Coyote hunting on Roanoke Times front page
Andrew Schenker waits during a recent coyote hunt on 50 acres of land in Franklin County. Schenker is an investment adviser who offers his coyote hunting services on Craigslist. Photo by KYLE GREEN | The Roanoke Times
A few weeks ago fellow Roanoke Times reporter Duncan Adams mentioned to me that he’d found a Craigslist ad from hunter Andrew Schenker seeking areas to pursue coyotes.
Duncan wanted to do a story on it, though it was more my beat than his. He wanted to make sure I was cool with his doing the story. I was.
It ran today. You can read it HERE.
Schenker didn’t get anything, so Duncan got a taste of my life, in other words doing a hunting story with no game to show for it or a fishing story with no fish.
As you’ll read in the piece, it included information from a DGIF biologist that says, essentially, that hunting coyotes really doesn’t have an impact on the population. Once they are established in an area they are there to stay.
I know that idea doesn’t sit well with plenty of folks. Many of us have seen how coyotes can impact game populations, and we’d sure like to think that our hunting and/or trapping them helps protect our quarry, be it turkeys or deer.
Has anyone here seen the deer or turkey populations increase on their hunting grounds after killing coyotes?
February 27, 2013 - 8:43 AM
I can’t say that deer / turkey populations have increased on the land that I hunt, but there have been quite a few coyotes taken from there. Neither me or my hunting buddy have specifically hunted for coyotes, but we let another guy come in to trap for them. He’s quite successful at it.
I can say that over the last 3 years that he has been trapping up there, we have seen quite a few more grouse, which at one time were abundant.
The reason that I haven’t taken to coyote hunting on the property, quite simply – I don’t know what I’m doing. I realize that you need a game caller, and maybe a decoy, and lots of patience…..and maybe it’s as simple as that. But seeing how our buddy “A” gets one or two from his trap line every other day or so when he is trapping, but I’ve yet to see one while hunting turks/squirrels/deer, I have a feeling it takes a little knowledge to bag one.
They do leave plenty of sign, so you know that they are there. Wily is a proper adjective for them.
I am excited to see this finally make your blog Mark. I really would like to hear (read) everyone weighing in on the subject. I have not had any success hunting Coyotes this season as of yet, but I am sure I will get into them eventually.
Mark, the writer did a great job on this story. We see more and more coyotes where we live and less deer. I’ve oftened wondered if they made that much difference in the deer population. A neighbor told us last summer that they had spotted a mother bear and her cub eating a fawn last spring. We’ve killed a few coyote and have pictures from our trail cameras but someone told me when you start seeing them you have too many because they’re so reclusive.
I enjoyed reading it, but I wondered why you were not the writer for the story. I would have been surprised if the hunter happened to be successful on a single hunt with the writer. You just don’t see coyotes that often even though they are around.
I hunt often but have never seen one here (in Virginia). We hear them howling out at our hunting property and a few friends have seen them in passing glimpses. Nobody has had the opportunity to take one yet.
Coyotes are thick in west Kentucky where I grew up. I hit one with the car once years ago. Even as the coyote population grew in west Kentucky in the 70s and 80s, the deer population was exploding there. We did notice that groundhogs, which we also hunted, nearly disappeared as the coyotes moved in. Kentucky has more conservative deer regulations than Virginia. I think Virginia’s deer hunting regulations are having a much greater impact than coyotes. My perception is that EAB has had a drastic impact in the area where I hunt.
I don’t believe coyotes are much of a factor in our declining deer population. At any rate, if I was to see one while I was out hunting, I would shoot it.
Mark, I’m surprised you and the other commenters think that killing random coyotes is ethical hunting. When you kill a deer, you put meat in the freezer. When you kill a coyote, all you have is a dead dog…and he was likely a lot more intelligent than the one you have at home. Coyotes actually HELP the population of turkeys and bobwhite quail, because skunks, opossums and raccoons (the smaller animals that prey on baby birds and bird eggs) finally have a predator. Check this article in Field and Stream:http://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/hunting/2010/02/chad-love-are-coyotes-good-quail
Coyotes may occasionally take a fawn or sick deer, but it can only improve the deer gene pool and in case you haven’t noticed, we are overrun with deer.
As for classifying coyotes as a nuisance or invasive species, coyotes expanded their range naturally to VA at least 50 years ago. How many of us can say our families have lived here that long?
Thanks for the comment, Whydothat. You raise a valid question. I would submit that I really haven’t made a formal judgement on the ethics of shooting coyotes. Honestly, it’s a question I have mulled over plenty. Have I hunted coyotes? Yes. Would I shoot one if given the opportunity? Most likely. Does that constitute an ethical approval? Maybe. Maybe not.
I have published trophy shots of hunters with coyotes. But I publish trophy shots of fishermen with dead, wild trout (the release of which I support).
In my writing about coyotes I have often mentioned the dilemma of killing them, and I mention it above. Doing so offers us no assurance that we are helping populations of our preferred quarry.
The reality of the situation is that the state of Virginia (not me; not you) has legally deemed coyotes a nuisance species. And many hunters and trappers kill coyotes, and are comfortable with the ethics. At the same time, is it OK to question the ethics? Sure.
Since we starting seeing and killing coyotes in the area I hunt in Rockbridge there is no where like the amount of deer. The 3 surrounding farms has noticed the same trend.
Being retired I use to do a large amount of ground hog hunting here in Rockbridge. Had permission to hunt on some huge hay fields and one big one in Botetourt. Rare do I see a ground hog now except around peoples houses. Had a lot of fun trying the different varmit calibers, 220 Swift, 17, 22-250, 204.
Whydothat, not only has my family be in Virginia for over 50 YEARS, but the majorty of familys that live in rural Virginia have been here one to two hundred years. On three seperate occasions, we have witnessed a pack of coyotes chasing adult (not fawns or sick) deer, which resulted in two dead coyotes weighing over 50 pounds each. If these coyotes are tracking, chasing and killing adult deer, what is to stop them from going after one of my children, who frequentley play outside alot. With that being said. I have not seen a difference in deer, turkey, or grouse populations around my house in Franklin County. I have noticed in the last ten years, turkey have been less visible and less audible. I know they’re still there from trail cam pictures and tromping around in the woods.
I think that the Howze study in Georgia, as well as others in Alabama and Texas demonstrate the usefulness of trapping to control coyotes and therefore increase fawn recruitment.
Whydothat: If coyotes benefit the quail because they kill opossums and raccoon, trappers do also, because they limit opossum and raccoon populations. I personally removed roughly 7 or 8 opossums from one farm and 8 or 9 skunks from another while trapping for fox last season.
Why is it unethical for me to limit the population of coyotes- which really don’t have any other major predator?
If we don’t, disease will.
Coyotes are having a negative impact on sheep, goats, calves, chickens and domestic pets, along with deer and turkey through out SW Virginia.
They may reduce the population of skunks and other predatory critters, but they also eat turkey eggs. Many hunters have noticed a redced number of deer and turkey sightings and have witnessed coyotes chasing full grown deer, so there is little doubt coyotes are reducing the population of wild life.
There is a coyote seminar in Rocky Mount April 12th at the Pigg River Community Center and tickets are available at Franklin Outdoors. A panel of coyotes experts will present calling, hunting and trapping information and attendance is limited by the size of the building, being capped at 200. The seminar last year sold out and many were turned away, so go by Franklin Outdoors for a ticket if you are interested.