South Dakota fish and Wildlife protesting Legislatures attempt to institute a coyote bounty...........While their motive might be that this law would reduce the $$ level that the Feds put into South Dakota for predator control, they do cite the proven fact that bounties do not reduce coyote populations and that hunters have been responsible for downward deer counts over the last number of years

North Dakota takes aim with bounty on coyotes

 

By BRAD DOKKEN

 

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Not a day goes by, Gerald Berthold says, when he doesn't hear coyotes howling nearby on his farm west of Arvilla, N.D.
"You can be out in the evening, and you can hear them just about in every direction howling," Berthold said.
Coyotes have killed at least two of his calves in recent years, Berthold said. And last summer, he said two calves simply disappeared from a pasture near Emerado, N.D.
Berthold can't say for sure it was coyotes, but he has his suspicions.
"I don't know where else they would have went," he said. "They were too young to take off on their own. They were still nursing. They were month-old calves."
Coyotes have become an increasingly hot topic in North Dakota in recent years. As the population grows, so, too, have the reports of coyotes causing problems. Berthold said the increase in coyote numbers has been especially apparent the past 10 to 15 years."They're definitely on the increase," he said. "There's no doubt about that."
Prompted largely by hunters who believe coyotes are hurting deer populations, a couple of bills have surfaced this winter in the North Dakota Legislature taking aim at reducing coyote numbers. House Bill 1454 and Senate Bill 2224 each would establish a $100 bounty on coyotes until 2,000 are taken.
Legislators haven't yet acted on the bills.
NDGF opposes
Among the bills' detractors is the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, the agency charged with managing the state's fish and wildlife resources. Roger Rostvet, deputy Game and Fish director, recently testified against the Senate version of the bounty bill.
The department's rationale: Bounties don't reduce populations, and spending up to $200,000 for coyotes that hunters or trappers probably would kill anyway could further detract from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services program. Funded by a mix of federal and state dollars, USDA Wildlife Services controls coyotes and other pests for ag producers and is facing financial shortfalls in North Dakota.
"It's been shown time and time again that bounties don't reduce predator populations," Rostvet said Jan. 27 in testifying before the Senate Natural Resources Committee. "In order to be effective, the annual surplus of the targeted predator must be harvested over a large geographic area and for an extended period of time."Experts have stated that between 50 percent and 75 percent of the population must be removed every year for a long time before any effect would be realized."
Despite the claims by some hunters, the Game and Fish Department also downplays the impact coyotes have on deer populations. Rostvet in his testimony before the Senate committee said it's hunters - not coyotes - that have reduced deer numbers.
"There's no doubt that some deer are taken by coyotes, but it's not the primary causative factor of lower deer numbers in North Dakota," Rostvet said. "The facts are that over the past five years, the department has actively managed for a lower number of deer in many parts of the state. The public felt that there were too many deer in areas and that the number of deer needed to be reduced."
Upward trend
According to Stephanie Tucker, furbearer biologist for Game and Fish, coyote populations in North Dakota have shown a definite upward trend in the past 20 years.