North Carolina Trappers and Hunters attend a 2nd meeting at the Rockingham County Agricultural Center where they are told that feral dogs are often the culprits in livestock predation and that Coyotes are actually doing a service in culling an out-of-control deer population in the State......A strong reiteration that we should coexist with Coyotes by leashing pets, being more vigilant with garbage disposal, using guard dogs and only as a last resort, removing problem coyotes through lethal means...........A truthful and positive message delivered to an audience that might not have expected to hear that Coyotes are a permanent and positve part of our rural and urban landscape

Trappers, hunters learn history of coyote migration

By Latala Payne

Local trappers and hunters got a chance to delve deeper into the history of coyotes in North Carolina and learned how to manage the animal in various landscapes Thursday night during the second of a two-part educational program.
Around 100 people showed up at the event, which took place at the Rockingham County Agricultural Center, to get advice from experts in the field including Rockingham County Wildlife Officer Barry Joyce, Perry Sumner, a section manager at the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and Dr. Chris DePerno, an associate professor of wildlife science and a Wildlife Extension specialist.
Joyce, who handled the high points of laws in Rockingham County affecting coyotes and feral dogs, said it's important for all trappers to keep up with state laws each year because they can change. He also reiterated the need for trappers to get written permission each year from landowners, because ownership or circumstances with the land could change.
Coyotes weren't always in Rockingham County, according to a report from Sumner. He said coyotes weren't unique to North Carolina until well after the 1980s.
"Populations were first established in the eastern part of the state by illegal translocations," he said. "There wasn't a natural migration of coyotes into the western counties until around 1988."In 1996, he said the coyote populations started to fill in all over the state and by the year 2005, they were in almost every county and in 2009, they were also being found in the Outer Banks."Coyotes are very adaptable, and it's not uncommon to find them in urban areas," Sumner said.
Although coyotes are blamed for damage to livestock around the area, Sumner said dogs can also be blamed for livestock predation. He said it's important to get the word out about misconceptions with coyotes.
"There's a lot of stuff in the media now that implies coyotes are causing deer populations to decline, and deer hunters should be worried about that," he said. "The truth in North Carolina is that we hope the coyotes are eating enough deer to make a difference, because it's so many places now where you can't really hunt them. It's like if the rancher sees a coyote running across the pasture and he finds a calf missing. He's going to blame the coyote when it could have been dogs that actually did it, even if the coyote is feeding on it."
Sumner said the solution to coyote problems lies in having multiple areas of removal techniques. In urban areas, he said the solution is to remove attractants like unprotected food and to leash pets. In rural areas, he said better husbandry, guard dogs, and hunting and trapping individual problem coyotes will make a difference.
To actually make a population decline, he said 70 percent of the coyote population would have to be removed annually, which is not likely to happen, according to Sumner.