May, 2007 - Wildlife Management Pro

Coyote Home Range

Historically, coyotes were most common on the Great Plains of North America. However, because of changes in land use and the extirpation of the red wolf, coyotes have expanded their range. In fact, coyotes have since extended their range from Central America to the Arctic, including all of the United States (except Hawaii), Canada, and Mexico. When red wolves, which were two to three times the body size of coyotes, numbers declined, coyotes were able to expand their range to include much of the wooded habitats formely used by wolves.

Coyotes are generalist when it comes to habitat. They can survive in open prairie or dense woodlands, coastal marshes or deserts, or warm southern climates or the north country. The coyote was built for survival and it can make a living just about anywhere!

Legal Status of Grizzly Bear

Legal status of grizzly bear hunting

Grizzly bears south of Canada are protected as a threatened species under the US Endangered Species Act of 1973. However, the states Wyoming and Montana have limited grizzly bear hunting seasons as authorized under the act, but the seasons are currently closed pending clarification of the act through legal challenges in court and further actions by the states. Without state hunting seasons, killing of grizzlies is allowed only through official control actions or defense of self and property.

North of the Canadian border, grizzlies are hunted to varying extents in Alaska, Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories. Wrongful killing of a grizzly bear mandates a severe penalty of up to $20,000 in fines. Taking grizzly bears is being more liberally defined as court challenges establish that even habitat destruction can be interpreted as taking or killing.

Economics of Feral Hog Damage and Control

In most areas it is unlikely that feral pigs can be exterminated. It is theoretically possible, but the cost to totally eliminate feral hogs in usually prohibitive. In addition, even though it is theoretically possible to control wild hogs, I still don’t think it is possible because of the areas they inhabit. With this in mind, landowners must generally accept the fact that they will always have some wild pigs, and should therefore plan for a long-term control program.

Feral hog damage can be extensive and costly if not controlled. Control for disease suppression is extremely expensive because many hogs would need to be eliminated, the density greatly reduced to slow (much less stop) the transfer of disease between hog populations.

Feral Hogs

Crop depredations may cease after one or two hogs are shot or trapped, or intermittent hunting pressure is put on them. They simply move to new areas. If hog depredations are heavy enough to require a reduction in the overall population, then a program can be very costly, depending on the size of the area involved. Keep in mind that wild hogs cannot be eliminated by shooting or trapping, both together or alone, but these actions can help keep hogs numbers under control — or on your neighbors property!

Hunting Coyotes With Dogs

Training dogs to hunt coyotes

Hunting coyotes is not easy, but hunting coyotes with dogs can make it a bit easier. Several dog breeds are generally known as trailing hounds, including Walkers, Julys, redbones, blueticks, black and tans, Plott hounds, and English fox hounds. Trail hounds follow the scent left by a predator and run it to tree or bay it on the ground. Coyotes are seldom caught and killed by trail hounds. In most instances, trail hounds are used in combination with sight hounds.

The trail hounds run coyotes into the open, and then sight hounds are released to capture the fleeing coyote. Often times, however, coyotes are shot as they run from the pack of hounds by hunters. Sight hounds, generally greyhounds or Russian wolf hounds, are used in open prairie country to run coyotes down and kill them. Trailing hounds can find secluded coyotes, but sight hounds have the speed necessary to catch and overtake the much slower coyote.