We are very fond of you too, and I hope that I am the one making you laugh the hardest. I really enjoy entertaining my friends....
One thing I hope to come from all of this is that people can start thinking for themselves (using both their own eyes and minds) and not get too excited about studies that come from a bunch of WOLF WORSHIPING GOVERNMENT HIPPIES... Actually, there are lots of good biologists in government, but they know that if they get out of line and say anything negative about the wrong subject, that they will soon be without a job (or as we say here - might wake up missing....)
This subject reminds me of the old fable about the king who was naked. Everyone could see he was naked (including himself) but no one could say it, because they were supposed to be seeing something else that they were told to see.
The sad part of this discussion is not the rise of the new coyote - no, that can be dealt with at least to some degree to mitigate the problem. The REAL SAD PART is how the minds of modern man can be brainwashed to believe anything - even when they see the opposite with their own eyes. Or, as my Granddaddy used to say - those people wouldn't know the truth if it came up and slapped them in the face....
Carry on dogghr, I love ya man............
I agree - it is not politically correct anymore to condemn predators. Even in the Ft. Rucker, Alabama area, where fawn recruitment is limited to .25 fawns per doe because of coyote predation - they barely mention removing coyotes, but tell everyone they need to limit their doe harvest. In other words, we have become such snowflakes that we are going to donate the doe we used to harvest so that the warm, fuzzy, cute little coyotes have something to eat. Forty years ago, they would have attacked the coyote problem head on. They would have shot them, trapped them, poisoned them, put up a bounty. And for those of you who say that would not have worked - you need to read about the Kiabab Plateau. Predator control programs across the west were very successful in years past. But, that was then, this is now. My own G&F commission allows coyote hunting ten months out of the year - the two months it is shut down - May and June. Those are the two months they should require everyone to kill a coyote. During those two months, you can kill a coyote if you catch it stealing a 25 cent tomato from your garden, but you cant kill a coyote if you see it killing a fawn on your land you spent $20,000 to produce. They have also basically stopped the harvest of coons and possums - because in this state - you cant kill them unless you sell the fur or eat them. Most folks don't eat coons and possums anymore. Since there has not been a market for southern coons or possums in several years, you cant sell them either. So, they are basically off limits.
Most folks accept that predators wont ever be controlled. They either aren't old enough to remember, or their mind is going - back in the the 70's and early 80's - it was difficult to find a bobcat or coyote track where I live. Coons and even possums were scarce. That is what $125 cats, $50 yotes, and $25 coons will do for you. Quail and rabbits abounded. Our state's poult per hen turkey count averaged about five poults per hen. Now, there are no quail, few rabbits, and our poult per hen count averages 1.7. Of course, this is all to blame on habitat degradation according to the biologists. Even when studies prove predators are destroying the nests of ground nesting animals, the biologists in charge all contend that if we improved the habitat, then the predators would not be as successful. Improving the habitat statewide is probably about as much of a pipe dream as lowering predator numbers statewide. This is akin to telling me, after coons destroy all my sweet corn, that I need to provide more fertilizer, more water, cultivate the ground, provide bees for pollination - when in reality - it is just like the Fort Rucker deer herd. If I don't kill the coons, I am going to give them my corn. In the SE, we are giving the coyotes our deer.