Today, I met with the member of a deer club near Jackson, Ga. who told me that coyotes were decimating his deer herd. The reality is that this is the situation all over our state. Clubs will spend thousands of dollars acquiring land, liability insurance, spending time and money putting in elaborate food plots and even supplemental feed stations all in an effort to increase the health of the deer herd and grow Trophy bucks. Unfortunately, what most clubs do not understand is if you do not have a Predator Control Program to remove coyotes and bobcats on a regular basis, most of this other work is for naught. Research studies all over the country have proved that Coyotes kill between 55-75% of the newborn fawns every year on a club. Bobcats also kill deer but to a lesser extent. So, the bottom line is that most of the money spent in these other areas is winding up as coyote scat on your logging roads.
I have never heard a Wildlife Biologist recommend to a club that they hire a Professional Trapper to manage the Predator Population on a Deer Club, so I am going to let you know that this is the most important thing you can do as a club to: 1. Dramatically increase the number of fawns that will survive to maturity and 2. Ensure you have dramatically more bucks to grow to Trophy size. "Understand this fact. Coyotes eat the deer, rabbits and turkeys on your club 365 days a year." By incorporating a Coyote Control Program on your deer club, you are giving each one of these game animals the very best chance at survival and population growth.
Perhaps you are saying, but how can we afford to add this program to our club. Well, lets look at several options to provide the funding necessary. I've already explained that this is the MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do to increase your deer herd. Since your club more than likely has a budget, lets see where we can move money from without adding additional members.
1. For one season, cut the number of food plots planted in half or don't plant any at all. Many times food plots will regenerate with a low bush hogging and fertilizing. 2. If you provide supplemental feeding, suspend that for one season. 3. Re evaluate your liability insurance carrier and shop for a lower rate. 4. Meet with your landowner and see if you can negotiate a lower lease price. It certainly doesn't hurt to ask. 5. Ask the landowner to share the cost of the Program with the club. The trapping will provide benefits for years for both parties involved.
With the money saved from the above suggestions, you now can afford to have a Professional Trapper come in and remove coyotes and bobcats from the property. This may not have to be done every year unless your predator population is high. Once every two years may be sufficient. Only You and your Trapper can make that determination though. The best part is that you will see immediate results. One study that was done on a 2000 acre club in Alabama where 22 Coyotes and 10 Bobcats were removed, resulted in the increase of the fawn survival rate that year of 256%!! What we are doing as Trappers is pulling a certain number of the predators out of the population and giving the fawns, turkeys and rabbits a "window of opportunity" to survive until maturity. That is why what we do is called Wildlife Management. It is an ongoing process, but if you are serious about QDM, then a Predator Control Program is vital to it's success!
Coyotes know just as well as the deer herd when birthing season is coming so they continually scent check the does circling downwind of the thickets they know they bed in. When they smell that a doe is about to give birth, they will attack and kill the doe, rip open her belly and eat the unborn fawns. It is a documented fact that they also eat the fawns alive as they are being born. Brutal, but true. So you can see the benefit that trapping these predators out on an annual basis can have. The main point is, you will have many more buck fawns to live to become Quality bucks as well as more doe fawns for them to breed. Then, YOUR CLUB can control the buck/doe harvest to better manage the deer herd to obtain the results you are after. Turkeys and Rabbits will also benefit greatly from an annual Coyote Trapping program. Make Coyote Control an integral part of your overall QDMA Management Plan and see the results for yourselves….” The fee that you pay that Professional Coyote Trapper will pay big dividends for years to come!
I have never heard a Wildlife Biologist recommend to a club that they hire a Professional Trapper to manage the Predator Population on a Deer Club, so I am going to let you know that this is the most important thing you can do as a club to: 1. Dramatically increase the number of fawns that will survive to maturity and 2. Ensure you have dramatically more bucks to grow to Trophy size. "Understand this fact. Coyotes eat the deer, rabbits and turkeys on your club 365 days a year." By incorporating a Coyote Control Program on your deer club, you are giving each one of these game animals the very best chance at survival and population growth.
Perhaps you are saying, but how can we afford to add this program to our club. Well, lets look at several options to provide the funding necessary. I've already explained that this is the MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do to increase your deer herd. Since your club more than likely has a budget, lets see where we can move money from without adding additional members.
1. For one season, cut the number of food plots planted in half or don't plant any at all. Many times food plots will regenerate with a low bush hogging and fertilizing. 2. If you provide supplemental feeding, suspend that for one season. 3. Re evaluate your liability insurance carrier and shop for a lower rate. 4. Meet with your landowner and see if you can negotiate a lower lease price. It certainly doesn't hurt to ask. 5. Ask the landowner to share the cost of the Program with the club. The trapping will provide benefits for years for both parties involved.
With the money saved from the above suggestions, you now can afford to have a Professional Trapper come in and remove coyotes and bobcats from the property. This may not have to be done every year unless your predator population is high. Once every two years may be sufficient. Only You and your Trapper can make that determination though. The best part is that you will see immediate results. One study that was done on a 2000 acre club in Alabama where 22 Coyotes and 10 Bobcats were removed, resulted in the increase of the fawn survival rate that year of 256%!! What we are doing as Trappers is pulling a certain number of the predators out of the population and giving the fawns, turkeys and rabbits a "window of opportunity" to survive until maturity. That is why what we do is called Wildlife Management. It is an ongoing process, but if you are serious about QDM, then a Predator Control Program is vital to it's success!
Coyotes know just as well as the deer herd when birthing season is coming so they continually scent check the does circling downwind of the thickets they know they bed in. When they smell that a doe is about to give birth, they will attack and kill the doe, rip open her belly and eat the unborn fawns. It is a documented fact that they also eat the fawns alive as they are being born. Brutal, but true. So you can see the benefit that trapping these predators out on an annual basis can have. The main point is, you will have many more buck fawns to live to become Quality bucks as well as more doe fawns for them to breed. Then, YOUR CLUB can control the buck/doe harvest to better manage the deer herd to obtain the results you are after. Turkeys and Rabbits will also benefit greatly from an annual Coyote Trapping program. Make Coyote Control an integral part of your overall QDMA Management Plan and see the results for yourselves….” The fee that you pay that Professional Coyote Trapper will pay big dividends for years to come!
Studies also have shown that intensive predator removal dramatically improves whitetail numbers. For example, University of Georgia (UGA) graduate student Cory VanGilder found that removing 22 coyotes and 10 bobcats prior to fawning season increased fawn survival on a 2,000-acre study area in Alabama by 256 percent! Another UGA graduate student, Brent Howz, compared the effects of predation removal on fawn recruitment in southwest Georgia to a control area where coyotes weren’t removed. Howz found that two fawns were recruited for every three does in the removal zone, while it took 28 more does to recruit the same number of fawns in the non-removal zone.”
"The prime time to trap them out is from Mid January thru Mid March, after Deer Season."
www.easternwolferscoyotetrappers.com/
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