I guess I'm just a natural born skeptic, a bucket of cold water, doubting Thomas, or an old curmudgeon!
I was surprised by how many wanted to accept such a sensational picture dragged in from somewhere else (Facebook, the source of all that's right and good!)! Real or not, I just have a hard time accepting what I'm seeing. Denial? I found the source also and looked at the other pictures in the series. I'll accept the story as presented.
This is hard for me to say. I'm either brave or stupid. My wife says its the latter. How the coyote population is affecting the deer population is still an open question for me. I know many of you have seen and described your encounters. This probably isn't the time to try to break the tension with humor, but I once saw a man pull a rabbit out of his hat. For the longest time I was sure every hat had a rabbit in it! Anyhow....
The difficult thing about talking whitetail deer is the diverse geology, geography, and habitat in which they thrive. So, for me to still have an open question is all about me. Too often I've seen what seems to be cause and effect actual be a red herring. Let's leave that alone for a while. Kill all the coyotes you want. I'm just not sure it will make a difference. It might! I'm just not ready to jump on the wagon.
No doubt, fawn recruitment can be a problem. The one study I follow and referenced here before is the Penn State Deer Forest study. Fawns are collared and necropsied if they die. I am shocked at the rate of mortality. it's something like 50%! I'm going to assume the vets doing the investigation are competent and objective. I am surprised at what is predating the fawns. Bears and bobcats. To my recollection not one coyote has killed a collard fawn. Yes, they have scavenged after the fact. I know, it's a study and how it applies to your situation is a leap you'll have to make to judge the impact on you.
In the Virginia County where I live and hunt there are no bears. I'm not sure about bobcats. There are coyotes everywhere, so I hear. And, coyotes are decimating the deer herd, so I hear Yet, hunters kill more deer today than when we couldn't spell coyote. We have less habitat, fewer hunters, more coyotes and we kill more deer.
Antlerless deer - does killed would seem to be predictive of what the herd looks like next year and the year after...
1970 - 26
1980 - 109
1990 - 160
2000 - 668
2010 - 1311
2016 - 1050
So, there's the smoking gun, right? The decline from 2010 to last year? No.
2011 to 2014 we killed so many does its a marvel there's a herd left!
2010 - 1574; 2011 1356; 2012 1582; 2013 1208; 2014 1283.
Maybe that's effective coyote control! Kill 'em all before they do.
Except for nine or ten counties in Virginia this is typical. Yet coyotes are destroying the deer herd? Our success rate now compared to close-by years is way short, but looking back further, we are still having a good time - for now.
I should note, the increasing number of does harvested is a direct result of what was an increasing number of days open for killing "either sex."
