no mountains .Sandy areas seem to attract coyotes and there quite a few of those in my area. Maybe it just seems like they like to hang around those because it's one of the few places you'll see sign. If you have any old railroad grades,clear cuts or the edges of swamps and pine plantations I'd give those a try. Locations never seem to stay the same in the woods I've found. Hot one year and dead the next for some reason. Deep snow pushes them onto runs and that's a big help; especially near yarding areas. I set on sign when I can find it and edges where there's food when I can't. I enjoy the challenge.
|
|
|
Post by walkercoonhunter(Aaron L.) on Jan 10, 2006 18:40:50 GMT -6
personally i think the woods trapping is too much work for the general trapping population,when you can trap all the farm land and not having to deal with all the rocks here in the pa mountains....woods trapping to me is alot of effort and time for very little return....i think that tha animals dont travel the same routes all the time and move very sparatically in the woods...hard to pin point where they will move through on a consistent basis...in the mountains they dont have to worry about running(the fence row,dip in the field,water ditch ,)to keep from getting seen...this makes the mountain ground pretty much open range and ALOT harder to pin point your good locations for a quick or easy return....
|
|
|
Post by chub618 on Jan 10, 2006 18:51:01 GMT -6
im still in the learning process of this coyote trapping thing. and not much luck so far this yr. i do have one location that has taken one nice yote so far this season. on this farm there are 4 fence rows converging on this one point which is on a small knoll. the fence rows open up at this point to where you can drive a car thru the fence in either direction. to the northeast is cut corn field to the southeat is a sheep farm with a hay field in the south eats corner. to the south west is a cut corn field and on the north west is a new housing developement going in. dont know how you would calissify this sport cept it just screams set me up and they will come!
|
|
|
Post by BK on Jan 10, 2006 20:56:44 GMT -6
Many of you guys understand coyotes better than I do............. Perhaps the single largest thing I feel that changes coyote travel patterns is when ponds, streams, rivers, lakes and so on freeze up. Now you got yourself a real easy travel route that's new to them.
|
|
|
Post by tmalone on Jan 10, 2006 23:29:45 GMT -6
walkercoonhunter hit it right on the head about woods trapping. I trap the Ozark Mtns. No crops, no farmland. Thousands and thousands of acres of rolling woods with clear cuts and logging roads. These ridges are mostly rock and very hard to dig in a trap, in most locations, and if you dig in a trap then you can't get a stake but half way in!!!. The critters mostly travel the logging roads and deer trails. the logging roads are all rock. I think I would love to try trapping in farmland dirt with one of those cute little trowel shovels everybody sells!( I own one, but never even carry the thing, its useless where I trap).
Great thread! I enjoyed reading everybody's responses to this topic.
|
|