Am I doing more harm than good by casual predator management?
Filed under: Predators
Question
Grant, I’ve recently taken up trapping and predator hunting due largely in part to your show. However, I’ve now read in several places that indiscriminately killing coyotes can lead to larger litters and an actual increase in local coyote populations. What are your thoughts? Am I doing more harm than good by “casual” predator management?
Jared,
If you enjoy trapping and predator hunting then you should continue!! There’s many recent research projects that show focused efforts to balance predator and prey species populations producing great results! Depending on the intensity of your efforts, you may or may not significantly reduce the number of predators where you hunt. However, as the director of Virginia’s game department said recently “I’ve never seen a dead coyote eat a fawn.”
There are many factors that influence coyote and other predators’ reproductive rates. “Casual” hunters/trappers should not be discouraged!
Enjoy creation,
grant
January 21, 2016
