Reprinted from my Jan 22, 2006 column in the Morgantown Dominion Post
Fifteen years ago seeing or hearing a coyote in West Virginia was rather unusual. Not so today. We've got coyotes, and we have a fair number of them.
Coyotes migrated into West Virginia from the north. Data shows that coyotes expanded their range from the Midwest, into Ohio, then northern Pennsylvania, and south into the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. They did not come up from the South, or across the Ohio River.
And no, our state DNR did not stock coyotes in West Virginia. I've had hunters tell me that they were there when conservation officers released coyotes. Doesn't say much for those hunters, because they are fabricating a story, then repeating it over and over, until they believe it to be true. But it didn't happen. Some hunters also continue the myth that the DNR released mountain lions here as well. Those devious DNR guys are very secretive, but in our modern society no state wildlife agency could hide the release of a species. Yet hunters create these rumors about coyotes and mountain lions and have done so not only here but also in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and most other states. Didn't happen.
Long before we had coyotes they were common in Texas, and western states. Why didn't we have them in West Virginia years ago, and why are they relative newcomers to the farm states in the Midwest? The answer is probably because there wasn't enough food. Then as deer and turkey numbers skyrocketed in the 1980's, coyotes started to expand their range.
Coyotes can only live where there is food. If you see a fair number of coyotes in an area, it doesn't mean that there is no wildlife. In fact, it means the opposite. The more food, the more coyotes. If the coyotes kill all the game, they’ve killed some or most of their food supply, and their numbers will decrease. So, as deer and turkey numbers increased over the past twenty years, coyote numbers increased. When those numbers level off in an area, coyote numbers will also level off.
OK, we now have coyotes, and the logical question is how much damage do they do to deer? Dr. Bruce Leopold, highly respected wildlife professor at the University of Mississippi conducted a study on the diets of coyotes. One of the approaches he used was to collect coyote scats throughout the year. These droppings showed that the coyote is like the fox in that they are omnivores and will eat lots of things, including berries, apples and other fruit. Relative to deer Dr. Leopold found hair in those scats at two times of the year, when fawns are born and during deer season.
Finding hair in scats in deer season and not in other months basically means that coyotes don't kill adult deer very often, at least not in Mississippi. Finding deer hair in scats during the deer season shouldn't come as a surprise, for it is at that time that some hunter-killed deer are left in the woods, along with the eviscerated remains of harvested deer. During the rut period we also find the highest number of auto/deer collisions, leaving tons of carrion along our highways. You see the dead deer along the road, but you don't see the large numbers of deer that make it off the road before they die, but you can bet that coyotes find them. Venison left in the woods or along highways will feed coyotes (and crows, and other predators too).
So finding deer hair in coyote scats during the hunting season does not necessarily mean that coyotes kill adult deer, though we know that happens on occasion. But finding deer hair during fawning season means they are killing fawns. Surely fawns die from a number of causes and then can be found and eaten by coyotes, but studies show that coyotes take fawns. Remember, if they kill too many fawns, unless there is other major food in the area, the coyotes must leave or starve.
Note again, I'm not saying they won't kill the occasional adult deer. Dave Milne in his December 16, 2005 outdoor column cited an incident his hunting friend observed this year where a coyote killed a spike buck. Two years ago I was bowhunting deer in Alberta. An unseasonable October storm dumped a foot of snow on the ground making hunting a bit harsh. One windy, cold morning I was hunkered down in a tree stand in mixed pine and hardwoods near an alfalfa field. I'd found plenty of buck sign in that area and placed a stand there the day before. There was a slight crust on the snow, so I could hear deer coming a long way.
Around 8:30 AM, I heard deer running hard and a doe and large fawn came flying by me with a coyote in hot pursuit. One-half hour later those same two deer fed back under my stand, seemingly no worse for wear. That shows that coyotes do chase, and I'm sure kill, adult deer. But if it was a common phenomenon in Mississippi, there would be deer hair in the scats all year round, and that isn't what Dr. Leopold found.
But now to the interesting thing that Dr. Leopold reported. Fawns give off very little scent the first few weeks after birth. Leopold found that coyotes had to get within 200 feet or less to detect the odor of a fawn. If the fawning cover, which is very tall grasses and thick brush, is limited due to overgrazing, then coyotes will have an easier time finding fawns. If the habitat has a lot of thick cover everywhere, then the coyotes can't concentrate on one area. The point he made was that when you had healthy deer habitat, you had less coyote predation on fawns. I figure the same holds true for West Virginia.
One other factor enters in to coyote predation on fawns. If you have a high number of does per buck, then the fawning period will be rather long. Why is that? When there are lots of does, they don't all get bred during a short period, so fawn drop is also over an expanded period of time. But if the sex ratio of does to bucks is close to 2 to 1, then most does are bred during a one-week period in November. Thus, fawns will be dropped in a short time in June. Coyotes can only eat so many fawns, thus when many are dropped in a short time, coyote predation will be reduced due to satiation. When fawns are dropped over a longer period of time, coyotes won't become satiated and they'll kill more fawns.
When the sex ratio is relatively normal (I. E. Two to one or one to one), coyote predation on fawns is lower.
Our coyote/deer situation differs a bit from that in Mississippi. First, we can get deep snows. This may weaken the deer and make them more susceptible to predation by coyotes. And, because of this snow, coyotes in the northern United States tend to travel in groups more so than in the south. This then would allow more adult deer predation.
Harvesting coyotes at random by hunters during the deer season probably doesn't do much to lower deer predation. But concentrated trapping and hunting in an area may help to control the coyote.
Bottom line. Coyotes will take a percentage of the deer herd. Other forms of mortality, including automobiles will take a percentage of the deer herd. And hunters obviously take a percentage of the deer herd. But only in rare circumstances will coyotes control deer numbers. Coyotes do not control deer numbers. Deer numbers, and other foods, control coyote numbers.
