with the creation of the new baiting sub forum i figured i would throw in a little bit of my knowledge from multiple years baiting and hunting coyotes over bait here in middle of nowhere Alberta Canada.

so in my area of the province the nearest centers are so far away that when cattle die there is nowhere that can take them to be used as fertilizer, fish food or other disposal methods. This leads to large operations using a "dead pit" or "dead pile" which is a quarantined area nearby where all dead are disposed. These dead pits are insane congregation points for coyotes and with me working at a feedlot i get to observe the comings and goings of the coyotes and see how my hunting affects them.
here is a pic of our deadpit. we dont run a large feedlot and take pride in how few dead we have but if you have livestock you will have deadstock so there is always something for coyotes to chew on

PXL_20211209_152402093.MP

I have been hunting this one area for almost 10 years now and have noticed a steady decline in coyotes coming to the pit during the daytime. So this year with low prices on fur it was decided to not shoot any coyotes until later in the year to see how coyotes reacted to lower pressure.
From October until january the coyotes were left alone and within 2 weeks coyotes began congregating in large numbers later in the morning and earlier in the evening. by the end of the month multiple coyotes could be seen lounging around the pit at any time of the day. Finally after only 1 month of being left alone coyotes lost all pretense of being sneaky and could be seen wandering around the yard in broad daylight watching trucks and tractors go by as if they didnt care at all.
this picture was taken from a running tractor not 100 yards away from the horsebarn, cattle treating barn and our main office

PXL_20221219_215614557.MP~2 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/185799180@N08/][/url], on Flickr

starting January my trigger finger began to itch and so the experiment ended. within a week the number of coyotes that could be seen on the pit went from 10-15 in the morning to only 3 or 4. by week 2 the only coyote to be had was the odd small pup or sickly adult and even then only early in the mornings. in those 2 weeks i only killed 5 coyotes.
now the coyotes are almost 100 percent nocturnal and the only evidence of them being there is the tracks in fresh snow in the mornings.

for now il end it there and probably just continue updating this thread as i have time to jump on the computer.
eventually I want to post about calling off of baits, sickness in coyotes in such high traffic areas and setting of baits with huge amounts of bait.

i will leave you with a link to the time les johnson visited our ranch deadpit a few years before i came to work here. this video is taken 300 yards from where the current deadpit sits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n97jZ9euQp8&ab_channel=WildTelevisionNetwork

Good stuff right there and interesting data on the hunting pressure.

Those are AWESOME observations.

I have found that if I take a few coyotes out of an area then I will get more the next season.

I learned this from a biologist who educated me. He said that the number of pups in a litter depends on the calories that females can get.

So if I knock down a few males then I get more to hunt the next season.

That's how I "manage" our coyote population. But we don't get as cold as you do which surely has some effect on the population.

Great thread. I look forward to your next one.

Mo

Here I see a "breakup" in coyote groups early in March, breeding was about a month before and pups in another month+. No sharing dens. Most years I kill more females than males, between calling,spotting and baiting. Showing a dead female to a landowner(who is complaining about coyote) seems to be better "politically".

Nobody told me that I needed a poli-science degree to hunt coyotes.

Very cool and informative post! I would not have been able to take that picture with the crosshairs on his chest and let him walk.

I definitely would of taken the shot. Been so long since I've shot at one I'd probably would miss in all the excitement!