For decades experts held that coyotes in the Southeast were nothing more than an unfortunate nuisance. However, several studies over the last few years have raised concerns that predation by coyotes is likely impacting whitetail deer populations more significantly than scientists previously thought. For many deer hunters, the song dog has become public enemy number one.
Historically, the predators of the Southeast were red wolves, cougars, bobcats, black bears and foxes. With the human removal of wolves and cougars from the equation, humans have been the only significant predator of whitetail deer for more than 100 years. Following the sportsman-led reintroduction of whitetails across the region, use of hunters as a deer management tool has been successful in maintaining healthy whitetail populations for much of the region. The arrival of coyotes about 30 years ago has thrown a new variable into the equation.
Houndsmen are widely blamed for the introduction of coyotes in the Southeast. They were brought here so fox hunters could run them with hounds. After only a few decades, coyotes are now widespread across the region and appear to have stepped easily into the large predator niche that was previously vacant. The overall predator/prey relationship between coyotes and deer in the Southeast and the long-term effects are still not completely understood, but it is apparent that ’yotes are a variable to be accounted for in management of Southeastern deer populations.
A study conducted at western South Carolina’s Savannah River Site had thrown coyote predation of whitetails into the spotlight. In that study, coyotes were responsible for close to 90 percent of a 77 percent mortality rate for fawns. In a similar study at southeast Alabama’s Fort Rucker, more than 40 percent of the overall mortality rate was due to coyote predation. These studies led researchers to unearth an old term, “predator pit.” On both properties, the rate of predation was so high that whitetail populations were unable to rebound through reproduction. It is worth noting that hunter harvest, particularly high doe harvest, was a primary factor that brought population levels so low, to begin with.
A study in southwest Georgia and another one in northeast Alabama both found that removing predators, bobcats, and coyotes, leads to increases in fawn recruitment. But controlling predator populations through hunting alone is difficult. Extended trapping programs are the most useful tool.
In the light of such findings, Southeastern states have begun management moves to account for coyotes. Regulations for hunting, night hunting, and trapping coyotes have been loosened. South Carolina, which has experienced a 30 percent decline in deer population, launched a publicity campaign promoting the hunting of coyotes. Georgia has moved to reinstitute regulations that allow the killing of does only on certain days.
As is evidenced in other regions where they are present, the species adapts so well that they are impossible to eradicate. Among deer and small game hunters, the war on coyotes rages. But at least in South Carolina, the state seems to have accepted that coyotes are now a permanent part of the equation that will stabilize over time, “allowing deer, turkey, and small game to still exist in healthy numbers.”