A 12k acre ranch adjoing ours to the north hired a trapper to thin their population. In one weekend the trapper claims to have removed 75 and sent pictures as proof. FWIW, he is paid by the day not the head. They have asked if we want to use his services.
In 2021 & 2022 we heli-hunted our property taking ~ 100 yotes. Fun but not nearly as efficient or economical as the trapper. As a result our deer population has significantly increased even with the drought...we are covered up in young bucks.
The other side of the coin.
The biologist who advises us with our Managed Land Deer Program says TPW is changing its view coyote removal. They believe the positive results we are seeing are short lived as new animals move into the vacated land faster than previously thought.
There's a lot to coyote social interactions. They are pack animals but often there are loners and pairs too. They have established pecking orders where certain behaviors are kept in check by dominant individuals. When an area has a major decline it's often repopulated with young and aggressive individuals who are looking for new ground outside of where they were born. It's believed the young and aggressive yote are more willing to kill large prey instead of living mainly on mice and bugs. Plus... it's believed that yote adjust their litter sized based on their population density. Less yote = larger litters. Density is sampled through their nightly howling sessions. If true I've long thought a person could loud speaker howling and to help keep numbers lower. Plus, I think their hunting behaviors can change and be taught. I have 5 trail camera that I run year round, plus I hunt and fish a lot. Until last yr.i saw zero evidence that yotes harassed deer any other than finding the occasional fawn. A yr ago I started getting pics of yotes chasing deer. It became somewhat regular so I set some well placed traps this winter and took out a few. Haven't seen evidence of yotes chasing deer since. Hope to have solved a problem but I don't think it's likely.
Some of the above is just stuff I've read about, but some of it is what I believe through experience so take it with a grain of salt if you must.
