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What a great discussion.
Around here anyway, the coyote population is VERY high. Since the fur market dropped fewer people are hunting coyotes, and the populations most of the small animals are dropping.
I used to shoot a lot of jackrabbits, now I see very few, definitely not enough to go out on a hunt for, and the pop. has been down for a long enough period of time that I doubt that it is a "natural cycle". Don't see near as many cottontails either.
The last weekend of pheasant season this year, we had about an inch of new snow (about all we've had this year) and I was out hunting by myself. I walked about 6 miles of fencelines, sloughs, shelterbelts, CRP, etc., and was walking in coyote tracks damn near the whole time. In many places, the yote tracks were following pheasant tracks.
We usually will kill several coyotes a year when bird huntin, a 12 guage will really roll them when they jump up from their meal of pheasant less than 5 yds away from you. When deer huntin, I have had packs of up to 7 yotes running around in front of my stand, but I usually wait till after I have a deer to start shooting coyotes.
By the way, rbbrew, mountain lions are definitely expanding their range, moving into places they haven't been seen in 100 years or more. There have been several killed in NE by accident or state officials in the last couple of years, mostly in the western part of the state. There have been "unconfirmed" (not confirmed by state officials) sightings in the northeast part of the state along the Niobrara. Several of the ranchers in the area I deer hunt have spotted one, and my father and I had a clear view of one at about 50 yds while turkey hunting. Makes you wonder about what you are calling in.
Bergie
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