4/8/2023 0 Comments Coyote predatorsPredation by coyotes, black bears and bobcats accounts for most mortality. Only an average of one in two survives its first three months of life, which is when most mortality occurs. Mortality of white-tailed deer fawns is significant across the East, Diefenbach noted. "However, we couldn't find any published research on adult-doe-survival rates in the Southeast, so it is possible that if doe hunting were stopped, deer populations would stabilize despite the heavy predation." But that is only in combination with extremely low doe-survival rates. In that region, an average of only one in four fawns survives to three months of age. In fact, in most places in North America, continued doe harvest is required to stabilize deer populations.ĭiefenbach said the only place in which that might not be true is the Southeast, where wildlife managers have found the highest predation rates on fawns by coyotes. The study showed that coyote predation - even at the highest levels reported - is not significant enough to cause deer populations to decline if doe harvests are reduced. "If that's true, then deer managers need to adjust how they make harvest-management decisions, because manipulating doe harvests is typically how wildlife agencies maintain, increase or decrease deer populations." "The concern is that coyotes may be changing the established population dynamics of white-tailed deer herds through increased predation on fawns," said Duane Diefenbach, adjunct professor of wildlife ecology and leader of the Pennsylvania Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit based at Penn State. The research, published in the May issue of the Journal of Wildlife Management, aimed to determine whether managers can compensate for coyote predation of white-tailed deer. Using published study data from throughout eastern North America that included fawn mortality, adult doe survival and reproductive rates - and even the effects of severe winter weather on deer survival and predation - researchers studied how deer populations responded to changes in predation and hunter harvest. In response to those concerns, researchers initiated a study to look at deer and coyote populations from southeastern Canada through the mid-Atlantic region to the Southeast. Recently, lawmakers in Pennsylvania proposed placing a bounty on coyotes to incentivize their destruction for the sake of deer. Many people are concerned that their predation may be adversely affecting Eastern deer populations. With the range expansion of coyotes eastward, and their crossbreeding with gray wolves (Canis lupus) along the way, Eastern coyotes are larger than their Western counterparts. Coyotes have long inhabited the American West. They are a significant source of deer mortality and most often prey on whitetails in the earliest months of their lives. Coyotes are a major predator of white-tailed deer across the East, especially fawns born each spring, but wildlife managers nonetheless are able to stabilize and even grow deer herds, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.Ĭoyotes - Canis latrans - are a relatively recent arrival to eastern North America, appearing first in the region in noticeable numbers in the 1970s.
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