There are a group of guys around here that hunt them with dogs. And my nephew traps them. He has some success. The hunters with dogs have had some success around here lately. I would rather have them kept in check. That is for sure. I job/run about 7 months of the year. And one day I was almost home and all of a sudden a good size one came out of the tall grass about 30 yards in front of me. I stopped quick so I could watch him. He had not seen me yet. And then he winded me, looked quick, and bam! He was hell bent for leather across the road and into the woods. They are way more afraid of you than you think. Of course, I would not want to meet up with a pack of 15 of them in the woods after dark. I watch a large wild k-9 running across an open field that is usually planted with corn. Season was done and it was cut, it was late fall and there had been a good frost. So I am driving down the road and there are fields on both sides of the road. Pretty good size ones. The wild k-9 was being chased by a pack of dogs. And they were hot on it's tail when I first saw them come out of the woods on the right hand side field. I would say the dogs were 30-50 yards behind it when they came out of the woods. By the time they got to the road the wild k-9 had put some serious distance between itself and those dogs. I could not believe how fast he was. He was big. I thought he was a wolf. I have seen a lot of coyote in my days. And this thing was bigger than the normal size ones I have seen. But I have read about this eastern coyote being crossed with wolf. They did DNA sampling and apparently proved it. Well by the time the dogs had made it to the road the coyote now had a good 125 yards on them at least. He was way faster. And the dogs were no slouches themselves. They were still going after him, and they were hunting dogs. But I know that when I saw the wild one go into the woods after he went through the field on the left, the dogs would not be catching him today. He now had a 200 yard distance on them at least. He was smoking them. My nephew trapped a coyote a couple years back that had a really nice coat. It was red like a red fox. He had people offering him money left and right. But he held out for a while and got a good price for it. I can't remember how much. I will have to ask him next time I see him.
Nice one there stihl sawing! I've been too busy working and cutting out back the past weeks to get out trying for one again. The snow has finally gotten deep enough here though that I'll get stuck if I try to go out back now ................... looks like time for get the calls and give it a try again!
Western Maine has a lot of coyotes. I have friends who hunt them all winter with dogs. I've had a few sightings over the years… back around 15 years ago, I saw one way down our old farm field (1400' away) that looked really big (maybe 60 lbs)… much bigger than most around here. In that same field, a few years later, I was mowing the hay with a very loud rotary type mower. After I had knocked down a half dozen passes around the outside edge of the field, the moles and mice must have been all over the place… 2 coyotes came out and were going nuts trying to get the moles. They eventually got within 100 feet of me. It really got my attention because we'd always felt they were afraid of people. This was around noon! The mower was screaming! I stopped, leaving the mower running, and went up to the house to get a gun. Came back and they were still there but further down the field. I fired a few rounds and off they went. We now hear them howling at night almost every time we go to our cabin… maybe 2-3 each time. I never go up there without a noisemaker anymore. My lil ole Gizmo would make a pretty good snack … hate to even think about it…
Maine is paying the price for some judge that outlawed snaring of yotes back around 2002. Many trappers and sportsman would set snares around the deer yards, knowing the yotes would come to the yards to feed on the deer as they were weakened by the wintering season. I hunted the same area for over a decade, from 2000 to this year. Around 2004 we (my camp of guys) were all seeing the same thing happening. The snowshoe rabbits we were accustomed to seeing were nearly gone. The next year we noted the grouse were gone. Following year we started having problems finding deer and sign of deer. Then the bad back to back winters hit and that really put the hurt on the deer herd. Some progress has been made now that the bulk of the dogs have moved on. Cyclical I suppose, but that judge really screwed the deer herd with that decision.
Did the same for wolves here. A governor shut down aerial wolf hunting due to some liberal's political pressure. Some from California the East coast groups & politicians. Moose populations in several areas were nearly wiped out, Then a Governor with cahunas re-instated it, put it in control of the state wildlife biologists. After about 10 years the moose population is rebounding & there are still several wolf packs, just less & are managed by biologist to maintain a health balance. Aerial hunting is the only way wolves can be managed in a state this big with no roads.
Hunting wolves from the air sure makes sense. The "no roads" has always interested me about Alaska. The floatplane guys are taxi, UPS, lumber supply, etc. I've always admired the lifestyle in rural areas but, I'll admit, it would be too far away from "help" if needed. For me anyway. I guess most that live way out away from town centers have a plan, or they just don't think about it? I guess the guys who don't think about it much, do it until they're luck runs dry? It is an interesting way of life.
It is interesting. Different animals, different reasons, etc. Here, I let the hunters go across my land with their dogs to hunt the Yotes. We can't have too many of them around and I understand we have to keep some things in check. You don't want too many of them around here for several reasons, hunting, domestic animal keeping, etc. In Bogy's neck of the woods it is the wolf. Much less people population and huge wide open spaces. But the concern seems to be for good Moose hunting, mostly anyway. Natural cycle does this. Wolf/Yote population goes up. Moose/Deere population goes down. Then, not enough food for Wolf/Yote population. Wolf/Yote population goes down. Moose/Deere population goes back up. Natural cycle. How/when do we know when to get involved and when not to? Are we going too far when we have to spend a bunch of money and use aerial devices to get a huge edge on hunting them? After all, when we get involved with controlling the yotes or the wolves it seems it is mostly just because we are trying to keep the hunting good for "us". What about for them? Other concerns. Everything effects everything else. Example. When we bring the Wolf/Yote population down so our hunting is better the population of rats/mice goes up. Then we have to poison trap them because there are too many of them. Tough to know what to do sometimes. Interesting.
This was different PBS special than one that aired ~6yrs ago. It studied the sun cycle if I remember correctly is a 7yr light cycle affecting rabbit populations. Rabbits outpace predators for a couple years then pedators(coyotes) catch up rabbits decline and so does the coyote population. We've lost two dogs to what I believe was coyotes could have been a cougar as there have been several sightings in my area, supposedly no breeding population but the two sets of tracks I saw a few years ago (one mature one youngster) tells me otherwise.
All good points. I always thought removing Canadian wolves from their habitats and putting them in Yellowstone was an oxymoron move. Why should they be in Yellowstone instead of where they were naturally. Go figure…
