Coyote population

In my area (Hudson Valley of NY) numbers seem higher than ever. All I'm doing is sitting watching a bait pile. Last year I shot 6 off of it, this year 10, with similar or less times out due to the couple of substantial snowstorms we had. Seems once the woods lost a lot of snow they started showing up again. Shot 2 the other night and this morning a nice big male (assumption) showed up at 9am. In areas where you couldn't possibly hunt, (dense neighborhoods) friends are reporting hearing the yip and howl in their backyards. Seems they're going more urban.
 
Maybe the lake is empty, or there’s something else in play. When I and several other experienced callers have called the same places for decades and see substantially less coyotes this year, over a 4-5 month season, I know the lake isn’t empty, but its population is much lower than normal. And I and these othercallers are calling in western Ks and eastern Colorado. Headed that way later this week.
 
K22-hornet said:
We had mange come through Eastern Colorado maybe 10-15 years ago, and it is still around, so that probably has an impact on numbers. I saw a mangy coyote a couple of days ago, and it looked bad.
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I think it was 3, maybe 4 that I shot earlier this year that had mange bad. Can't really say if the mage has impacted the population here, but it was freezing ass cold then. Maybe that culled a few.
 
dale06 said:
Maybe the lake is empty, or there’s something else in play. When I and several other experienced callers have called the same places for decades and see substantially less coyotes this year, over a 4-5 month season, I know the lake isn’t empty, but its population is much lower than normal. And I and these othercallers are calling in western Ks and eastern Colorado. Headed that way later this week.
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The 20 coyotes I posted in that picture were shot in west Kansas. We spent two days scouting and then hunted a 24-hour contest. Didn’t get the win, but it was still a good hunt.

A lot of spots seemed like the coyotes had already been messed with, but we hit about a 3–4 hour window where they really turned on. From the vocal responses I was getting from coyotes that wouldn’t come in, there’s still a pretty solid population out there for this time of year.
 
Around my area it does seem like the numbers are down. Noticed it last year well hunting some of my best spots. Didn't think much of it, but this year it's much more noticeable.
 
Infidel 762 said:
The 20 coyotes I posted in that picture were shot in west Kansas. We spent two days scouting and then hunted a 24-hour contest. Didn’t get the win, but it was still a good hunt.

A lot of spots seemed like the coyotes had already been messed with, but we hit about a 3–4 hour window where they really turned on. From the vocal responses I was getting from coyotes that wouldn’t come in, there’s still a pretty solid population out there for this time of year.
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Any mangy ones?
 
K22-hornet said:
Any mangy ones?
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Nothing really memorable. We were in a rush, so I didn’t pay much attention. When I’m pleasure hunting or doing depredation work, I pay more attention—estimating age by their teeth and keeping track of male-to-female ratios.

In 2018, we had a bad mange outbreak. I’d shoot five or six in a day, and everyone had it. The next year, I thought the population had dropped, but looking back, it may have just been pressure. With so many people running thermals and a FOXPRO now, finding fresh, unpressured coyotes is a lot harder.

That said, when I’m not shooting as many as I think I should, it’s easy to start blaming things—lower numbers, pressure, the wind being out of the east, or the moon being too full, etc, etc... The only thing I’ve consistently seen really shut them down is high wind.
 
Infidel 762 said:
The success or failure of a few hunters over previous years mostly reflects things like conditions, hunting pressure, and how cagey the coyotes are acting—not the actual population. Calling success just measures how willing coyotes are to show themselves at that moment, not how many are out there.

So, judging an area’s coyote population based on the success of hunts is kind of like declaring the lake empty because you didn’t catch a fish off the dock that morning.

One thing that is pretty much guaranteed anywhere, though: there are fewer coyotes around in March than there were in November—and yet we’re still killing them in March.

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Infidel 762 said:
The success or failure of a few hunters over previous years mostly reflects things like conditions, hunting pressure, and how cagey the coyotes are acting—not the actual population. Calling success just measures how willing coyotes are to show themselves at that moment, not how many are out there.

So, judging an area’s coyote population based on the success of hunts is kind of like declaring the lake empty because you didn’t catch a fish off the dock that morning.

One thing that is pretty much guaranteed anywhere, though: there are fewer coyotes around in March than there were in November—and yet we’re still killing them in March.

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For many decades. As a (rule of thumb) once snow cover hit. I judged general population. Based upon track numbers. I would find over a few months time span. Most coyotes in my hunt areas. The alpha territorial pair. Would occupy 6-8 square mile territory. Of course that also includes. Nomadic or trespasser coyotes in the same given area that are transients. December-Feb being the months of the highest track count.
 
medic joe said:
For many decades. As a (rule of thumb) once snow cover hit. I judged general population. Based upon track numbers. I would find over a few months time span. Most coyotes in my hunt areas. The alpha territorial pair. Would occupy 6-8 square mile territory. Of course that also includes. Nomadic or trespasser coyotes in the same given area that are transients. December-Feb being the months of the highest track count.
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From my experience, tracks can be a little tricky to use for judging population. A single coyote can crisscross an area multiple times in a night, which can make it look like several animals passed through. Movement patterns also change a lot depending on things like breeding season, food availability, or livestock activity, so coyotes may concentrate on certain travel corridors at times.

Because of that, I tend to look at tracks more as a sign of recent movement rather than a good indicator of how many coyotes actually live in the area—more of a snapshot of activity than a population count.
 
medic joe said:
December-Feb being the months of the highest track count.
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That’s interesting, and from my perspective that timing would actually make me think it’s more of a shift in activity than a peak in population. December through February is when coyotes tend to move around a lot more with breeding season starting up.

The highest population would be in the spring when pups are born, and you start seeing more tracks again in late summer and early fall as the young begin venturing farther from the den. From there, mortality gradually reduces the numbers through fall and winter until the next spring’s litter starts the cycle again.
 
Infidel 762 said:
That’s interesting, and from my perspective that timing would actually make me think it’s more of a shift in activity than a peak in population. December through February is when coyotes tend to move around a lot more with breeding season starting up.

The highest population would be in the spring when pups are born, and you start seeing more tracks again in late summer and early fall as the young begin venturing farther from the den. From there, mortality gradually reduces the numbers through fall and winter until the next spring’s litter starts the cycle again.
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Another thing I tend to pay attention to for territorial numbers is scratch marks on roads and scat deposits along travel routes or boundary areas. Those scent posts and scratching behavior can be a pretty good indicator that resident coyotes are actively holding and marking a territory.
 
I would think Dec-Feb would have the least amount of coyotes on the landscape. If you have a high population at that time you’re really going to have a lot after denning season.
 
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