The Future of Predator Hunting.

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OKRattler

Well-known member
After my thread about the coyote that hides from cars I got to thinkin,which is never good. If a coyote can learn to do that and survive does it ever make you wonder if someday they'll become even wiser and harder to kill as a whole? I've heard numerous times by guys that have been at this a long time say it's gotten way,way,way harder since the days when not everyone was out running greyhounds or blaring a FoxPro.

In your opinion will there ever be a time when there are no more 15 minute or less stands where a coyote comes in for you to shoot? Will they adapt to do the exact opposite of what we know coyotes to do on a regular basis and blow every trick or tactic we know to kill them out of the water? Might be a stupid question or a thing to think about. But I've never claimed to be the smartest guy in the world so I'm fine with that. I'm just thinking out loud.
 
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Ive wondered the same thing. I believe coyotes are survivers and are excellent at adapting. So I would figure that they will get tougher to hunt just like they have been. I figure they’ll get even more cautious and check the wInd from a greater distance. There may be less that come charging in as well as the more cautious are more likely to survive. We are helping them to adapt as a lot of the dumber ones are killed and taken out of the gene pool. With more and more people trying to call them each year there are hardly any uneducated coyotes in this area. But eventually alOt of people will probably lose interest in coyote hunting when they aren’t killing or at least seeing any coyotes. So then the pressure may decrease and they may get easier again eventually. But that’s all just my oppinoin. I also wonder if someday turkeys will seldom gobble on the roost.
 
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I wouldn't worry as much about genetically intelligent learned coyotes that won't come to your stand. Even if the smart ones survive, they don't pass along that much knowledge. If they did, they would already not fall for our tricks.

Personally, I think that the "difficulty" has more to do with more people, bigger cities and less land to hunt.

That's my biggest fear as I head out hunting in the mornings, just how far we will have to go in the future to find huntable areas. IF hunting is even allowed in the near future.
 
Never say never with coyotes. Never say always with coyotes. So, I don't know, it's possible I guess.

But I don't think they are any harder to call now, than they were 40 years ago. Who is to say what it will be like in another 40 years.

When my Dad first started taking me with him in the 1970's, fur was worth big money. About 75 prime coyotes would pay enough to buy a brand new 3/4 ton. In other words, in terms of todays money, coyotes were worth $500 - $600 each. You want to talk PRESSURE? Everybody hunted coyote back then, everybody. Now, there are way, way more people around here, but the big majority don't coyote hunt. Coyotes around here were getting pressured harder back then, than they are now, in my opinion. Not to say they aren't pressured plenty now, they most certainly are.

But just based on my success rate over the years, the preponderance of yappers, I really don't think they are one bit harder to call now than they were then. I had a slow year this season, but there just weren't that many coyotes in my hunting areas - drought has the whole area and all the critters hurting. But the last five, six years before this one, I've been killing more than I ever have. Maybe in the 80's, things were generally easier for awhile, maybe. But not by a lot.

Who knows though. Coyotes are amazingly adaptable. Nothing would really surprise me.

- DAA
 
Coyotes will still have to eat, drink, sleep and multiply for survival of the species. Same as now. If they change a little someone will figure out the latest, greatest thing and prosper from it.
I too believe the biggest change may be in acquiring a place to hunt them in the future. The next generation of land owners are very conscious of the income potential of prime hunting land.
 
Some very valid points. I guess if there's ever a time when I have to pay to gain access to land I think that's when I'll call it quits. I wouldn't pay to shoot a trophy buck. I dang sure ain't paying to shoot a coyote.
 
Coyotes are already moving to town, riding the bus in NYC and going to Subway.
We can adapt along with them. Who knows what new call sounds will be.
 
Originally Posted By: Mr. PoppadopalisIf Coyotes are that smart, why aren’t they hunting us???


Maybe they just haven't figured out that we're easy to hunt yet.Lol

Or maybe they have. I've heard of several hikers and joggers that got bit by coyotes in recent months. Maybe they're just testing the waters before diving in.
 
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On a recent 50 mile section of highway I counted 18 coyote carcasses dead on the road and in my life can only remember 3 that were slyly hiding in the brush at the edge of the road waiting for the car to pass.

I used to train dogs and was(retired) AKC field performance judge. There are some dogs that can figure out thing on their own, training was just a mater of letting them know what you wanted, you could see the light go on "so that's what you want" and you didn't have work on that again, others you trained it over and over until it was more wrote response to the command.

I would hate to think that we are dumber than a coyote, if the coyote changes a pattern because it has learned something I think can we adapt to the changes he's made, commonly referred to as "another trick in the bag".

In trapping you get to deal with the same animal over and over until you catch him. You get to learn him through the days you keep missing it until you learn and hang some fur on the stretcher

Same with tracking deer to hunt them, sometimes you can spend a whole day on a track, pretty soon you learn what the deer is doing to elude you, they have many tricks to lose a wolf or coyote. eventually you start using his tricks against him and you get to drag home some nice venison.

If you are a successful coyote hunter now I think you will be able to adapt to anything a coyote will throw at you.
 
My .02 is coyotes will be coyotes and while they are very smart they still survive off instincts and are driven by the 3 F's. Food, fornicating and fighting. I think they will use the terrain and wind more. Which in alot of the open country I hunt in would just mean longer shots. Hard to say 100%as we all just speculate using personal experience and knowledge.....
 
I can see a day when contests are all banned and there is no market for fur. If and when that happens, the worth of a coyote falls and a whole lot of coyotes "hunters" call it quits, leaving lots of opportunity for the die hards among us.
I think the calling pressure right now is about as high as it can get. That alone makes for tougher calling.
 
Originally Posted By: songdog
I think the calling pressure right now is about as high as it can get. That alone makes for tougher calling.


This right here...

I also think coyotes are more skittish then smart because a hungry coyote is a hungry coyote. In the long term they aren't putting 2 and 2 together. The pressure is sky high everywhere because of the explosion in popularity. It will die down in a couple more years when most guys realize it's not like TV. I thinks it's already starting to happen.
 
This is a very interesting topic. I think the same can be said for any prey species. Those who survive learn and pass on that trait. I don't think they become un-killable I think they just become smarter. You may get busted more but there will always be those that are easily killed. That being said the more hunters, the more education the prey gets, the harder it is to kill. I think once predator hunting becomes not so popular things will change. That is my $.02 though. It will be a fun ride no matter what happens.
 
I hunt in fairly populated areas and it's way worse hunting now than just 8 or 9 years ago when I started. Foxpros are the worse things that's happened to the sport.

There is very little coyotes howling anymore, only 2 or 3 times a year I have coyotes howling back at me when it used to have responses even very distance around half the time.

In the last three years I have had only one coyote show up to a rabbit distress, and even that was after 45 minutes of calling the same area.

But coyote sign is as thick as ever, more coyotes than deer around here by a long shot.

We know they are smart, they could be smarter than we give them credit for. Coyotes clearly aren't crows but there has been some more resent studies showing just how smart crows are, including passing down information. There was a study done that showed later generations of crows still had the information that was only taught to the first generation, but the later generation still knew even though the first generation were dead and gone.
 
It’s all about adapting. There will ALWAYS be Coyotes around. Some years more than others. But you have to be willing to adapt to changing conditions and if you do it you will kill Coyotes consistently. If you don’t you won’t. It’s definitely a different game since the 80’s when I first started calling, but like DAA said it was hunted hard back then too. I’ve had some really good years and some not so great years. But even in recent years I’ve had some amazing hunts even with all the pressure. Just gotta figure it out.....

Good Hunting Chad
 
if i am in an area where there are coyotes i don't see any difference in the way a coyote responds now compared to 30 years ago.

the huge difference i see between now and 30 years ago is the number of coyotes.

drought, mange, parvo, and who knows what else has decreased the numbers of coyotes in my areas substantially.
 
Coyotes used to be relatively safe at night. Now with a flood of night vision and thermal, they have to be a little uneasy whenever above ground.
 
Originally Posted By: Mr. PoppadopalisIf Coyotes are that smart, why aren’t they hunting us???

Opposable thumbs!

Coyotes are very adaptable. I was reading recently about a female coyote that was trapped and collared in 2000, when she was estimated to be 8 months old, in Schaumburg, Il. She finally died in 2016.

I hunt NE Colorado a bunch, and the coyote population is way down the last 3-4 years, and I blame either mange or Mr Poppadopolis. Probably both, lol.

During the 80's, I almost never saw a coyote while hunting other game, most likely due to the value of a pelt. Every rancher was shooting and trapping all he could.

Then, the fur market declined and Colorado banned leg hold trapping in the early 90's. That led to me seeing 2-3 coyotes driving to a pheasant hunt and seeing 2-3 more on the way home. Coyote hunting was great.

I saw my first mangey coyote about 6-7 years ago, right on the Kansas/Colorado border, and have watched it march West each year. About 3 years ago, the Denver area coyotes had mange.

There appear to be many more coyote hunters now, and the inexperienced callers certainly educate coyotes, as did I when I first started.

Wild pheasants don't hold for a point like they did in the 60's, and elk don't bugle as much during the day either. Animals are adaptable.

There is an old Indian legend that the last 2 creatures on Earth will be a coyote and a cockroach. Then the coyote will eat the cockroach.
 
Originally Posted By: K-22hornet.Originally Posted By: Mr. PoppadopalisIf Coyotes are that smart, why aren’t they hunting us???

Opposable thumbs!

Coyotes are very adaptable. I was reading recently about a female coyote that was trapped and collared in 2000, when she was estimated to be 8 months old, in Schaumburg, Il. She finally died in 2016.

I hunt NE Colorado a bunch, and the coyote population is way down the last 3-4 years, and I blame either mange or Mr Poppadopolis. Probably both, lol.

During the 80's, I almost never saw a coyote while hunting other game, most likely due to the value of a pelt. Every rancher was shooting and trapping all he could.

Then, the fur market declined and Colorado banned leg hold trapping in the early 90's. That led to me seeing 2-3 coyotes driving to a pheasant hunt and seeing 2-3 more on the way home. Coyote hunting was great.

I saw my first mangey coyote about 6-7 years ago, right on the Kansas/Colorado border, and have watched it march West each year. About 3 years ago, the Denver area coyotes had mange.

There appear to be many more coyote hunters now, and the inexperienced callers certainly educate coyotes, as did I when I first started.

Wild pheasants don't hold for a point like they did in the 60's, and elk don't bugle as much during the day either. Animals are adaptable.

There is an old Indian legend that the last 2 creatures on Earth will be a coyote and a cockroach. Then the coyote will eat the cockroach.

* Only 103 this season:)
 
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