With coyotes (Canis latrans) becoming more abundant in Virginia, the experience of Gene G. Stout, Fish and Wildlife Branch, Directorate of Facilities Engineering, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, becomes of interest. Reducing coyotes over 3 areas changed the ratio of fawns-to-does as follows:
--1976-------1977-------1978
29:100----105:100-----76:100
31:100-----51:100-----98:100
51:100-----38:100-----46:100
Of course, there are other factors at work such as cover for fawns, but the removals of coyotes increased fawns and enabled harvest to double on Ft. Sill in a few years.
Conditions differ greatly between Oklahoma and Virginia. Nevertheless, the influence of coyotes on fawns is well documented. The rapid change in the deer population has already aided and will
continue to aid the increase in coyotes in the Eastern U.S. It may become the controlling factor in the future for Virginia's herd. Balancing coyote populations with deer populations is the problem for a complex private natural resource enterprise like R* Deer within the R* System in the future.
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Last revision January 17, 2000.
