Michael A. Sawyers
Cumberland Times-News
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Most interesting, an article in a recent edition of The Journal of Wildlife Management about coyotes and deer.
If I can make it real short, it says that not enough is known about coyote predation of deer and therefore studies need to take place to change that fact.
You know the old TV commercial where everybody interested in investing money listened when E.F. Hutton spoke? Well, anybody interested in deer should stop and listen when an article such as this appears in The Journal of Wildlife Management, a well-respected scientific publication that reports about things in the unexact science of wildlife management.
If you pour three grams of substance A into a beaker and mix it with five grams of substance B before adding 10 ounces of water, the chemistry books tell you exactly what will happen. Wildlife management will never be that way. That fact, of course, leads to a lot of experts out there in the general hunting public.
Nothing in wildlife management can be refuted or proved exactly.
I remember a public regulation meeting where a guy in the audience stood up and said something to the effect of “I’ve been a hunter for 30 years and blah, blah, blah, blah!” as he disagreed with a proposed regulation.
Whereupon the wildlife official on the stage said, “I’ve been flushing my toilet all my life, but that doesn’t make me a plumber.”
Anyway, back to The Journal of Wildlife Management, deer and coyotes.
The authors of the article wrote, “Deer populations are declining in the southeastern United States, and coyotes may be contributing to this decline. Although cause-and-effect studies have not been conducted, the expansion of the coyote’s range and its increasing numbers have coincided with the decline in deer. Wildlife management policies, such as limiting hunting of deer or manipulating habitat to ensure greater fawn survival, may therefore need to be adjusted.”
Whether you consider Maryland and West Virginia to be in the Southeast or not, they are at least close enough to that region to take notice.
The authors contend that the growth of the coyote population mirrors the decline of the deer population. They use South Carolina as an example, stating that the deer population there dropped by 36 percent between 1997 and 2006.
They say that no decrease in deer reproduction has been found to explain the herd decline. Deer deaths from disease and motor vehicles have remained constant.
The coyote is a known predator of newborn fawns, according to the article. Research is needed to determine the scale of the impact of coyotes on deer populations. Even if coyotes are considered by some to be a welcome method of controlling deer herds, the authors believe the dynamic needs to be more clearly understood.
When it comes to West Virginia, though, Rich Rogers, a wildlife biologist with the Division of Natural Resources, says not to worry.
“If you have marginal habitat then maybe mortality from coyotes can be additive. It may be that in some southern West Virginia counties the coyotes are keeping the herds suppressed. But down there the loss of habitat and poaching also enter into the picture.”
Rogers said that in the Potomac Highlands and the Eastern Panhandle, the deer herds are still actually too dense.
“On any given year we lose 30 to 50 percent of our fawns from all types of mortality,” Rogers said. “Bears probably have a bigger impact on fawns than coyotes do.”
Rogers said a study is under way at West Virginia University attempting to find out what coyotes eat.
“The graduate student has collected 160 whole coyotes and is examining the contents of the stomachs,” he said.
Rogers said a DNR study in Lewis, Pocahontas and Raleigh counties has crews walking 10-mile survey lines through the woods and collecting coyote scat which is examined for content.
“There is a May-June peak in consumption of fawns and then there is another peak from the beginning of buck season into January when deer hair is found in the scat,” he said.
The latter peak comes from coyotes eating gut piles left by hunters and crippled deer that cannot escape, Rogers believes.
“People think coyotes are strictly carnivores, but they eat berries, grass, bugs and they eat acorns by the bucketload.”
Rogers believes as well that there are simply not enough hunters anymore to reduce deer herds to what he considers healthy levels.
“We are losing hunters. We are losing access to land. There are people who refuse to kill antlerless deer. All this contributes,” he said.
“Hunters don’t need to get upset about coyotes killing deer around here.”
Contact Outdoor Editor Mike Sawyers at msawyers@times-news.com.
