Deer Predation/Mortality Study-long term Michigan U.P.

[May-39]

I thought several fellow members may find this interesting.
A large research area in Michigan's U.P. is, has and continues to monitor fawn and adult deer predation and the dominant predator for deer mortality.
Read the annual reports and draw your own conclusions, interesting study..Half of the fawns don't see October

http://www.fwrc.msstate.edu/carnivore/p ... eports.asp

[dan]

I think a lot of people would be surprised to see how many more coyote kills on adult deer there were in comparison to wolves.

[headgear]

Too much data, I think my head just exploded. Will have to check this out later when I have more time.

[Stanley]

There is a ton of reading. I tried to read through it but lost interest after a few pages. Most of the areas I hunt have no bob cat, bear or wolves. So that part of the study is moot for me. Thanks for posting though.

[Singing Bridge]

This is an extensive study of the predation of whitetail deer in a number of study areas in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The fact that predator populations were monitored closely in addition to the deer lends credence to the data presented as being typical for many areas of that entire region. Here is a quote from the 2013 report:
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Deer Mortality
We recorded 16 mortalities of radiocollared does. Eleven of these mortalities were attributed to
predation (7 coyote, 3 wolf, and 1 bobcat). Additionally, 1 mortality appeared related to birthing
complications and malnutrition, 1 yearling appeared to have drowned after falling through the ice, 1
died of disease, and 1 was attributed to illegal harvest. We were unable to determine cause of death for
1 doe.
Of the 43 collared fawns, 26 died as of 5 September 2013. Predation was the largest source of
mortality, accounting for 19 fawns. We identified 6 coyote, 2 black bear, 3 wolf, 2 bobcat, 1 fox, 1
unknown canid, and 4 unknown predations. In addition to predation, 1 fawn was killed by a vehicle
collision, and 6 mortalities in which the cause of death could not be determined in the field are being
evaluated at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Diagnostics Laboratory. We also observed
seven additional fawns which were dead at the birth sites of radio collared does; 2 were stillborn, 2
were black bear predations, 1 was a coyote predation, 1 was an unknown predation, and 1 was due to
poor birth health.
_________________________________________________________________________________________

Throughout the study, in various geographical locations and in different years, coyotes were the primary predator of deer, including fawns. I believe this study will do very little to sway the opinions of residents that live there and even the Michigan DNR, to a degree, that coyotes are the primary predator of deer. For decades I have listened to the complaints that wolves are destroying the population of deer in the Upper Peninsula, even long before this recent upturn in their population. Few area residents even wanted to acknowledge that black bears were strong predators of whitetail fawns in the spring. I could go on and on- but to keep it short I often asked Michigan residents from both peninsulas who were convinced that wolves were the ultimate predator on deer in the U.P. to start paying attention in the winter. I asked them to actually stop and take a look when driving the U.P. and woods roads whenever they encountered deer tracks crossing in the snow... and I asked them if there were predator tracks chasing or following the deer tracks, what did they see? They saw exactly what I did nearly every single time... coyote tracls. I'm not saying you will never find a wolf track doing this, but if you do it a hundred times (find predator tracks with deer tracks in the snow) guess what track you will find well over 90 times?... coyote tracks.

'nuff said.

[dan]

Well said Bridge... Most guys believe things, just cause its what they think... Studies like this can prove things over and over and most will just say "nope" I disagree...

[Hodag Hunter]

It looks like quite an intensive study.

I agree bear and yotes do more damage than people realize.

I would like to know how they determine between wolf and coyote predation. I have personally found where a wolf killed a deer but the yotes ate it. To the casual observer one would say coyote kill but in fact it was a single wolf kill (deer was previously wounded but not mortally)

Can't say I witness this a lot but what I do find is partial eaten wolf kills that yotes could find a week later and one would guess it was a coyote kill.

Either way predators do quite the damage to our northern deer herd. The fox kill surprised me. Again maybe the fox was feeding on a dead deer who knows how died.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[headgear]

Interesting info fore sure, people always freak out when wolves move into an area. I've been hunting with wolves my entire life, through low populations and bad winters the wolves never whipped out the herd. They move around a lot and when the "hunting" is bad they move on in search of more food. Now if you have an unchecked yote population that could be trouble. I've seen does and with fawns chase off or even ignore a pair of yotes, but if there were 5 or 6 or 10 yotes will those deer are in trouble.

[G3s]

That is an in depth study for sure but not surprising in any way. Coyotes do the majority of damage to the deer herd...it is law of numbers...the coyote population dwarfs the wolf population, there is no doubt about it. The wolf is the apex predator in the U.P there is no doubt about that...thankfully the population is merely a small percentage of the wild dog population there.

[Hodag Hunter]

Bridge

Are you implying that 90% of the deer tracks you see crossing a road in winter have coyote tracks following them?

My areas in northern wi I would guess 10% on the high side have predator tracks following deer tracks.

Honestly if there is a predator track 3 out of 4 it is a wolf vs yote.

I agree with all that yote and bear put a dent in the deer population but don't be naive to think the wolf does minimal damage.

If I was a deer I would rather have 5 yotes on my tail than 5 wolves. That is no doubt.

Without doing research i bet the yote and wolf population is similar in my area.

When bear baiting heavy in 2012 (I bait most years but '12 I had a kill tag) the wolf sign/pictures strongly outnumbered the coyotes. It was at least 9 to 1 in wolf favor.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Hodag Hunter]

G3 do you trap?

Guys I talk with that trap say the yotes are running scared and wolf are taking all over the areas.

Just by going from physical sightings from stand, foot or vehicle my group sees far more wolf than coyotes.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[JoeRE]

Wow that's pretty cool all that data is available...I've got some reading material for a while.

It appears there are significantly more coyotes than wolves in the study area (based on their trapping reports and yip-response rates), so it makes sense that they will kill more deer than wolves. That is the case most places I think as well. Where I hunt in up north I think there are more coyotes than wolves anyway, judging from tracks in the snow ans sightings.

I would like to see a break down of deer killed per wolf versus per coyote too - do wolves kill more because they are bigger, need more food?

[Singing Bridge]

Bridge

Are you implying that 90% of the deer tracks you see crossing a road in winter have coyote tracks following them?

Hi Hodag- no, I tried to word it so that it would read when predator tracks accompany deer tracks... and in most areas of the U.P. at this time of the year it is common, probably around half the time in my experience... the coyote population is a hundred to one over the wolf population in the counties I hunt, and likely a whole lot more than that.

On a separate note, have you ever posted about the Hodag legend? I was glancing through an old D & DH magazine that had an article on it... there was some picture about a monster with a toad head on it, or something like that? Heck, you guys don't need Bigfoot if you have a Hodag!

[Dewey]

It looks like quite an intensive study.

I agree bear and yotes do more damage than people realize.

I would like to know how they determine between wolf and coyote predation. I have personally found where a wolf killed a deer but the yotes ate it. To the casual observer one would say coyote kill but in fact it was a single wolf kill (deer was previously wounded but not mortally)

Can't say I witness this a lot but what I do find is partial eaten wolf kills that yotes could find a week later and one would guess it was a coyote kill.

Either way predators do quite the damage to our northern deer herd. The fox kill surprised me. Again maybe the fox was feeding on a dead deer who knows how died.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

Very good points.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[Hodag Hunter]

Trying to find a link for northern WI coyote population and found the below article interviewing Adrian Wydeven (WDNR)

http://www.lakelandtimes.com/main.asp?S ... leID=14094

Below is a couple paragraphs copied form the article.......

The coyotes have come back in a big way," Wydeven said. "I think that initially when coyotes are living in forested areas and wolves start to establish themselves in forested areas, wolves are starting to have some impact on coyotes. Those used to be kind of the core coyote areas. But wolves kind of moved right into those core kind of areas and probably displaced and killed off some of the coyotes."

Now, he said, some of the core coyote areas are outside the wolf areas and coyotes from the outside are moving back into those wolf areas.

"So initially we saw sort of a response of coyotes from wolves moving in and now we're seeing coyotes kind of coming back again," Wydeven said. "I think in our wolf areas, we still have a lower density of coyotes but certainly no lack of coyotes than we have outside of wolf areas. I think now it's just a matter that we have this tremendous coyote population and they are just filling in every place they can."

I don't believe everything Adrian speaks of.....he still states about 1000 total wolves in WI .......but as most agree wolves will drive yotes out of areas.

Honestly guys we can jump in my truck and I could find a wolf track crossing the road a lot easier than a yote track in my areas (Oneida, Forest and Vilas counties). But here is the kicker, I don't think we have that many wolf or coyotes in my areas compared to far northern WI (Bayfield, Ashland, Iron, Sawyer and Douglas counties)......west of me (Price County) has significantly more wolf, few yote and south of me Lincoln and Marathon county more yotes but still some wolf. I have had heavy yote problems eating deer left over night in Lincoln county. Never had a dead deer touched in Oneida, Forest or Vilas county. Yote or wolf. Chased when poor shots on deer, yeah, but kills left over night never touched. Knock on wood.

I have hunted in all of these countiesin the past few years except Bayfield and Douglas.