Coyotes Kill Fawns and Pets

Coyote’s Kill Deer

Another deer season is coming to a close, only a few more days of muzzleloader season remain. For us in Maine, that north of Augusta, the search for deer continues. There are just no deer, especially downeast. Oh yes there are a few pockets here and there, but overall deer have disappeared.

Camp talk goes from spraying to loss of winter yards to coyotes. In the daily travels we find plenty of food and bud tips, but no deer.

In the few days we had snow the crew hunted hard around Chick, Jellison Mountain and Molly Road. What we tracks we did find, within a few steps we also found coyote tracks running or following the deer. Snow makes things quiet and reduces the deer’s ability to smell, especially during the storm with whirling winds.

I’ve often thought that coyotes are a major cause of our deer problem or lack of fawn survival which is critical to our deer herd recovery.

Do bounties and award programs work, while they may not eliminate coyotes they certainly would reduce or hold their numbers in balance and allow recovery of the deer? According to tagging reports only about 2,000 coyotes are harvested annually in Maine.

Fawn survival is the critical part of the equation. So beside’s the wolf, what else is reducing our fawn survival? Bear and bobcat? Studies have shown that while bear and cat may have impact on fawns in May and June, it is not near the level as the coyote. It should also be noted that bear and cat were roaming the woods when downeast was the deer capital of Maine.

Then I picked up this month’s issue of the American Hunter and there was an article by Patrick Durkin on how Coyotes Affect Deer Herds. The article was talking about studies in Eastern and Southern States, states including South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama to name a few. Reports are showing that more that 74% of fawns may die before they are six weeks old, with coyotes likely responsible. Have coyotes learned to identify doe behavior when fawns are nearby, enough to learn to pack up and search out the fawn? Has our fawn survival done from 2 fawns to say 3 does to more like one fawn to twenty eight does? If so where does this leave the State of Maine and our deer herd?

The time has come for a reward and bounty system, at least enough to cover the cost of gasoline for hunters and trappers. We need more hounds man running the coyote and more guides performing predator calling. I’ve heard calls that bear are the problem, I just don’t see the evidence that a few bears have destroyed region after region of deer.

It is also time to take some of the Lynx funds and collar deer and study the impact of coyote on fawn mortality. IFW has not in any fashion been proactive in protecting and preserving our deer herd from the threat of coyotes! Why? The issue always comes back to funding, our license costs are up and sales are down – why, no deer, no hunters. But we continue to spend thousands to allow wardens to perform duties not related to their mission or purpose. The calls are coming for consolidation and budget cuts – heck if wardens want to be a state trooper, swat member or local law officer then maybe it is time for consolidation.

SAM might want to explore the labor work records and see how many hours a year the warden spends in a deer yard reducing coyote numbers or perform animal control to reduce their numbers. It is also reported that as part of the Lynx study coyotes are captured, collared and released!

The coyote is a killer and top of the predator line that is now established in Maine. Wolf’s once roamed the Eastern range, having a large territory and harvesting a variety of foods. But without the wolf, coyotes spread east quickly in the early 1900’s and established themselves as the leader.

Studies also show another chain reaction. Wolf’s won’t tolerate a coyote; the coyote won’t tolerate fox, fisher, marten or bobcat. In fact coyote compete with the fisher, cat, fox, lynx and marten for the same small game such as rabbit, squirrel, frogs and deer.

Being so concerned about Lynx, which have been in Maine since early time, we should be concerned about how the coyote is affecting the Lynx recovery but removing the food so critical to the Lynx survival! Maybe a federal grant is available to help recover the Lynx by removing the coyote.