Wylie Coyote is now a permanent member of the wildlife world in West Virginia.
And even though the canine critter is a significant predator on wildlife populations in the state, it’s just a part of the natural ecosystem, according to Colin Carpenter, wildlife biologist with the DNR in Beckley.
“The coyote takes a number of fauns in our state,” Carpenter explained, “but in many areas this predation is beneficial to the overall health of the state’s deer herd.”
Since coyotes are still colonizing areas in West Virginia, it’s impossible to know the total effect the predators are having on wildlife in general, the biologist observed.
However, coyotes have stabilized at densities in mid-western states and are not considered threatening to other wildlife species in that region, the veteran outdoorsman said, adding:
“Coyotes are an adaptable predator, and despite years of persecution, they have survived and even expanded their range. Predator control of coyotes because of wildlife predation is unwarranted and unnecessary. Predator control of coyotes preying on livestock should be restricted to specific, offending animals.”
Although bounties have been liberally used on coyotes in the western states, no bounty system has ever worked, according to Carpenter. But the biologist suggested that liberal coyote trapping seasons should continue. He also noted that methods to encourage and liberalize the sport of predator calling and targeting the coyote as a furbearer and game animal should be explored more vigorously.
Carpenter’s remarks come at a time when the coyote continues to expand its range in the Eastern United States.
Today, Carpenter said, the scavenger has the distinction of being the most extensively studied predator in North America. “Studies have shown the coyote as playing a major role in the western states’ ecology and this likely will happen here in the east,” he said.
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Historically, the coyote was commonly found in the Great Plains of western and mid-western states. During the past 50 years, expansion of the coyote eastward has come from the northwest and southeast.
Today, the coyote occupies every state in the continental United States and ranges from Alaska to the Panama Canal.
On their path to the east, it is believed that the coyote hybridized with timber wolves in the north and red wolves in the south and possibly wild dogs. Thus, at 30 to 45 pounds, the eastern coyote is larger than its western cousin.
The eastern expansion of the coyote was probably a result of the elimination of timber wolves as resource competitors and the establishment of increasingly abundant deer herds in the east as a food base. Another contributing factor to the rise of coyote populations is its ability to live in close proximity to humans, Carpenter explained.
“The coyote is an adaptable animal and there may be more coyotes today than there were in colonial times,” the wildlife biologist said.
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Although primarily a carnivore, the coyote is an opportunistic omnivore and readily adapts to available food supplies. “The coyote is a significant predator of both wildlife species and farm livestock,” Carpentersaid. “Coyotes typically prey on white-tailed deer and small mammals such as rats and mice. Their diet also consists of rabbits, groundhogs, ruffed grouse, turkeys, chipmunks, squirrels, muskrats, fruits, berries, carrion and even house pets.”
Again, though, Carpenter stressed that although the coyote is a significant predator, it should be noted that predation is a natural part of the ecosystem.
“The addition of the coyote to the ecosystem can change ecological balances of predator and prey species,” he said, “but research has repeatedly shown it will not eliminate other species from the environment. Predators serve a valuable function in keeping prey species in balance with their habitat.”
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Predator-prey relationships between the white-tailed deer and the coyote have been studied extensively, according to Carpenter.
“The coyote has proven to be a significant predator of deer fawns in some areas,” he said. “Studies in Texas have shown that the coyote’s diet can consist of 70 percent fawns during June and July in areas studied.”
At the same time, sheep predation by coyotes is known to drop drastically when fawns are born around the first of June.
Fortunately, though, the synchronous birth of fawns in June actually allows greater numbers of fawns to survive predation, Carpenter said, explaining: “Coyotes can only find and consume so many fawns before fawns are mature enough to be able to avoid being taken. “
Although a large number of fawns are gotten during the first month of the fawns’ lives, they become relatively secure after about one month, the wildlife biologistsmaintain.
During winter, however, predation again picks up and deer become the main food source of coyotes. And though the coyote does take some healthy adult deer during the winter months, winter-killed and wounded deer, as well as carcasses left from the hunting season, probably make up the bulk of the coyote winter diet, Carpenter said.
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In areas, such as West Virginia, where deer populations often are abundant, coyote predation may benefit deer health by assisting in reducing exceptionally high deer densities, thus providing a greater share of food resources for remaining deer, the biologist pointed out.
“With lower deer densities and more severe winters in the high mountain areas of our state,” Carpenter said, “coyotes may have a more detrimental effect. But even then, studies show that coyotes probably have minimal impact on deer in most areas during most years.”
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Top o’ the morning!