THE question...

[trappnman]

How in the heck did coyotes come to dominate our landscape? Pre-1970- coyotes were unheard of in all but the west and the far north- where they were thought to be a separate breed- brush wolfs.

Then all of a sudden in the mid 70's to mid 80's- coyotes had an incredible- almost simultaneous exapansion over most of the Midwest, NE and South. Like- NOW.

Why?

Why all of a sudden? Several things happened in that era- the rapid growth of set-a-sides, taking a lot of production acres out of play all a once for one. Another thing- this was the era of the greatest fur boom in the last century- and more trappers than ever were out at the same time.

Cause and effect?

[Dusty]

My SWAG would be that it involves lag time and detection. Colonizations tend to happen pretty slowly - of that farthest outside, very edge-of-the-range den, maybe a pup will disperse another mile or so, and maybe a couple wanderers will successfully breed way outside the "normal" range occasionally, but for the most part non-migratory species don't shift home ranges very fast. One theory is, coyotes got to AK by following miners - that would be an exceptionally rapid colonization, and perhaps they did something similar to get east.

How many coyotes have to be in an area for them to be noticed? As far as I know, there has never been a sighting of a live mountain lion in AK, but three have shown up in wolf snares (then again, lions don't howl).

I question both the rapidity and arrival date of coyotes in the east; I'd guess they got there slower and earlier than is currently thought.

Pliestocene coyote-like fosssils have been found in MD. Coyotes almost certainly got to FL and GA by human transport. Maybe they were always there in low numbers, and something changed allowing them to proliferate. Maybe they were transplanted there.

Back on my management soapbox, if a sufficient sample size of DNA-containing material from the appropriate locations and dates were available, it would be fairly easy to figure out where coyotes came from, how long they've been there, and if they have in fact been hybridizing with wolves and/or dogs.

[mntrapper]

I would think the biggest thing that caused the rapid growth in coyote populations is that the use of poisions has become illegal because that was one of the biggest things that kept the population low. So with more and more animals surviving they expanded their range. Also since the fur price have been relitivily low the last 10 or 20 yrs there has not been a big demand for the products from the animals and not many were taken by trapping or hunting.

[dj88ryr]

Coyotes were present in decent numbers in the Pine Barrens of NJ back in the early 70s. Maybe as Dusty stated, isolated pockets out of the public eye, all at once got enough numbers to be encountered.
In NH, we rarely saw a coyote in the late 70s, by 1982, they were starting to be regulars in the newspaper articles, by late 80s they were comoon place.

[trappnman]

I am sure there were some isolated pockets- within a 150 of here in the Necedah Refuge in central WI there were always brushwolfs. but here?

Man- we lived in the sticks back in a river valley going into the Mississippi. We lived in the woods hunting rabbits with beagles from sept to March -and never saw a coyote track, heard a coyote- or ever talked to anyone that ahd seen a coyote. First notice came around the Whitewater area- a big rough series of river valleys and marshes- word was a few had been seen by deer hunters. Then- bang- within 10 years- fox were out and coyotes were in.

I really somehow think it is related to furboom-

[trappincoyotes39]

My take is this yes during the fur boom you had alot of trappers out there, and we know that the more pressure applied to coyotes the bigger the litter size is the next summer, couple that with a week market in the 60's alot of bounty but not much fur trapping and you take a species such as the coyote, and his abilty to adapt and change with the surroundings, leads to movement to new areas, some say there is as many as 13 sub species of coyotes!
I think crp and the coyotes abilty to survive on a wide range of habitat and food, really helped the miagration. Just as we see more Mt Lions in Iowa, there sifting down river systems into our state, because they have a viable foodd source alot of whitetailed deer and turkeys, couple that with many western states loosing hunting trapping rights for these large cats, as there population grows there is a natural dispersal that takes them farther and farther from the core areas.

[Drifter]

Got to wonder about running pens and where they figure into the equasion . I know that they never came to much light until after state hoppers made it happen . Although they weren't popular knowledge they were going before the yote population exsplosion of the late 70s . Couple that with bounty systems being dismanteled and poison outlawing . Plentyful food sources and good habitat what better formula could you find ? I know a fox trapper that snagged one in a fox set back in 66 in SE Iowa . Had to track it for better than a mile before it got hung up n a fence with the fox size drag .

Drifter

[gcs]

Well,I can't answer the question either, but it sure is interesting.Around here we had no,or very few coons,+woodchucks,and deer were in isolated pockets.In the 80's all these non-existant populations boomed till they have become a nuisance.Now I'm even starting to see skunks,and NO one had ever seen ,or smelled a skunk ever.All the time the land base is disappearing for housing .Just strange. If coyotes ever can get through the city onto the Island,they'll own this place,lol

[kevinupp]

IMHO, I think it's a combination of both the ban on pesticides and the fur boom. The banning of the pesticides allowed more to survive in areas and couple that with the human pressure put on them and that they do reproduce more when the population is hit hard with disease or in that case trapping it makes for a very ripe situation for them to grow in numbers.

[trappnman]

Intersting note on litter size. I used to think that somehow, coyotes compensated somehow and had larger litters in low population areas.

but further research has shown that while this is the end results- the reasons are different.

In an average population, there will be more young coyotes than older cooytes. Younger coyotes have smaller littlers than older females that have had a few litters- one would also assume survival rate of pups to be higher with experienced females.

In a low numbers population- there will be a higher % of older females- thus the average # of pups per litter that year would be higher.

[MChewk]

Two theories that still bounce around here are the deer population was increasing at such a rapid rate the DNR brought coyotes in to cull the numbers back! Now before you laugh and scoff...I was eating breakfast at a truck stop out in the sticks one am when the cook/owner mentions he talked to the local cop. Cop tells him he pulled over a truck for a ticket the other day. In the truck was twenty coyotes..after some questioning and calls, DNR gives cop ok to let go. One year later a nursery guy I trap for, tells me one of the bigger nursery guys in the area brought ten pairs of coyotes in from Texas to kill rabbits and deer. As they were hammering his crop of trees. since then I've heard similar stories from reputable landowners along the same lines. Are they true? Don't know but like Steve it was red fox and some grays in the early 1980's and BAM! Coyotes started showing up!

[a1foxhopper]

I have heard the same thing Mike talks about happening here in S. Michigan. Rumors? Facts? I don't know. One thing I do know is 30 plus years ago the deer population in southern MI was very low. Everyone went "Up North" to hunt. Now days you sure don't need to.
Another thing I have noticed in my state has been the introduction of the wild turkey. When the turkeys moved in so did the coyotes.
Maybe they just migrate to where the gettins' good?

[trappnman]

Well- theres truth to that. Back in the 30s and 40s- deer were non existent around here. I saw a newpaper article from the 30s where it was big news- a farmer saw.......some deer tracks!

In the early 70s- 1972 maybe- the deer season was actually closed in MN because of so little deer.

Now- you can take as many as you want basically, with management tags.

Turkeys are another story. The dnr tryed restocking them once back in the 50s, 60s- but that strain was very suseptible to disease and it died out. A differernt strain was introduced after that- - I see more turkeys that deer. I honestly don't know how many 1000s of turkeys I see in a year. I would bet the farm I could take you out almost any time of the year and show you turkeys within an hour or 2.

So maybe its just a general land use type thing. Deer, turkeys and coyotes are at peak population levels in many areas.

The thing that is somewhat unusual on the coyotes is their rapid expansion into areas that never had them. Our area for example -did not have coyotes. It just did not. Just like we don't have praire dogs- yet 300 miles straight west to SD- both exist. And there were always brush wolfs up north. Thats how alien the concept of coyotes was- the coyotes that were in isiolated areas weren't even thought to be coyotes- they were usually darker, bigger that the Western coyotes- thus- brush wolf.

Thinking back on what Dusty said-

My SWAG would be that it involves lag time and detection. Colonizations tend to happen pretty slowly - of that farthest outside, very edge-of-the-range den, maybe a pup will disperse another mile or so, and maybe a couple wanderers will successfully breed way outside the "normal" range occasionally, but for the most part non-migratory species don't shift home ranges very fast. One theory is, coyotes got to AK by following miners - that would be an exceptionally rapid colonization, and perhaps they did something similar to get east.

How many coyotes have to be in an area for them to be noticed? As far as I know, there has never been a sighting of a live mountain lion in AK, but three have shown up in wolf snares (then again, lions don't howl).

I question both the rapidity and arrival date of coyotes in the east; I'd guess they got there slower and earlier than is currently thought

Errr.....maybe....but....

Throughout the 60s, 70s - I lived for hunting. We had labs and we had hounds and we hunted- just about every day from mid Sept until Deer hunting in Nov- then rabbit and squirrel hunting as often was I could util Mar 1. I lived in the woods. My trapping was done early and late and inbetween. Trapping to me was just another type of hunting.

Point being- I was in the woods a lot- with hounds most of the time. We ran a lot of bunnys, a lot of fox and a lot of coon. NEVER did we see any coyote sign (it would have been recognized by its uniqueness), never did anyone else we knew see coyote sign- and neither myself or anyone I knew had ever seen a coyote.

I will concede there MIGHT have been isolated coyotes- but in my opinion, speaking of my area, those would have been rare indeed.

Until the mid to late 70s- just the eve of the fur boom. I can't see this as any more of a coincidence- because one would think that with all the "trappers" and hunters afield- coyotes would have been noted. Yet- at the end of the boom- thats when coyotes really started increasing.

In any case- one thing that can't be denied- is that over the past 25 years- the coyote went from being a rare anomaly to where they are present in numbers over say 1/4 of their former range. Esp the big midwestern states- MN, Iowa, WS, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, etc. Same in the south and SE from what I hear.

Good thing I love to trap em or I'd be bummin'.....

[Dusty]

Yet- at the end of the boom- thats when coyotes really started increasing.

Interesting. Perhaps reducing populations of fox/coons/something left an abundance of prey items, which turned out to be enough incentive for coyotes to immigrate into new areas.

That assumes something (probably fox) are capable of excluding coyotes by keeping the prey base at a low level, which seems like a stretch but not impossible. Anyone need an MS topic??

[bblwi]

coyote expansion in the Midwest, by Bryce he,he
I have read the above posts and agree with many of the theories and thoughts. Here is my food for thought for the topic.
Rapid increase of the Whitetail Deer numbers and range expansion since say about the 1970s. Deer are big game and big game takes coyotes, wolfves,hunters and or autos to control. The biological carry ing capaciity changes when there is a massive change in species and total biomass . Whether coyotes were planted as biological control or not, does not make as much difference to me as the fact that the deer herd in the upper-midwest maybe 4-5 fold larger than 40 years ago.
Farmers fields are now huge compared to 30 years ago, more wide open spaces favors larger faster moving animals and thus rabbits fox, song birds, etc. dropped off and the coyote found ready made habitat and food a plenty.the above species were quick but do not have the after buring speed of an adult coyote.We have miles and miles of streams, rivers and broken areas that makes running long lines to trap and hunt the coyote, a big deal and quite hard to do with so much private property also. Many have talked about litter size and when population densities are low, litters are large. Compared to parts of Kansas, Wyoming, Etc. we are low density in yotes and with great cover and few preditors our coyotes are not sensing a need to reproduce less and thus large litters with good survival rates makes for rapid expansion. Millions of road kill animals and millions of gut piles scattered over 8-9 states makes for canine buffet also. They are learning to adapt well to the more suburban environments and with all the 10 acres and woods, weeds and prey they are protected more and more each year. We may just be seeing the tip of this iceberg. Not a good thing in my opinion but an opportunity also .

Bryce

[Ric]

Just another thought for a question that has a very complex answer..Wildlife management(all wildlife) in the U.S. is the best in the world.If the bio-mass of prey wasn't there the predators surely wouldn't be there either.We live in a land of plenty.

[lonetrapper]

coyotes are now in newfounland which is completely surrounded by the atlantic ocean the closet spot on land from nova scotia to there is fifty miles i believe ,they must go across by ice in winter the only thing i can see ,there is still alot of small farms there with lots of sheep ,plus a healthy moose and caribou population .

[Stef]

If one day they ended up on the Anticosti island.

The Deer country is gone!

Stef