The deep snows, winds and cold temperatures we have had this year are animal killers. Hundreds of deer, antelope, elk and livestock have died this winter even the predators die from it as well. The affected areas and different states will be doing surveys to determine the extent of the losses and then regulate the numbers of hunting licenses to be released for sale. When I was younger there were far fewer numbers of deer, elk and antelope then there are today. For several decades they suffered from drought hard winters over harvesting ect. in the 60's they started to increase in numbers. In some areas they got to nearly overpopulation numbers. In the early 1980's we had deep snows and subzero weather for over a month. I counted over a hundred dead antelope in a fifty-acre area one winter. They came back then disease came through and killed them back, another rebound then another disease a couple of years ago had their numbers lower now this winter has taken its toll, the rabbits and mice are making a comeback but with the lower numbers of prey the predators will be turning to livestock for survival. The animal control personal will be busy for the next couple of years. Some will have problems with animals that have been unintentionally turned into problem animals by people it's the way that it works out in the end that counts. I myself have created problem animals while learning not to and to do it correctly so as not to create problems for myself and others. Not a one of us is born knowing how to do things life is a learning experience for all of us even though some of won't admit that they too had to learn. Then I spent a lot of time correcting others problem animals, the challenge of it and getting it taken care of overcame the frustrations for me, some people become overwhelmed by it instead of embracing the challenge and pushing ahead.
Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
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windypants
Well-Known Member
The deer, elk and antelope have done well right here in spite of a long winter, because we've had the chinook winds that give them a break between storms. This storm shouldn't be a killer since it will melt fast. But I wonder if it will drown the booming rodent population? The bottom 3" of this 24+" is slush. That would certainly affect the predators.
Other areas, like northern Montana, might have a pretty severe winterkill, as they've had a winter like yours in Wyoming. I haven't heard any reports yet.
Other areas, like northern Montana, might have a pretty severe winterkill, as they've had a winter like yours in Wyoming. I haven't heard any reports yet.
It doesn't tend to bother the mice and rabbits much here as they build tunnels in the drifted snows or get on top of it and don't sink in. The highway department said that in places they had picked up as many a one hundred deer in just a few miles as they would get down in the roads to travel, the roads being drifted on either side high enough they couldn't get back out of them then being hit by vehicles. Here the female predators get wet when they have young in the den then they go in and let the young nurse and they get wet and chill catching phenomena and die. A lot of the females are just having their pups and fox kits now, so they are at a vulnerable stage in life. like calves and lambs if they can make it to a few weeks old they are pretty resilient, but at a young age they have a hard time maintaining their body temperatures. With the chinook winds it is a blessing and a killer too here as some of the animals will travel in the winds till they hit a fence, wind row or cut bank then get out of the wind and get covered and suffocate. I have gone out in April storms and found hundreds of sheep cows and other animals that have died due to being drifted under and the snow would melt off in just a few days here. I hope that they fare well in your area.
She looks like she is about to have the pups, she is making milk now and it shows in her teats. I'm pretty sure that she was one that I would have snared if it were posable to set some out in that area. But that's me and here and my situation. For me it doesn't matter how I kill the problem coyotes, but it for sure is more fun to shoot them, she probably wouldn't be hard to track back to where her and her mate are living find where she wanted to have her pups then back off a little and call them with a couple of howls around noon someday. For me when I would get to close to the denning area and howl at them, they would often run out and try to decoy me away from it by high pitched howls, barks and yodels getting in view of me doing kickbacks and in general attempting to get me to follow them away from the area. Even in brushy areas here they will run out a few hundred yards and start making a fuss so the intruder will follow them away from the new pups a lot of the time they will stay out of sight then out a couple hundred yards they will go out in the open and display themselves making all kinds of howling, barking and just being obnocuous, hey you come on over here let me kick your butt but do it over here.
A few years back there were a lot of people talking about using smaller cables, short cables and small locks on snares, these same people were the ones telling people to use 1-1/2 traps with short chains that had a washer on its end for a 3/8" rebar trap steak. Thankfully that fad didn't last long but, in the meantime, there were a ton of coyotes that had broken teeth, missing toes and cables on their bodies running around. I caught several coyotes with cables cutting into them, several with missing toes and a couple of them dragging traps and trap steaks along with them. I have killed a few that had crippled legs with shotgun pellets in their legs, I got one, one time that had a big abscess on its left hip when I opened it up there was a 22 caliber round nose solid bullet in it. I skinned one once that was full of small bird shot with festering abscess all over it. I have killed several that had missing legs, or broken legs flopping as they ran. Coyotes in my area are the most persecuted animal that there ever has been a lot are killed but a lot are maimed also. Just a little trivia, I don't think it's a lot different any other place. Most of us do our best to make good kills, but some not so much they just react we are people no matter where you go in the world some professionals some not so much some want to learn, some are just along for the ride, some of us while we are learning and trying to do our best get miss lead by some that really don't know yet, it's all part of the way life is and what keeps us on our toes as we continue on our journeys of life.
Here where I am we are back to springtime in the Rockies, its overcast in the 40's for highs, windy and snow flurries. The hill sides are turning green the animals that feed on grass are chasing the green grass some are nearly running trying to get the sweet, soft young grass. It has been a long cold, snowy winter here a lot of animals died here and in the surrounding areas. They have predicted a fifty percent die off of antelope and deer in some areas of the state. Wyoming has had three confirmed cases of rabies in skunks already this year, in a northern county just south of the Montana state line. Several years back I helped with a rabies study in my county conducted by the USDA. My county was one of the highest rates in the state at that time. Doing predator control work it was highly recommended that I get vaccinated against it, a lot of my vaccinations were still good from when I went through them before deployment overseas in the early 70's. It's just good to be aware of some of the things we may be exposed to in our pursuit of the predators, and even those of us that go out to shoot prairie dogs. A friend of mine got rabbit fever, tularemia, in her lungs from lambing in a shed where it was in the dust that the sheep stirred up being worked in it. The people that hunt the prairie dogs can be exposed to several diseases born by fleas and ticks, as well as can become air borne in the dirt and dust blown by the higher winds we have been experiencing. Just a few things to think about but not to become too afraid of just take some precautions when you know that you might be exposed to them. Kind of like using eye and hearing protection before you need hearing aids or have an eye injury. Be healthy and safe.
Yes, it is no fun at all. I have been through rabies treatment when I was a teenager. I don't wanna go through that again!
M1A1ABRAMS
Well-Known Member
You better get your *** over there & get them, or you may not be hunting there much longer. LMAO
I'll be there in the morning!
M1A1ABRAMS
Well-Known Member
Wish you luck my friend. Get the pregnant one, for sure. She's guilty of murder, the proof is there. lol
I might think about changing up what I'm doing with this one if it were me trying to kill her. I would think about looking for her tracks in the direction that she was traveling, maybe setting and listening for them to talk so that I knew a little better where they were living. She might have had her pups by now so is keeping close to the younger ones at this time. If she has lost her mate to something she will be harder to kill as now she will need to be more cautious, but she is going to be more cautious now at any rate, due to protecting her pups even if she hasn't had them. Lone howls or a siren around 8:00 - 10:00 AM should get a response. They will also get a response at night letting a person know where they are so they then can close in on them in the day light hours. I have at times needed to find them in that way then go back during the day from say 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM and go to them when I knew that they would be laid up close to the area that they called home then use my call to get their attention and have them show themselves. That is what keeps us hunting them, the challenge of getting the ones we need to stop doing what they do so well!
