One Less

[Harry Gietler]

Originally Posted by Tom Flanigan

Thats a beautiful coyote. I've killed some in Sasketechawan. We have a number of them on the property I hunt in Pawling, NY. We see them fairly often and hear them howling and nipping many nights.

But, I decided not to shoot them. I have a caller but I've never used it. They look too much like a dog to me. I just can't pull the trigger on one anymore. Sure they do take fawns in the spring on the property, but I have never seen evidence of them killing a full grown deer in my area.

I guess its pointless sentimentality on my part, but I don't think I'll ever kill one on the property.

Tom, many times I have tracked Coyotes in the Snow to a Kill. Yes they Kill full grown size Deer. It is usually Two of them, but last year I shot a 52 pound Male that was closing in on a small Deer! HE was alone.
Harry

[Tom Flanigan]

Harry, I have no doubt that coyotes take adult deer. I just haven't seen any evidence of it on the property I hunt. We do snowmobiling on the property, so if there was evidence of a deer kill, we probably would have come across it.

I wish they weren't there. I really don't like to see them although I do enjoy the howling and yipping just after dark. It's a wild sound that I like. The deer population on the property is very high so they couldn't make much of a dent and would probably be an asset to the deer herd. There are only three of us who hunt deer and I am the only one who really hunts to any extent.

[Dean Romig]

Coyotes in the area of VT that I hunt take down.. or more descriptively, kill fawns, adult deer and moose calves-of-the-year. I see it every fall/winter in the hunting seasons I am there.
I will shoot one whenever I see one while knowing the scientific facts are that no matter how many coyotes we hunters kill it will not affect their population. Others will quickly fill the vacuum.





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[Tom Flanigan]

Coyotes certainly have their place in nature. We tend to view them as enemies, but they are just trying to survive. They don’t hunt for sport like we do and they don’t take more than they need. In my opinion, they have more of a right to game than we do.

In some areas, they might actually be a benefit to wild populations. I believe they are on the property I hunt although I hate the thought of them taking fawns.

I have nothing against people who kill them. I understand why. I used to shoot them too in Canada. But I’ve changed a bit over the years. I now no longer kill anything I don’t eat and am more in tune with the coyotes and other animals place in nature.

[Steve Hodges]

Originally Posted by Andrew Sacco

They eat birds, and lots of them. I have a friend who is a wildlife biologist for NY State and he said they eat porcupines (from the butt hole side to gain entrance) and grouse/squirrels/mice and rabbits. They are killing machines. There's a video out there somewhere of one chasing a squirrel down in the tree and killing it. One of my employees had her whole chicken coup killed by one fisher (which she finally saw and killed). Took the heads off all the birds. Worst part is she really couldn't figure out how it got in it was a pretty tight enclosure with netting above.

https://www.nhregister.com/news/arti...t-11588390.php

Having been a trapper in NH in my younger days I have trapped many Fishers. Every one I skinned had a few Porky quills imbedded under there skin. They are not "killing machines". They do not kill for pleasure. They are a predator that preys on all sorts of critters in order to survive. Do they eat birds, absolutely, but so do raptors, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, wolves and weasels. As with all predators they they play a crucial role in the environment. Your chicken coop story sounds a lot more like the work of a weasel than a Fisher. If the fisher was not caught in the coop I suspect that he/she was not the culprit, but even so, he/she was just trying to eek out a living. I wish folks would stop putting human traits on predators such as labeling them "killing machines". They just want to eat and raise there young. Look, I am no fan of Coyotes but where they occur they have filled a void that was lacking by another predator. As for your video story of a fisher killing a squirrel, of course they do!!! And there ability to chase one down for lunch has me in awe of there hunting skills.

[Tom Flanigan]

Amen

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Stephen Hodges

Having been a trapper in NH in my younger days I have trapped many Fishers. Every one I skinned had a few Porky quills imbedded under there skin. They are not "killing machines". They do not kill for pleasure. They are a predator that preys on all sorts of critters in order to survive. Do they eat birds, absolutely, but so do raptors, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, wolves and weasels. As with all predators they they play a crucial role in the environment. Your chicken coop story sounds a lot more like the work of a weasel than a Fisher. If the fisher was not caught in the coop I suspect that he/she was not the culprit, but even so, he/she was just trying to eek out a living. I wish folks would stop putting human traits on predators such as labeling them "killing machines". They just want to eat and raise there young. Look, I am no fan of Coyotes but where they occur they have filled a void that was lacking by another predator. As for your video story of a fisher killing a squirrel, of course they do!!! And there ability to chase one down for lunch has me in awe of there hunting skills.

Steve, you and I, and a lot of others in the PGCA, have a mutual friend who raised chickens as a food source for he and his wife, along with rabbits for the same purpose. He had built and extremely strong and secure weasel-proof chicken house within the confines of the fenced in (against weasels and such) chicken yard. Something got into the chicken house at night and dragged every one of their chickens out and killed them all, stopping to eat just the more select parts of just a few of them. Somehow the marauder got in through the screened 3" opening under the sides of the vent cap some 5 feet above the floor of the house - an incredibly strong and determined animal and by all counts a "killing machine." Judging by the carcass, it was determined that our mutual friend's wife had Parkerized a large fisher in the act. There's no weasel that strong - but being of the same genus, is more than a little bit likely to simply enjoy killing.





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[Harry Gietler]

Last Hunting Season, I was walking back to my cabin (in the dark) when a Fisher started screaming at Me! It stopped Me in my Tracks. Hell ,I DID NOT have any thing to be scared of, I HAD A 300 H&H MAG. in my Hands! I finely figured out what was making that racket and I stopped shaking in My Boots. The same thing
happened the next night. The next morning I saw the Fisher, a small female!
AS far as Coyotes go, filling the Void to a Coyote means KILLING every thing they can and Eating it. I Believe the only GOOD COYOTE is a DEAD COYOTE!

Harry

[Tom Flanigan]

I remember years ago, it was fashionable to label predators as vicious killers that should be destroyed whenever possible. I have in front of me an Outdoor Life article from May 1938. One of the articles is called “Villain’s of the Wood and Field”. “If the coyote and skunk are skilled at annoying outdoorsmen, they are positive geniuses at defeating his efforts to wipe them out.” Also in that magazine is an advertisement for Winchester small bore rifles for killing “pests”. The advertisement features a picture of an owl.

I guess, to this day, vestiges of that sentiment still linger. Much of my hunting is on a large estate that has large populations of predator’s. I plant acres of sorghum every year to provide food and cover for the pheasants, but we still lose quite a few. By far the most effective predators on the property are hawks. It is very common to find dead pheasants with their breast eaten and the rest of the bird remaining. They don’t need to work to get every bite when there is plentiful food.

The foxes and coyotes generally take the whole bird. Predation by these animals is not a factor on the property. New York, as some other states, have hunting seasons on these animals to protect them. I guess these states don’t see these predations as “killing machines”

Hawks and owls are protected, as they should be. I don’t begrudge the hawks on the property their pheasant kills. Unlike myself, they are eating to survive.

[Joe from MO]

Originally Posted by Tom Flanigan

I remember years ago, it was fashionable to label predators as vicious killers that should be destroyed whenever possible. I have in front of me an Outdoor Life article from May 1938. One of the articles is called “Villain’s of the Wood and Field”. “If the coyote and skunk are skilled at annoying outdoorsmen, they are positive geniuses at defeating his efforts to wipe them out.” Also in that magazine is an advertisement for Winchester small bore rifles for killing “pests”. The advertisement features a picture of an owl.

I guess, to this day, vestiges of that sentiment still linger. Much of my hunting is on a large estate that has large populations of predator’s. I plant acres of sorghum every year to provide food and cover for the pheasants, but we still lose quite a few. By far the most effective predators on the property are hawks. It is very common to find dead pheasants with their breast eaten and the rest of the bird remaining. They don’t need to work to get every bite when there is plentiful food.

The foxes and coyotes generally take the whole bird. Predation by these animals is not a factor on the property. New York, as some other states, have hunting seasons on these animals to protect them. I guess these states don’t see these predations as “killing machines”

Hawks and owls are protected, as they should be. I don’t begrudge the hawks on the property their pheasant kills. Unlike myself, they are eating to survive.

As someone who has bow hunted deer for a very long time... I will say this about coyotes.... They are so thick where I hunt, that if you do not recover your deer within an hour or so... More than likely they will be on it, before you can get to it. I am very careful about what shots I take, and luckily for me, in the last 10 years I have yet to have a deer go more than 50 yds, and all have died within minutes of being arrowed. I did have to let a buck go over night several years ago, and by the time I recovered it at first light next morning, there wasn't much left of it other than the head..... The can wipe out a deer fairly quick.

I shoot every coyote I see while deer hunting. I know I don't even begin to put a dent in their numbers. Also, large coyote populations can be very hard on fawns in the spring. As for pheasants, even with a large population of coyotes, I would think they have very limited success on killing many of those, or any other game bird for that matter. Hawks are much better at that, and they are protected.