COYOTES AND UPLAND GAMEBIRDS

Fred S. Guthery, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Kingsville, TX

Document Type Article

Published in Coyotes in the Southwest: A Compendium of Our Knowledge. Symposium Proceedings, December 13–14, 1995, San Angelo, TX, edited by Dale Rollins, Calvin Richardson, Terry Blankenship, Kem Canon, and Scott Henke. Austin, Texas, 1996. Used by permission.

Abstract

That coyotes (Canis latrans) destroy nests and individuals of bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) and wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) is well documented. In many situations, however, the removal of coyotes would have little observable effect on gamebird recruitment and population dynamics. This counterintuitive result occurs because (1) renesting reduces the hen failure rate and (2) loss sources other than coyotes become stronger when coyotes are removed from a predator-prey system.