COYOTES: A POTENTIAL ROLE IN DEER HERD MANAGEMENT?

Robert E. Zaiglin, Harrison Interests, Ltd., Uvalde, 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

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) herd control is one of the principal problems faced by private lands game managers. Private landowners unwilling to permit adequate numbers of sport hunters on their lands force deer managers to exercise other harvest strategies, one of which is natural population control by protecting the coyote (Canis latrans). I describe an ongoing case study in South Texas where predation by coyotes may be considered a positive tool in deer population management.