How many coyotes per square mile?

BMeyer

BMeyer

New member
Anybody have any info on such studies? I would love to know what the coyote population of my state (Iowa) is. Could there be a coyote per square mile?

There are 55,875 square miles of land in Iowa. Could there possibly be that many coyotes. I can't imagine that there could be.

We have roughly 350,000 deer in Iowa before the deer season. If there was one coyote for every ten deer we would have roughly 35,000 coyotes. I live in the hill country in NE Iowa, where there are way more than 10 deer for each coyote, but there are so many open sections in the flat part of the state that don't have nearly as many deer as my county does, so it would be hard to say what the ratio would be for the state.

The reason I ask this is because people that don't hunt coyotes around here are always under the impression that there are tons of them around, and that getting them should be easy. The last two times I have gone out I have not so much as seen a track, and I covered a lot of ground in some pretty big woods and brushy areas. Unless they can fly, there has been no coyotes in these areas since the last snows, which were three days and two days earlier for each hunt. My calling partner and I can hunt a weekend and make 20 sets and only find tracks in half of the areas we call, and we are only calling the areas that look good for holding coyotes and food for them to eat.

So any ideas on what the density of coyotes is here in Iowa or your home state? Would love to hear some opinions.
 
I have had extensive conversation with Missouri's Chief Furbearer Biologist (sadly recently passed) and he estimates the population of coyotes in Missouri as near 250,000. You might have more than you think...
 
Quote:


The reason I ask this is because people that don't hunt coyotes around here are always under the impression that there are tons of them around, and that getting them should be easy.



If that ain't the truth, LOL. If I had a dime for everytime I have been told about someones "north forty" full of coyotes only to find absolutely no tracks I would feel rich. Every year it seems one of my buddies gets interested in yote hunting and wants to go out, they look at me like I am full of $&!# when I tell them how much work is involved in shooting a dozen yotes in a season, they usually don't stick with it long enough to shoot their first.
 
Thanks GC, I don't doubt your guys estimate at all. I am glad to hear a biologist's opinion on the subject. There may well be more here in Iowa than what am under the impression there is too.

I am not an expert on Missouri, but I believe that you have much more timber and cover in your state than Iowa does. Such a large portion of a Iowa is squared off sections of ground where the only trees are in farm yards.

Missouri has an estimated deer population of about 1.1 million, three times that of Iowa. I am not saying there is an exact correlation between deer and coyote populations, but just trying to use it as a starting point to make a comparison.

Anybody else have a guess?
 
Just did a little quick research and the only relevant info I could come up with is that it is estimated that just over 10,000 coyotes are killed in Iowa each year by hunters and trappers. This from Ron Andrews of the Iowa DNR.
 
Michigan has a solid population of coyotes, but coyotes make a lot of tracks. I went for a ride the other day with a hunting client. He mentioned man there is coyote tracks comeing and going out of every mile. I saw 2 sets go in and out of 4 mile sections right on down the line. These tracks were fresh in the snow, and a guy would of played hell calling them out of the first section if they were 4 sections over. I am 99% sure these tracks were made buy the same 2, but sure made it look good in the snow.
 
I played around last night and put all of my call stand locations on a Topo program on the computer. I was really surprised at what I ended up with.

23 of 25 stands are within 4 miles of my house. There are some big areas in this 4 mile radius that I have not called. One 3/4 mile diam. area, I have called 5 times and have called 6 coyotes and shot 3 of them, in a 4 week time frame.

I do not carry my GPS with me when I call, but if I did more calling I may have to. Funny how when you sit down and get to thinking about it, you can remember all the places you called.

Can see the results of all stands in signature.
 
Well, I just wasted an hour of my life searching the internet for an answer or two.

I found a few sites with estimates made based on studies, and others that were simply estimates.

South Dakota, Kansas (during late winter), and Maine were all estimated to have about 1 coyote/square mile.

Texas was estimated to have between 1 and 6, depending on what part of the state you are talking about.

Take that for what it is worth, which I would say isn't much!
 
I would suggest doing what I did and call your State Conservation Furbearer Biologist. Our head guy was very sincere and interested in my hunting and calling efforts. He e-mailed me study after study done on coyotes, foxes, bobcats, mountain lions, and black bears here in Missouri. It was really interesting stuff and I spent hours studying the info he gave me. As I mentioned, he recently passed away and I feel a loss within the department. He'll be a hard guy to replace. Somewhere within each state agency lurks a guy with some intel to pass along if you give him a call.
 
This season, I estimate. 1-coyote per 5 sq mile sections.

Most of the time, their in cover. So it seems as though it's more like 1-coyote per 32 sq mile sections.
 
FishForSmallies,

My basic hunt area is 4x8 miles square. Most all the coyotes from yr to year. Are the local's, with a few nomads thrown in.

It would truely take a boatload of time, money & machinery[ie; spotter plane or helicopter]to do a very accurate study IMO. Even in a small focal hunt area as mine. BTW, I live & hunt central Iowa.

Typically, the number's[coyote pop] doesn't move much either way...typically from yr to yr.

However, Winter 03-04, I seen 65 coyotes & a couple hybrids in this small area. Another 11 coyotes in some nearby area's. My count also includes, seeing the same coyote repeatidly, but on different "days". So it's not a "true" count. I count "sightings". W/O sightings, all there is, is tracks. Et tracks can be very deceiving as to an accurate coyote pop in a specific focal area.

Throw in tresspassing nomad's & any true number, go's out the window.
 
Thanks for the response Kirby, as I am particularly interested in Iowa of course. I do a little hunting in the flat part of the state each winter for a couple of weekends, east of Waterloo.

We drive around glassing for coyote and fox to stalk. If there is no action we make drives in likely looking areas, just like deer hunting. We push a lot of sections that have nothing in them, and as you know, the ground is pretty open, so one can be confident that nothing was there.

I always feel the ratio in these areas is in that 1/3 to 1/5 coyotes per square mile as well. This hunting is of course, after trapping season. During late summer it would be higher naturally.

I live near the Mississippi river in Clayton county where it is all hills and valleys. Lots of timber and tough winds for hunting. I don't know what the ratio would be around here, so tough to say, but I would guess it is maybe 1.5/mile, but that would just be a guess.

GC, I will see if I can't find someone with the DNR that would know.
 
I have the National Geographic Topo Outdoor Recreation Mapping Software for Kansas & Nebraska. I have a cousin that works there and he sent me this on and the one for Colorado last fall. You can't transfer the maps onto your GPS but you can tranfer waypoints and routes back & forth.
 
FishForSmallies,

Are you wanting to know, overall average of coyote's in Iowa per sq mile?

Otherwsie, how is a biologist going to know what the coyote pop is in a "specific focal area"? They won't know IMO, unless that specific area has been shot/trapped out & numbers counted.
-------------------

I've hunted this same area, starting in 1964. I spot/stalk them. My general hunt area is open rolling cropland[80% corn, 20% bean & a few pasture's], with a few grassy creeks & timber strips/patchs in the mix, as well.

On any given day during Winter time, "80% or more" of the coyotes in my area. Are "in" or hugging any available cover. The other 20% are the ones I see laying or walking among the open hills.

Out of that 20% I see. Generally, 80% of that 20% are in the picked corn fields. The other 20% of that 20% of the total. I see, are in the picked bean fields & a few in the pastures. Why are there more in the picked corn?

I believe, because the corn row's offer a better wind break & hold more prey.
 
I am just interested in how many there are in Iowa total, or coyotes/square mile for the state on average. Like you said, it would be pretty hard to narrow it down to specific areas without doing some serious study.

My area is much different than where you are hunting. Around here it is all hills, with about 40% of being timber, draws, or other non-tillable ground. The hunting pressure is pretty hard, though not necessarily for coyotes. However, with the amount of deer hunting pressure this county receives (Clayton county leads the state in deer harvest every year) a lot of coyotes get shot before January rolls around by guys hunting something else.

When I hunt the flat part of Iowa, I find that the bedded coyotes I do see are usually in corn rows as well. I would guess that the cover the corn provides has most to do with that. Fox on the other had are probably spotted about equally in corn rows, open bean fields, and on terraces.
 
In ontario Canada they say there is a coyote for every 13 square kilometers. No-one ever sees a coyote but at night in the summer the woods come alive. Sounds like a dog in every acre of bush around.
 
Back
Top