A friend of this Blog, Rupert Cutler taught environmental planning courses at Michigan State University, supervised forestry, soil conservation, agricultural research and extension agencies as Assistant U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and headed up the environmental advocacy organization, Defenders of Wildlife".......Currently, he’s a board member of the Blue Ridge(Virginia) Land Conservancy.........Rupert shared with me his recent op ed article in the Roanoke(Virgina) Times entitled--COYOTES PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE.........Spot on Rupert is as he states-----“Counter-intuitively, programs aimed at reducing coyotes such as lethal control programs and sport trapping and hunting actually cause coyote numbers to increase"............... "Coyotes respond to indiscriminate control programs with a number of complex biological mechanisms that work very efficiently to boost their numbers"................. "For example, when the alpha pair is killed, subordinate pack members can breed and produce larger litters of bigger pups with higher survival rates"................ "In order to feed more robust litters, coyotes may change their hunting habits to include unnatural and larger prey, such as livestock".................. "Thus increased persecution leads to bigger populations and increased predation, a response that is just the opposite of what the control is designed to accomplish"

http://www.roanoke.com/opinion/commentary/cutler-coyotes-play-an-important-role/article_193f8858-0f48-5d83-9367-d8e40758ed6c.html

Cutler: Coyotes play an important role

Posted: Saturday, January 28, 2017

As a wildlife biologist I was disappointed that your paper devoted so much space on Jan. 16 to the predator killing tournament at Wytheville (“Hunting game,” commentary). I was going to let my revulsion at seeing the photos of piles of dead coyotes and foxes go without comment until I read the unattributed statement, “Competitions are designed to help ecosystems keep balanced” and the offensive and misleading headline, “Culling designed to help ecosystems.”

No, no, a thousand times no.

Predators including coyotes and foxes are an essential component of healthy ecosystems and help keep ecosystems in balance. Killing them only throws ecosystems out of kilter. Coyotes’ main diet consists of mice, rabbits, ground squirrels, other small rodents, insects, reptiles, and the fruits and berries of wild plants. They pose no threat to people and have been welcomed in many communities across the country from New York City to Los Angeles. Scientists who have lived among and studied coyotes their entire professional lives admire them. One such is Dr. Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of ecology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, author of the textbook Coyotes: Biology, Behavior, and Management, who writes:

“Coyote, America’s song dog is an amazing and magnificent animal that is very misunderstood, historically maligned, and tragically and reprehensibly persecuted. Coyotes are intelligent, playful, affectionate, and devoted caregivers. Native Americans appreciated them as cunning tricksters. They are among the most adaptable animals on Earth and are critical to the integrity of many diverse ecosystems. I know coyotes well having studied them for decades.

“Counter-intuitively, programs aimed at reducing coyotes such as lethal control programs and sport trapping and hunting actually cause coyote numbers to increase. Coyotes respond to indiscriminate control programs with a number of complex biological mechanisms that work very efficiently to boost their numbers. For example, when the alpha pair is killed, subordinate pack members can breed and produce larger litters of bigger pups with higher survival rates. In order to feed more robust litters, coyotes may change their hunting habits to include unnatural and larger prey, such as livestock. Thus increased persecution leads to bigger populations and increased predation, a response that is just the opposite of what the control is designed to accomplish.



When mated pair are hunted or trapped, remaining Coyotes
compensate with litters of up to 12 pups

“Coyotes play a critical role in keeping natural areas healthy. When coyotes are absent or even just greatly reduced in a natural area, the relationships between species below them in the food web are altered, putting many small species at risk. It’s clear and inarguable that we should respect coyotes for who they are and appreciate that they bless our lives. Peaceful coexistence is easy to accomplish, and we should all aspire to having more harmonious relationships with the amazing beings with whom we share our homes as we head into the future.”



great rodent hunters, Coyotes are

Those interested in learning more about the role of predators in ecosystems can read the book The Carnivore Way: Coexisting with and Conserving North America’s Predators by Cristina Eiserberg, who recommends “striving to create healthier ecosystems that preserve essential processes such as predation.” She concludes:

“Sharing this earth with thriving, healthy carnivores come down to coexistence. The problem is that coexistence means different things to different people. To me, carnivores are walking reminders of why the word ecology comes from the Greek word oikos—“house.” For we’re all threads in the same cloth of creation, and we dwell in this Earth household together.”

The “first ever Eastern U.S. Predator Calling Championship” should also be the last.

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Biography-Rupert Cutler

M. Rupert Cutler, an environmentalist and conservation journalist, was born in Detroit, Michigan. He received his undergraduate degree in wildlife management from the University of Michigan and his master's and doctor of philosophy degrees from the Department of Resource Development of Michigan State University.

Following his graduation from the University of Michigan in 1955, Cutler was briefly employed as an instruction book writer for Argus Cameras in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 1956, he moved to Arizona where he edited a weekly newspaper, the Winslow Mail. In 1957, he accepted the post of executive secretary of Wildlife Conservation Incorporated in Boston and in 1958 he was hired by the Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries to be associate editor of Virginia Wildlife, the Virginia Game Department's magazine.

In 1961, Cutler was promoted to Chief, Education Division, Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries. During the years 1962-1969, Cutler was in Washington D.C. serving as editor of publications of the National Wildlife Federation and then as assistant executive director of The Wilderness Society. He was also senior vice president of the National Audubon Society, executive director of Population-Environment Balance, and president of Defenders of Wildlife.

In 1969, Cutler returned to Michigan to study for his doctorate at Michigan State University and to work as a Graduate Research Assistant in MSU's Department of Resource Development. With his degree, he became assistant professor of resource development and the state's extension specialist in natural resources policy. In 1977 he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve as assistant secretary of agriculture for conservation, research, and education. From 1977 to 1980 he provided policy direction to the U.S. Forest Service, the Soil Conservation Service, and USDA's research, extension, and library agencies.

Since January of 1991, M. Rupert Cutler has resided in Roanoke, Virginia. From 1991 to February of 1997, he was the executive director of Virginia's Explore Park, a 1,000-acre outdoor living history museum and environmental education center on the Roanoke River in Roanoke and Bedford counties. In March of 1997, M. Rupert Cutler became the founding executive director of the Western Virginia Land Trust, a new, private, nonprofit association created to help preserve the natural, scenic, and cultural heritage of western Virginia on private land, using conservation easements.