The fact that Eastern Coyotes maybe are preying on adult deer is found to be a "no/no" by the Reporter below......Heaven forbid that the coyotes are thinning the deer herd so that forest regeneration takes place and us human hunters have to truly become "fair chase" and skillful hunters!

Are coyotes suppressing W.Va's deer population?

by John McCoy

This week's column examines whether West Virginia's burgeoning coyote population is helping keep the state's deer population depressed:Coyotes have been bopping around the West Virginia landscape for more than three decades now, yet one gets the impression we still don't know how much damage they're doing to the state's many wildlife species.

That needs to change.They are, after all, predators – and darned effective ones, at that.For the last decade or so, Mountain State hunters have wondered out loud just how many fawns and adult deer fall prey to coyotes every year. Several times in the past few years, I've posed that very question to Division of Natural Resources officials.--and are we humans not "darned effective predators" of deer as well?--blogger Rick

Each time, I was reassured — with the sort of condescending paternalism experts reserve for particularly thick-headed laymen — that "coyotes are no threat to deer herds because a study done in Texas showed that coyotes seldom feed on deer."I'm sure they were right — about Texas coyotes, which average just 25 to 35 pounds apiece.Eastern coyotes run considerably larger, up to 60 pounds or thereabouts. And, according to research conducted by the Eastern Coyote Research consulting firm, they appear quite a bit more capable of bringing down deer than their Western cousins.--they can indeed take down adult deer.......at 35 to 50 pounds.....but it take twice as much work as it would for the 75 pound Eastern Wolf(Red Wolf) that originally occupied these parts prior to us exterminating them in the late 1800's--blogger Rick

Why?As it turns out, Eastern coyotes are part wolf.Two separate studies, independently conducted in the northeast from New Jersey to Maine, turned up traces of wolf DNA in tissue samples taken from the coyotes being researched.Researchers hypothesize that when Western coyotes passed through the Great Lakes states and southern Canada during their eastward migration, they interbred with wolves.The DNA findings seem to answer three long-standing questions about Eastern coyotes — why they're larger, why their coats vary in color from tan to almost black, and why they're so much more adept at hunting deer.--but not decimating them, simply reducing the bloated populations that we have artificially have reestablished since the early restocking period in the early 20th century--blogger Rick

Now that West Virginia wildlife officials know how the critters roaming our hills differ from standard-issue coyotes, maybe those officials will get more serious about determining coyotes' effect on the ecosystem.Two research projects are already underway. Neither is associated with the DNR, but an agency spokesman said biologists are eager to see both studies' results.The first should determine how heavily coyotes prey on deer and other Mountain State wildlife species. A West Virginia University graduate student, Geriann Albers, is picking apart coyote stomach contents and scat samples and is microscopically examining hairs and bone fragments to determine which creatures the coyotes ate.

The second study, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's pest-control division, tracks radio-collared coyotes to discover how they establish home ranges. Researcher Lauren Mastro believes the study will teach farmers and predator-control agents how better to protect livestock from predation.Albers' study will end late next year. Mastro's will finish up late in 2012. Paul Johansen, the DNR's assistant wildlife chief, said he and other biologists "will be watching the results of those studies very closely."

It would behoove them to do so. Deer hunting is a $145 million-a-year industry in the Mountain State, and the sale of hunting licenses is the DNR's principal source of annual revenue. If coyotes indeed turn out to be a substantial threat to deer, DNR officials might finally be able to convince rank-and-file sportsmen to hunt coyotes, if for no other reason than to protect the state's whitetails--everything exists for our use, not for the sake of the coyote or the deers health or right to exist.....wake up West Virginia residents.................archaic thinking here!!!!!--blogger Rick