One Less
 

A mature female I caught harassing deer yesterday.

Their a beautiful animal but ..........

Now there's a good coyote.





.

Agreed, Dean.

They are becoming a really dangerous nuisance here in SC Kentucky.

Dave

We have a LOT of coyotes but our biggest problem now is fisher cats. I have two on my property and apparently illegal to kill. They had babies last year I had them on my trail cam.

Andy, what threat do fishers pose?





.

Fishers specialize in eating porkys. Of course they also eat other stuff.

Yep, my favorite coyote. Nice going Gary.

So, did you skin it out and stretch it?

They sure do make good targets. :-)

I normally kill a few each year deer hunting, this year I have not seen one, but hear them almost everynight I am at my place.

Congrats!

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

I hunted them the first three years that Mosquito Creek Sportsman Association held their coyote hunt. Don't know if they still have it. Moved from PA nine years ago. The club I hunted with in the Quehanna Wild Area killed four the first year they had a camp of their own which was way back in 1990.

that's a big ote for sure...charlie

A couple that got to close while I was perched in a tree. They run out of steam pretty quick after attack from an air missile.

That's a juuuuge coyote, as Trump would say. Fisher Cat? I've never even heard of one and figured it was the same as our marten up here but this pic shows that false! Jeeezus, they can be huge, bigger than a wolverine. They'd have to eat a lot of smaller critters to survive. I'd be, uh..hmmm.. uh, "looking for them" too if I had chickens or whatever.

"The Coyote is a survivor
Reckon he's got to be
Lives in the snow at forty below
or Malibu by the sea"

Ian Tyson

That is one AWFUL BIG fisher!! I have never even heard of one that big and I've seen and caught a number of them. I caught a big male one time that was 19 lbs but the one in the picture looks like 25-30 lbs. :shock:





.

And red squirrels. They are in the weasel family so they don't stay in a small area they have big travel Range

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.

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.

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.





.

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.

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.

Amen

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.





.

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.

Joe, I hunt deer also and with the bow. I have for the last 63 years. I don’t take a deer very late in the evening any more. Instead of staying in until dark like I used to, I now stop hunting when I no longer have enough light left to follow up a shot. I do it for two reasons, one is that a deer left overnight in Indian Summer weather will spoil and second, coyotes will certainly find it and reduce the carcass to skin and bones very quickly.

I don’t take a deer out of the woods. I carefully bone it out in the woods and take it back to my refrigerator (for aging) in pieces. Invariably, the next day the parts of the carcass I left behind are pretty much cleaned up.

Up in Saskatchewan some years ago, we had a surge in the coyote population that endangered the pronghorns in the southern portion of the province. If I remember correctly, the pronghorn season was closed in some areas. The coyotes took an inordinate number of fawns. Prior to the coyote surge, non-residents were not allowed to remove pelts from the province. During the surge residents and non-residents both were encouraged to kill them whenever possible and the ban on taking pelts out of the province was rescinded.

Given favorable conditions predator populations can get out of control in certain areas at times. But their numbers are generally managed by nature over a period of time. Predator populations are highest where there is an abundance of food. Once the food diminishes, they move on. The problem is that they sometimes compete with humans for the same resource and for this they are often vilified.

But I’ll go back to a statement that I made in an earlier post. Since they kill for survival, I believe they have more of a right to game than we do. I firmly believe that, knowing that sometimes it is necessary to kill them in areas where the population exceeds the carrying capacity of the land. It provides a more immediate response than nature.

We are amazed that our bird dogs can pick up the scent of a pheasant, grouse, quail or woodcock at twenty or thirty yards or even more. But the nose of a predator is even keener because he survives by his sense of smell. They hunt at night when the ground roosting birds are at their most vulnerable and the predators know this. They can sneak in soundlessly and kill them in their sleep. I am really surprised any of these ground roosting species are even as plentiful as they are today and I’m not surprised in the least by the “kill em on sight” of the old time plantation owners and managers.





.

Here is a picture of the 52 lb. coyote Harry shot that he mentioned on the previos page.

I’ve read of coyotes taken in New England in the low 70’s in weight.





.

Those big northern coyotes supposedly have wolf genes from cross breeding now.

That has been scientifically proven true.





.

I don’t believe that coyotes or any other predator is much of a threat to WILD populations of birds that have feed and good cover. Food and cover is the key. Although predators can do damage to populations in areas with marginal or poor feed and cover.

We’ve learned a lot and have become more enlightened on the ways of nature, and the value of each species to ecosystems, since the days of old time plantation owners and managers. I have no doubt that modern plantation managers kill foxes and coyotes on sight to protect their revenue producing pen birds that aren’t attuned to living in the wild.

We all have to make our choices based on varying criteria and our own values, whatever they may be. I have made mine not to shoot predators or anything I won’t eat.

Really?

How about wild populations of ruffed grouse in the Northeast like PA, NY and Northern New England who’s numbers are severely depleted in many localities by such factors as WNV? I think your arguement is misguided and doesn’t take into account localized problems.





.

And I continue to make my choices in individual situations as they occur.





.

Dean, I think you misunderstand what I was trying to convey, to wit, all wildlife, predators included, have an important role to play in the ecosystem. Coyotes are no exception.

I did not criticize any legal hunting activity. Further, I would never say individuals should not shoot coyotes or other predators. I stated MY perspective which counts only for me regardless whether others agree or disagree. I don’t preach to anyone and would never have the gall and presumption to say what others should do. I stand by my statement, in an earlier post, “we all have to make our choices based on varying criteria and our own values, whatever they may be”.

Also, my comment on feed and cover is not “misguided” I was obviously speaking in general since no one can accurately speak to the myriad of other local and regional reasons game population diminish. This is outside the scope of my comment.