Mission: Alpha Female

[bobwendt]

starved. sometimes killing is just more humane. his atitude was the same as an antis warped idea. the reason they were at the airport was to escape the coyotes. probably released to certain death. if the coyotes got them , or the road, at least it was fast.

[jrbhunter]

Wiley your thoughts seem to be fairly close to the research I'm following... and Bob's experiences also reflect their findings. What I'm looking for is a mixture of the two, where the majority of the local coyotes die or leave but are then replaced by fresh blood within a year or two. The USDA & FWS seem to think this is possible, probable even, per their study of hundreds of collared coyotes. I believe the same study on Alpha-Females returned different results in the west- but I skimmed through those papers as it doesn't concern my project.

Also, I didn't mean for everyone to get sidetracked on lactation and pup rearing... that has little to do with my goals here so I'm skipping through all those ethical lectures. Rest assured the pups are located and have been seen a handful of times... they were actually tracked on a logging road just TODAY and it seems they are venturing a few hundred yards already. There is some discussion going on amongst my buddies over weather they actually heard pups howling with the adults this week or not... some say yes, others say no. They did not respond last weekend when we instigated vocals on Friday night, Sunday night and Monday morning. I'm not at all concerned about killing them... but I'd like to use them against the females better judgement if at all possible. In the event she dies before they leave the den, we'll take care of them. I don't think that's going to be an issue at this point though... it could be another month before I get there.

[bubcat]

...where the majority of the local coyotes die or leave but are then replaced by fresh blood within a year or two....

Or a week.... ;D

I read that above, and recalled taking out a pod of coyote from a home area. An area they heavily defended. I'd killed them one by one throughout the winter. All but the Alpha female by coincidence. First her mate, then the rest, all but her, (the snow does not lie) 4 sq miles all to herself, and she was likely bred late Jan by a rogue male that drifted in and was also killed. All alone. And I don't know what came over me the end of March, but, I decided to let her live. I was after deer killers, and I just didn't think she'd do that much damage on her own without the pack. I'd trap her pups the next fall anyways, So i let her live. That was the end of March that year.

On May 1st, it was apparent, that an entire new clan had taken the area, And that female, I did not see again. I believe she got evicted where she alone was unable to hold and defend the territory. I don't know what happened to her, but that she was gone.

Probably nothing to do with what you'r focused on, but I'd add "driven off" to the "die or leave" list. and shorten the stroke on how long it might take for new coyotes to reoccupy. If it's great coyote ground,seems there will always be a next of kin waiting to claim it, and sooner, rather than later it seems. IMHO

[bobwendt]

bub, she is fat and sassy with 6 pups , just down the list on choice of territories. here in flat open miles and miles of nothing but plowed black dirt, it is low demand coyote territory and if all are taken out, sometimes it is several years before it is inhabited again by a family group, some grunts not big enough or tough enouth to hold the better territories with all the cover and water and choice prey populations and the coveted dead hog dumps. lol why someone no longer works for hsus but rather nta now. he had to settle for a lesser territory ;D

[bubcat]

bub, she is fat and sassy with 6 pups No doubt about it. Just not on that tract.

Here, in NH, the country is saturated to holding capacity on coyote I guess, and not a whole lot of noticable movement from one key area to another but for breeding season. They seem a bit territorial. If 4 sq miles has a beaver pond or two, a 40 acre field, and running water, it will have coyotes in it, (and coyotes from 'the other side of the mountain", don't seem to cross back and forth much into anothers area.) and if you kill em all, they'll be replacements at least by the next fall, and likely sooner, if it's perfect habitat and no coyotes on it from taking em out. Coyotes that are bred up with a transient wolf seem priveleged to claim more ground too. There's a little bit of that going on around here.

[bobwendt]

I just had a thought, what about breeding down to a transient weasel that holds some loser territory already? If you get my drift- bwahahahaha.

[Wiley]

Jim: "There was a post on The Michigan Sportsman where a guy live trapped some fox pups from an airport to save them from being killed because they were a hazard for the planes and released them on property away from the airport but didn't catch the adults, this was about May 20. I said they probably starved what do you thinkBob or S.H.?"

Jim,

I'd say they will probably perish but not necessarily from starvation. Fox pups IN MOST AREAS are usually one month ahead of coyote pups and I'd say most coyote pups will not starve after June 1st.

Their mortality will probably be higher but more than likely it will not be from starvation.


~SH~

[Wiley]

Jim: "There was a post on The Michigan Sportsman where a guy live trapped some fox pups from an airport to save them from being killed because they were a hazard for the planes and released them on property away from the airport but didn't catch the adults, this was about May 20. I said they probably starved what do you thinkBob or S.H.?"

Jim,

I'd say their mortality will probably be higher but not necessarily from starvation. Fox pups IN MOST AREAS are usually one month ahead of coyote pups and I'd say most coyote pups will not starve after June 1st.


~SH~

[lb]

Scott, do we need to read that twice, for emphasis, or did you make a little mistake?

Good hunting. LB

[richc]

lb,
Just read it twice pardoner, that's what I did.