COYOTES

[California]

Here is a report on coyote attacks in California specifically. Seems to be a lot more activity than you are aware of.
Coyote Attacks: An Increasing Suburban Problem

Well written.

I see it says most of the problem is in Southern California while I'm 400 miles north of Los Angeles. I think the reason we don't hear of attacks around here is we have enough wildlife to keep them fed. SoCal has miles and miles of subdivisions, shopping malls, urban expressways, with house pets and outdoor pet food being probably the most available coyote food.

I've read that a successful ecosystem stays in balance when there are enough predators at all levels. Here it would be farmers shooting a coyote occasionally. And at the top of the food chain, the mountain lions that are occasionally heard but nearly never seen. I know of two instances of fearful roars in the past 20 years within a few hundred yards of our farmhouse, one was a neighbor who walked under a low tree in absolute darkness and got scared out of his wits.

The mangy coyote in my first photo is the only one I've seen here but the howling at night means there are more. Apparently living on gophers, evidenced by all the gopher holes dug up in the orchard. More power to em! Gophers killing my trees from below is as bad as deer eating the new trees from above. I need gopher-predators. So long as they don't become pests to people.

 

[westcliffe01]

The farm I mentioned had great pyrenees dogs too, but with 5 or 6 different packs active on the 160 acre parcel and the even larger parcels around it, one is not going to make it with dogs alone.

 

[California]

The farm I mentioned had great pyrenees dogs too, but with 5 or 6 different packs active on the 160 acre parcel and the even larger parcels around it, one is not going to make it with dogs alone.

Maybe guard donkeys?

 

[jyoutz]

Lights to discourage deer? The camera lights up (infrared) for the vids in that list, you can sometimes see the deer startle for a moment then go on because they've learned its harmless. Apparently they can see the infrared that isn't noticed by humans.

I don't think anything short of chased by dogs would make enough impression to discourage the deer long term. Another alternative is invite a neighbor who buys deer tags some years, to hunt the bucks when that's in season. But my kids and grandkids who see these frequent vids would never forgive me, they think the wildlife here is like interesting pets. Today I also sent them vids from another cam showing the skunk making 3 zooming passes down the deck, the family of four raccoons also romping the length of the deck, and the bobcat and the feral cat (last vid) coming down those stairs shown in my attachment. All in one night. It's a zoo at night!

I tried something I read, Irish Spring Soap as a deterrent. The mice or raccoons ate it immediately. We also tried fencing each tree when we planted 125 new trees in 2015. That helped the trees get a start but then the deer learned they could climb, crush, the flimsy deer netting around the trees. We removed all that after a couple of years when they were all bashed down.


Added: Wow. I'm glad we don't have aggressive coyotes like those Michigan photos. Worst case here is a housecat lost once in a while.

I tried everything to keep mule deer from my garden and orchard area, but nothing worked until I built a 9’ woven wire fence around the area. A lot of work and it takes some stout corner braces for a fence that tall (I used oil drill stem pipe in concrete with welded h braces), but it worked. My orchard and garden have been deer free for about 7 years now.

 

[jyoutz]

The farm I mentioned had great pyrenees dogs too, but with 5 or 6 different packs active on the 160 acre parcel and the even larger parcels around it, one is not going to make it with dogs alone.

We have a lot of coyotes and ranchers do shoot them, but don’t try to exterminate them. The dogs seem to work and will stay with the herd. I’m talking about 5,000 acre pastures. We don’t hear of a lot of calf losses from coyotes, but sheep are a different story. But there are far less sheep operations now than a few decades ago.

 

[westcliffe01]

The only thing that works reliably is a proper no-climb fence but that is quite an expensive undertaking on 160 acres where one would first have to spend a considerable amount on clearing the now centuries old hedge rows using a forestry mulcher and large excavator so that a new fence could even be installed. In my opinion sheep was not the right product for that land, if properly cleared it could all be hay and would make more money than sheep with no real predation problems. If deer were to be a serious issue there would be plenty of volunteer help to work with that problem. But everyone has to make their own decisions and live with the consequences...

 

[California]

... nothing worked until I built a 9’ woven wire fence around the area. A lot of work and it takes some stout corner braces for a fence that tall (I used oil drill stem pipe in concrete with welded h braces), but it worked. My orchard and garden have been deer free for about 7 years now.

Similar here, drill pipe in concrete but we only went up 6 ft because the coastal deer are smaller. I've only heard of one instance of a deer leaping over the fence. (terrified, pursued by a 4-wheeler).

Wife saw one stuck trying to go under the fence and crying, she said. She went by a half hour later and it was gone, she didn't know if in or out. And we couldn't find the exact spot to add hold-down stakes.

I think the three deer we see all the time are permanent residents and I've never seen others. Now if we could just get these three out .....

Added: At least it's better than before. I counted a herd of 14 for certain, I think it was 18 but moving around, in the orchard before the fence. We had become the neighborhood zoo as people bought adjacent farms and fenced as they converted orchards to vineyards.

 

[jyoutz]

Similar here, drill pipe in concrete but we only went up 6 ft because the coastal deer are smaller. I've only heard of one instance of a deer leaping over the fence. (terrified, pursued by a 4-wheeler).

Wife saw one stuck trying to go under the fence and crying, she said. She went by a half hour later and it was gone, she didn't know if in or out. And we couldn't find the exact spot to add hold-down stakes.

I think the three deer we see all the time are permanent residents and I've never seen others. Now if we could just get these three out .....

I stacked 2 rolls of 50” woven wire to reach approximately 9’. Stretching the upper roll of wire was a challenge, but I ended up mounting the stretcher to my loader bucket and pulling in reverse.

 

[Streetcar]

Coyotes are incredible resourceful, they live in some of the biggest cites in America, New York City as well as Chicago.

On the east coast, they are actually a hybrid of the western coyote and I believe the Eastern/Gray Wolf. They clearly don’t look like a western coyote (long legged and skinny), they look more like a smaller wolf (stocky with a bulky head). The ones on our property look pretty big, easily 40-50 pounds, not too many lose dogs or cats survive around here for very long.

It’s unfortunate that your neighbor has to try and control their population but I guess that a consequence of allowing his cattle to “free range”. I hear that coyotes will actually modulate their litter size based upon food availability.

You can exterminate the wolf, like we almost did, but not a coyote, they are just to adaptable.

Eastern coyotes has little genetic mixing, natural selection favors different body size in different climates

 

[Yander]

Flag them, and send them to my place for wild hogs !

Yeah you want to talk about something that will do damage.