For a sixth year in a row, the number of coyotes taken by trappers and hunters has declined and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is handing out excuses failing to mention that trappers have fewer effective tools to trap with.
According to an article by Terry Karkos of the Lewiston Sun Journal, the MDIFW gives the following reasons why coyote kill numbers are declining.
Hunters failing to report coyote kills, high gasoline prices and fatal diseases like sarcoptic mange, might be reasons behind the decline, according to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
While these reasons are probably legitimate, officials with the MDIFW fail to mention that Maine trappers have had their tools taken away from them as the result of animal rights groups’ lawsuits and threats of lawsuits. The most effective means of trapping coyote, while at the same time protecting whitetail deer population, was use of the snare trap. That was taken away from trappers because of the threat of lawsuits to protect other animal species.
Recently, MDIFW settled another lawsuit with the Animal Protection Institute to ban the use of traps with a jaw opening of more than 4 5/8 inches. The larger traps are what most coyote trappers are using.
So with a significant reduction in the tools and methods trappers can use on coyote, no mention from MDIFW as to why trapping numbers are down. Instead they say coyote kills may be going unreported. Perhaps that’s true but can MDIFW give us any reason why the number of unreported coyote kills would be increasing in the last 6 years that would account for the continued decline?
Higher gas price is a legitimate excuse that has had its affects on bear hunting, moose hunting and other forms of outdoor activities. There also doesn’t appear to be any real evidence to suggest that mange is having any widespread effect on the reduction of coyote harvests.
We must bear in mind that the price a coyote pelt yields has gone up over the last couple of years. The price is not at a point that would get enough hunters and trappers out to have any real affect on the coyote population but one has to wonder where the coyote population and harvest numbers, along with deer populations, would be if prices for pelts had remained low further discouraging the taking of coyotes.
In the 2000-2001 coyote season, over 2,700 coyotes were tagged. This season that number has dropped to slightly over 2,000. That’s a reduction of about 30%.
With an ever growing coyote population, which directly competes with the Canada lynx, an animal that protection groups claim to be trying to save, there is little hope that efforts to protect the lynx will do any good. The cure from the Animal Protection Institute (banning the traps used for coyotes) could in fact prove detrimental to the animal they claim to want to protect.
It puzzles me why the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife chooses to hide behind the truth when it comes to dealing with coyote population management. It certainly appears they are scared to death of any lawsuits being threatened against them. Do they think not bringing up the subject will somehow make it all go away?
Talk to anyone in Maine who has knowledge of the outdoors, and in this case coyotes and whitetail deer, and they will tell you that if something isn’t done about the coyote population in Maine, they will be faced with some extremely serious management problems with the deer. Matt Libby, of Libby’s Camps, chaired a recent deer management committee in which ways were discussed to deal with a continued decline in deer populations in Northern and Downeast Maine. He said the overall consensus from the group was an overgrown coyote population.
While animal rights groups continue their successful march to rid the world of hunting, fishing and trapping, at whatever the expense, Maine people are sitting by watching the countryside become overrun with coyote, the deer population dwindle and more and more tools taken away from trappers because the State of Maine refuses to engage against these animal rights groups.
I think it’s time to remove their heads from the sand, call a spade a spade and deal with these groups as it will certainly be easier now than after they have succeeded in taking away more of our management tools. Time to get rid of irrational emotions and get back to science.
Tom Remington
