More information on Eastern Coyotes--kinda long

[farmerwnb]

I am not in the NE, but I have a smaal pack of western coyotes living near me. They were born and raised on the next property over from mine. They have nevere taken a chicken that I know of mine. I do get the urge to ventilate them when I hear from my kids/ wife that one followed them down our dirt road to their bus stop. I have been given the green light for SSS from the gameys and sherriff's dept. I very rarely see them, but I am always unarmed when I do see em. My dogs now jump the fence to go after them. Darn coyotes try to bait the dogs out alone, but get more than they bargain for when my pooches get out after them. I have two lab mixes and a shepherd/ husky mix that are very protective of their people/ dog pack.

 

[woodmort]

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It's been a while but I read an article in one of the conservation magazines how there were very few passenger pigeon bones found in Indian garbage pits. This led scientist that study that sort of thing to believe these birds were not a major food source until the white men started clearing large areas for grain production. Once that happened the population exploded. At that point they were over hunted but habitat loss also contributed to their inability to reproduce. So it was a combination of the two. Unfortunately the same thing is not going to happen to the coyote.

 

[ellieroo]

woodmort, that's the truth they aren't known as Wiley Coyote for nothing! We provid so much feed for them that they have grown and prospered and will continue to do so til something happens to their caregivers, Us.! We have a gal that feeds several packs weekly.My friend was riding her horse near the feed station (unknownly) and realized she was being shadowed by 8 coyotes! Not a comfortable feeling.

 

[deerman]

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It's been a while but I read an article in one of the conservation magazines how there were very few passenger pigeon bones found in Indian garbage pits. This led scientist that study that sort of thing to believe these birds were not a major food source until the white men started clearing large areas for grain production. Once that happened the population exploded. At that point they were over hunted but habitat loss also contributed to their inability to reproduce. So it was a combination of the two. Unfortunately the same thing is not going to happen to the coyote.

With these numbers being taken, don't think they had a shortage of habitat, plus # were est at 5 billion when the white man got here. No population explodtion because of white mans crop. They feed on tree nut. Point is they were hunted to extinction. With these numbers noway could they keep up, with them only laying one egg per year.


During 1874 Oceana County in Michigan sent over 1,000,000 birds to the markets in the east and two years later was sending 400,000 a week at the height of the season and a total of 1,600,000 in the year. In 1869, Van Buren County, also in Michigan, sent 7,500,000 birds to the east. Even in 1880, when numbers had already been severely reduced, 527,000 birds were shipped east from Michigan.

 

[BWKatz]

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That's scary!

They have recently started showing up in my neck of the woods. I haven't seen one personally though.

 

[woodmort]

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In truth hunting them keeps them wary but also leery of humans. From that standpoint it is a good idea.

 

[woodmort]

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Not everyone agrees with the number preEuropean settlement nor the reason for their total extinction.[bold is mine]

"Some estimate that there were three billion to five billion passenger pigeons in the United States when Europeans arrived in North America.[3] Others argue that the species had not been common in the Pre-Columbian period, but their numbers grew when devastation of the American Indian population by European diseases led to reduced competition for food.[4]
The species went from being one of the most abundant birds in the world during the 19th century to extinction early in the 20th century.[5] At the time, passenger pigeons had one of the largest groups or flocks of any animal, second only to the Rocky Mountain locust.
Some reduction in numbers occurred because of habitat loss when the Europeans started settling further inland. The primary factor emerged when pigeon meat was commercialized as a cheap food for slaves and the poor in the 19th century, resulting in hunting on a massive scale. There was a slow decline in their numbers between about 1800 and 1870, followed by a catastrophic decline between 1870 and 1890.[6] Martha, thought to be the world's last passenger pigeon, died on September 1, 1914, in Cincinnati, Ohio."

Not only were they not a large part of the Pre-Columbian diet but they weren't mentioned in such numbers until the 1800's. Something about settlement caused their population to explode, whether it was the loss of forest or the increase in crops. Now I'm not arguing that overhunting probably cause the extinction but it may well have been preordained due to the habitat loss as well. Unlike the few surviving buffalo, they just had no place to get away from the slaughter and regroup.