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Post by trappincoyotes39 on Mar 19, 2012 17:15:07 GMT -6
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Post by trappnman on Mar 21, 2012 7:51:14 GMT -6
I'd tend to agree with what it said-
what is interesting, and has nothing to do with the study, is that although we have a good population of coyotes, predation of farm animals is almost nil and the study I was in, showed little fawn predation as well, a scat study confirmed that deer were a very low % of the diet. the largest % of their diets are small mammals, vegetation and insects
Losing a calf to coyotes here is very rare. the largest % of their diets are small mammals, vegetation and insects
as such, the farmers and general public don;t care if coyotes are there or not- even my few damage complaints, are almost always " not doing any damage but just don't like them that close"
the obvious answer is we have such a large prey base- but doesn't much of the west as well?
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Post by trappincoyotes39 on Mar 21, 2012 14:49:52 GMT -6
NO the west does not. Apples and oranges comparison really. Large land tracts versus small, prey base not near as concintraited as the mid west at all. You have many sections of ground that offer coyotes little compaired to the mid west. Totally different numbers of livestock and husbandry practices.
Deer and antelope at times can be a main stay along with livestock like sheep and spring calves in areas of concintration at that time.
Look to the NE and you will find sporatic small prey base numbers, hence the reason the coyotes hit the deer yards durring heavy snow conditions in the NE. Concintrations of prey base and coyotes lead to depredation of livestock and wildlife.
Hard winters would make your deer and other midwest states far more likely to higher mortality rates on deer. I watched them work deer onto the ice in SE SD they where quite good at it when the conditions warranted such. In the midwest there is more cover, food (browse) than out west so a bad winter in the midwest and the west on deer and antelope far different as well.
Good denning habitat and sheep don't go together well the majority of the time. Some guys have little loss early in the spring until they move those sheep into summer pastures lush with grass and water and take them right into the coyotes. Where not talking 50 acres or 100 acres but free range sheep in 500-2,000 acre pastures or bigger.
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Post by deanchapel on Mar 22, 2012 20:35:44 GMT -6
Where I trapped in Northern MT last year, small mammals during trapping season were very scarce. Very few mice/vole/rabbit tracks on the snow. If the coyotes couldn't get birds, they would definitely get deer and antelope.
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