North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

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I doubt it.  It wasn't that close - they roam over a large range.  And 
the coyotes settled in the den and had a litter before the rodent 
population spiked - it spiked later that summer.  I really think it was 
mostly that they displaced the smaller predators who really like 
chipmunks and mice.

On Feb 9, 2004, at 9:47 PM, tanis cuff wrote:

> Try thinking the other way-- maybe the den was nearby because that's 
> where the food (the spiking population of rodents) was ?
>
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: list@ginda.us
> Reply-To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] people, piglets and deer
> Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 17:58:47 -0500
>
> I had a big increase in my rodent population the year we had a coyote 
> den nearby.  The chipmunks, in particular, boomed, but we had extra 
> rabbits and mice and voles, and no shortage of squirrels.  That was 
> the year I got the fewest berries ever.  I think it's because the 
> coyotes killed my local fox, and killed or scared inside all the local 
> cats, but didn't bother with the little stuff that ate my berries.  So 
> I am not a coyote fan.
>
> (The hawks that occasionally nest nearby, on the other hand, are my 
> friends.  We've had red shouldered and red tail hawk pairs, and when I 
> see them around, the squirrels make themselves scarce.)
>
> Ginda
> In the Boston suburbs, where there's more wildlife than I would have 
> expected.
>
> On Feb 9, 2004, at 12:52 PM, Lon J. Rombough wrote:
>
> >  Having a son who has studied this sort of thing has helped me a lot. 
> >  He showed me that coyotes (at least here), hawks, owls, snakes, etc. 
> > feed almost exclusively on small rodents and having them around is a 
> > great way to keep the place clean of vermin.  Even cougars, which 
> > show up around here, are not a  problem because the ones we see are 
> > always just passing through.  Individual males have very large 
> > territories, measured in many square miles, and most of the time the 
> > ones you actually see are young males trying to find some place to 
> > claim as a territory.  Most don't make it and die of starvation and 
> > disease.  The few that do, quickly learn to avoid humans and things 
> > connected with them.
> >     As you note, the people who kill off the predators pay for it in 
> > much larger populations of rodents and crop destroying pests.  The 
> > ones that start taking pets, sheep, etc. are usually very rare and 
> > only do it if they are starving or unable to catch other things.
> >  -Lon Rombough
> >     
> >
> >
> >  Here in SE Texas, at least in my area of it, we have coyotes. They
> >  don't seem to make a dent in the deer population though. Some farmers
> >  in the area claim that they kill calves, but I believe that it is 
> > more
> >  likely feral dogs. Our rabbit population is very small, so maybe that
> >  is what they are going after.
> >
> >  Farmers and ranchers in the area are at odds with any kind of 
> > predator,
> >  including owls, hawks, snakes, etc. and have killed off most of them.
> >  Maybe that's why our gopher population is so healthy. If it weren't 
> > for
> >  federal protection and large fines, the mating pair of American bald
> >  eagles on the next property to mine would be stuffed on someone's
> >  trophy case, or just shot and left where they fall. There seems to be
> >  little knowledge in the area of a balance of natural forces.
>
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