Originally Posted By: moses
Do the coyotes knock the turkey population about very much ?
I would think that nesting hens & then poults because of being on the ground so much, would cop it pretty hard.
O.M


Certainly, coyotes will take adults and poults. In general, however, coyotes have a positive on ground nesting birds simply because they put a lot more hurt to more specialized bird hunters, namely foxes (the worst, per capita), raccoons (the most common), along with skunks, cats, etc etc.

Here in Iowa, a grad student working on turkey hen, nest, and poult survival found a slight positive correlation with coyotes. But much stronger positive correlations have been found for ducks, pheasants, and passerines of various forms.

At a regional scale, the best turkey hunting in Iowa is also the part of the state where there are the most coyotes (the Southern counties), although there are certainly other factors that could also explain that.

One cannot regulate turkey populations by shooting males. Anyone with a whit of understanding of population dynamics would understand that.

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BrentD, (Professor - just for Stan)

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