The Latest Research on Deer
How Coyotes Impact Deer Herds
 Editor’s
Note: Today outdoorsmen have begun to learn more about
the white-tailed deer. In the past, we haven’t
known the right questions to ask. But now scientists
and researchers have started studying deer more intensely.
Brian Murphy, QDMA executive director, has kept his
finger on the pulse of new deer research to inform the
members of QDMA and outdoors enthusiasts how to better
manage whitetails. This week, we’ll bring you
the latest research concerning deer.
When we asked Brian Murphy about the impact of coyotes
on deer-management programs, he explains, “Coyotes
are a relatively newcomer to the East. In the last 10
years, they’ve really expanded their ranges into
the eastern U.S. Hunters are beginning to become more
concerned about the effect of coyotes on the deer they
hunt.” In past years, biologists haven’t
concerned themselves too much about coyotes because
they’ve believed that the coyotes may take a few
fawns but not enough to dramatically i mpact
the herds. However, in the last couple of years, several
research projects have shed new light on the subject
of coyotes and how they impact deer.
“Mississippi State University has been studying
coyotes for 10 years, and just recently concluded a
very-extensive study,” Murphy says. “The
biologists’ research indicates that:
* “coyotes are taking some fawn deer during the
spring.
* “hunters randomly taking coyotes in a particular
area has no impact on reducing the number of coyotes
feeding on deer fawns because of the social structure
of coyotes. Once a coyote population becomes established,
there’s a very-strong social order and ranking
of the animals in that population, including alpha males
and alpha females. Once these dominant males and females
establish their home ranges in a certain area, they
keep the subordinate coyotes from occupying or sharing
those same ranges. If a high-ranking coyote is incidentally
harvested by a hunter, the coyote’s home range
may then be filled by several other juvenile coyotes.
So, in some instances, coyote hunters may actually increase
the coy ote
population by shooting coyotes from a deer stand.
* “the best two defenses in the South to reduce
coyote numbers are: adopt very-intensive and on-going
trapping and predator-hunting programs that will last
for several years; or, beat the coyotes at their own
game by ensuring that there is adequate fawning cover
on the property, which is the more-desirable and most-effective
defense for hunters. Fawning cover is characterized
by low-growing, fairly-dense and impenetrable habitat
that makes locating fawns very difficult for coyotes.
* “a coyote has to get within 100 to 200 feet,
or 30 to 60 yards of a fawn to detect it during the
first two weeks after the fawn’s birth because
the fawn doesn’t have much scent then. Therefore,
in a region homing high-quality fawning cover that’s
very thick and dense, the coyotes are less likely to
find fawns.
* “does will be able to select the best fawning
habitat, if the herd is in good shape with an appropriate
number of deer that the habitat can support. Predation
on fawns by coyotes is much greater on young does because
young does usually get less-quality sites to drop their
fawns than the older does do, and young does aren’t
as effective at defending their fawns against predators.
* “another effective way to help get rid of predators
is called predator swamping, which means trying to have
all the fawns on the ground born at the same time. When
there’s a balanced age structure and enough bucks
available to breed all the does, hunters will get very-concise
breeding. When there’s concise breeding in the
fall, there will be concise spawning in the spring,
since most of the fawns born in a particular herd will
all be born at the same time. When almost all the fawns
are born at one time, the coyotes can’t take many
of them because they can only eat so many fawns at a
time. However, when there’s a poorly-managed deer
herd with skewed sex ratios and poor buck age structure,
fawns will be born over a much longer time. Then coyotes
can make a living eating fawns for 3 or 4 months.”
To learn more about QDMA, go to http://www.qdma.com
or call 1-800-209-DEER.
Tomorrow: More on How Coyotes
Impact Deer Herds
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