AHHHH So this is what happened to Jerseys Deer Herd!!!!

[Palawman30]

 

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140119_Coyote_conspiracy__Myth__or_state-business_collusion_.html

 

 

  :rofl:                                                   

 

 

 

 

Rita Giordano, Inquirer Staff Writer Posted: Sunday, January 19, 2014, 1:10 AM

 

 

Mike Gambardello, a construction worker from Pennsauken, has been hunting for 17 of his 25 years. He recalls clearly and with pride taking down his first deer, a four-point buck, in the Pine Barrens at age 15. His father was there to see it.

"It's the biggest high you can ever get in your life," he said.

But in the last several years, Gambardello has become increasingly aware of other hunters in the woods:

Coyotes.

 

 

 

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"Eight years ago, it was very, very rare," he said. "Now walk down the road, and you see more coyote tracks than deer tracks."

He is convinced he knows how they get there: collusion to cut the deer population.

"I believe the insurance companies and the state are working together on this," Gambardello said.

And he is not alone.

For years, a not-so-small segment of the hunting community has suspected coyotes have been secretly imported to the region by states to reduce their deer herds and/or by insurance firms to cut deer-related accident claims.

Spokesmen for the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife both deny the claim. Apparently it has come up often enough that the New Jersey division has a permanent disclaimer posted on its website.

Representatives of some of the nation's major auto insurance firms say their companies had no hand in bringing in the coyotes.

"This is what you call a rural myth or urban legend," said David Phillips, a spokesman for State Farm, the country's largest vehicle insurer, adding almost wistfully that he had thought this might be the first deer season in nearly 15 years he wouldn't be asked about the coyotes.

 

Escaped pets

Several years ago, Phillips said, he took a call from a Western Pennsylvania man who said someone he knew told him of a coyote with a State Farm ear tag. Phillips asked for more information.

"I never heard from that gentleman again," he said.

Past articles mention coyotes in both states going back to the 1930s and '40s.

Andrew Burnett, a wildlife biological for the State of New Jersey, said coyotes may have migrated from Canada. But, he added, a 1949 Journal of Mammalogy article said it was also likely coyotes were kept as pets and escaped or were released.

Of course, the state and the insurance companies cannot prove they have had no role in the coyotes' proliferation, hunters counter. In any case, the creatures are not leaving anytime soon.

"Once you have coyotes, you will never get rid of them," Burnett said. "They're just too smart. They're really adaptable."

 

Crossbreeding

Coyotes have been sighted in every county in both states. Larger than their Western cousins, Eastern coyotes are believed to have crossbred with wolves along the way.

Game and wildlife officials with the two states do not consider the coyote population to be at problem levels. Travis Lau, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said doe-to-fawn ratios have remained consistent, giving no evidence of coyotes having a significant impact on the deer population.

Some hunters would disagree.

The coyotes "are just killing too many fawns," said Leo Deiter, 61, vice president of the Pennsylvania State Hunters Organization and a believer in rumors that the state in the past traded local turkeys for coyotes, which were released into the wild.

"They've gotten braver, too," said Deiter, a loading-dock worker. "They'll take domestic cats and dogs right out of people's yards."

Next month, his group will hold its ninth annual coyote hunt.

"We try to keep them thinned out," the Perry County resident said.

David Swarter, 44, of Souderton, is a regional coordinator with the Pennsylvania Predator Hunters Association. The coyote population "has just exploded," he said, and the state's denials have not altered his belief that it released coyotes into the wild in the 1930s and '40s.

"They're not going to admit it, and there might not be any documentation," said Swarter, who works in manufacturing.

Coyote hunting and trapping - a pelt can go for about $40 - has increased substantially in the last several years. From 2008 to last year, the number of coyotes reported to New Jersey as trapped or killed nearly doubled. In the 2012-13 hunting season, 299 coyotes were trapped or killed. In Pennsylvania, the increase was almost 70 percent. In 2012, just more than 40,000 were trapped or killed.

That said, coyotes are hard to hunt.

"Ninety-nine percent of the time, they'll see you before you see them," Swarter said.

"They'll come up behind you and bark at you," said Mark Siudut, 59, a hunter who works at Bob's Little Sport Shop in Glassboro, chuckling. "It scares the pants off you."

Siudut, retired from the Navy, says he does not believe that the state and insurance companies have been in cahoots on coyotes, but he said 15 percent to 20 percent of his customers do.

Gambardello said he believes the importing is going on still. In October, local hunter Barry Zeldin, 74, went missing. A search of the Pine Barrens that Gambardello took part in yielded nothing.

"He could have been attacked by coyotes," Gambardello said.

That the insurance companies and the government have not copped to coyote trafficking hasn't swayed his belief.

"I don't expect them to admit it," he said. "Why would they? There's no smoking gun. It's just a philosophy. But when enough people believe in the philosophy, it becomes more than that."

 

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140119_Coyote_conspiracy__Myth__or_state-business_collusion_.html#H8v5cEaoMY5pkPQI.99

[BHC]

 the herd is down because of the long season and allowing unlimited anterless deer to be killed. those that kill many deer per year are the ones at the end of the season to bitch, then come september they go back  to killing, and the cycle repeats

[Palawman30]

On top of all the wounders.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

    :rofl:            

[Bucksnbows]

"saw a coyote with a State Farm ear tag".  I almost spit water all over my screen when I read that.  You just can't make this stuff up   

[Matty]

Larger than their Western cousins, Eastern coyotes are believed to have crossbred with wolves along the way.

 

 

 

 

Some of the article sounds like non-sense, but the above sentence is accurate.

 

You probably weren't questioning this portion of the article, but I think it's very interesting. This has been confirmed through genetic testing. Many Eastern coyotes are more accurately Coywolves, with genetic links to Grey wolves.

 

Judging by the size and deep ominous howl of some of our coyotes, especially in the very Northern sections of NJ, there's no doubt in my mind. They literally sound just like wolves.

 

In Maine, 22% of coyotes had 50% or greater grey wolf ancestry. With one coyote confirmed to be 89% grey wolf. 

 

Another multi-state study across the North East (NJ, PA, OH, ME, etc) showed that 20% of the 700 coyotes tested were confirmed to have grey wolf in them. Concluding that cross-breeding & hybridization has occurred.

 

Notable differences between western coyotes & eastern coyotes include: wider skulls, males are larger than females & most importantly the increased consumption of deer.

 

And coyotes can have a very large impact on fawn recruitment.

[CJ3a]

I wonder how many of NJ 299 were shot during the predator season.

[Palawman30]

I wonder how many of NJ 299 were shot during the predator season.

 

 

Its actually good jersey keeps a record of kills. In Pa there is no record of how many yotes are being shot yearly

[BowhunterNJ]

"saw a coyote with a State Farm ear tag".  I almost spit water all over my screen when I read that.  You just can't make this stuff up  

It's true!!!

 

[Matty]

I wonder how many of NJ 299 were shot during the predator season.

 

 

Its actually good jersey keeps a record of kills. In Pa there is no record of how many yotes are being shot yearly

 

 

Unfortunately to an extent, they actually use that number against us.

 

Because the harvest number is so low, they treat it as though we have a very low number of coyotes. That's simply not true. What they fail to consider with enough weight is just how ridiculously difficult they are to harvest.

 

They're all over the damn place, but good luck trapping (*the more effective method) or shooting them.

 

Trappers make the largest dent, followed by "incidental kills" during deer hunting. Less than 7% came from the special permit predator season.

 

In 2011 coyotes reported killed  (# killed: method):

 

171: trappers

62: shotgun

13: archery

11: muzzleloader

11: motor vehicle

2: wildlife control

 

 

 

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/pdf/2012/furbearernews-winter12.pdf

 

 

Let's see if the addition of daytime rifles increases the special permit take, along with the addition of allowing them to be shot incidental to turkey hunting now.

 

With the recent, slight, liberalization of the coyote restrictions, I would assume they are recognizing that they are out there and difficult to kill, but I hope they don't mistake a small increase in harvest as an indication of low numbers. 24/7 year round is what we should have, even with that, I doubt the harvest numbers would be very high. They are the most difficult animal I've ever hunted. They make every other animal appear to be retarded, including foxes and mature bucks.

Edited January 20, 2014 by Matty

[boomsox24]

The pine barrens are overrun with them. I saw just as many coyote tracks in the snow shotgun week as I did deer tracks. We need a 365 day season and 24 hrs. When we bow hunt we can hear them yipping and barking at dusk. I am not talking one stand location I am talking all over the place. I have one philosophy when it comes to them. I see em there dead.

[Bucksnbows]

Like Matty said, we know for a scientific fact that western yotes interbred with gray wolves to make what we know as the eastern coyote.  Having lived in the east, west and midwest, I can confirm how much larger our yotes are than those out west.  And their pack mentality cries wolf genetics.  I have a buddy that lives (rents) on a rich person's estate next to the Trump golf course in Bedminster.  We often sit out at night smoking a cigar and listening to the coyote packs hunt.  At first they begin with calls that are likely pulling them together into a pack and later on we often hear them running down game.  Of course you never know if it is a rabbit or a deer or something else, but it reminds me of films I've seen on wolves.  

 

I catch a few on trail cams each year in Sparta and the only ones I ever seem to see are when I'm either not hunting or when I'm in my deer stand and don't want to spoil my deer hunting by spooking them if I took a shot at a coyote.  They are highly intelligent and their numbers are much more dense than I think most know.  Yet they are more like the mythical Sasquatch than the common predator they really are when it comes to seeing them very often.    

[Palawman30]

High yote numbers are an indicator or high prey numbers. between deer turkeys and small game jersey yotes are well fed...

 

In Pa we have had a year round 24 hr a day season for yotes for as long as I can remember. Its at least 30 years. The more you kill the more pups the female will have.

The only way yote numbers ever truly drop is a lack of prey. I wish every hunter would shoot them on site but they wont for fear of ruining their deer hunt. Im just as guilty. I had 1 at 30 yards opening day 2012 in Delaware water gap at 730 am but let it go. Ive also done it on 2 occasions in Pa opening days. If only it had been on another day!!!!

 

The best is while driving bear in Pa we put up yotes and it sounds like a warzone!!!

About 5 years ago while posted on a drive I had one run right up to me, As I started shooting that dog was zig zagging down a hillside so fast I couldn't believe it.

When there being shot at they are incredibly fast!

 

Unfortunately yotes are here to stay

[CJ3a]

I have walkmup on a litter of five in Bergen county.

[Axiom]

24/7 year round is what we should have, even with that, I doubt the harvest numbers would be very high.

 

 

 

On top of all the wounders.......

 

 

I think the current seasons are about right...I personally dont think there are nearly as many yotes out there as some of you guys think.. They do a lot of walking and so 1 individual can make alot of tracks....And since some of you wont shoot anything other than a trophy buck its up to guys like me and the coyotes to keep things in balance..

Edited January 20, 2014 by Axiom

[Hatchet]

lived in the Medford area  47yrs n never even heard of a coyote close to that area . I guess they just magically appeared !

 

http://www.southjerseylocalnews.com/articles/2009/07/29/medford_central_record/news/doc4a7098d31f825139646244.txt

Edited January 20, 2014 by Hatchet