Muleys24Seven
Active Member
- Messages
- 155
Been laying on the couch the last 5 days bored out of my mind trying to recover from hernia surgery and I have a point I'd like to get your opinion on.
In the Idaho forum there was a post asking for key factors that affect mule deer herd health. Predation made top 3 on a majority of the responses. There's also a lot of talk on how badly coyotes affect fawn survival.
The area I hunt in eastern Idaho has an ave fawn:doe ratio around 80-85. If coyotes are such a big factor wouldn't this number be much lower? The mule deer numbers in this region are declining big time so I think mule deer herd health is mainly dependent upon habitat-feed quality and winter mortality.
Sure predators eat deer but I think their impact is over-rated...especially coyotes.
What do you think? If there any studies out there that show the impacts of coyotes on deer I'd like to read it.
In the Idaho forum there was a post asking for key factors that affect mule deer herd health. Predation made top 3 on a majority of the responses. There's also a lot of talk on how badly coyotes affect fawn survival.
The area I hunt in eastern Idaho has an ave fawn:doe ratio around 80-85. If coyotes are such a big factor wouldn't this number be much lower? The mule deer numbers in this region are declining big time so I think mule deer herd health is mainly dependent upon habitat-feed quality and winter mortality.
Sure predators eat deer but I think their impact is over-rated...especially coyotes.
What do you think? If there any studies out there that show the impacts of coyotes on deer I'd like to read it.