CLARA CITY -- Some of Bill DuHoux's favorite winter mornings are spent like this: Hot coffee at hand, 'CCO radio talking, his pickup truck taking him down miles of country roads.

All the while, the Clara City man's eyes are scanning the snow-covered countryside in search of a gray form that keeps to the creeks, drainage ditches and wild lands along the route.

He's looking for the coyotes that most of us will drive by unnoticed. "Your eye has to be trained to see it,'' he said.

When he does, the hunt is on. DuHoux stalks his prey, purposely getting himself between the coyote and its home turf.

The real excitement comes when he's able to put the animal in front of his Colt .223 rifle. He's dropped coyotes on the run at 200 and 300 yards. His best shot covered 650 yards. His first coyote -- shot in 1996 while he was fox hunting -- was some 400 yards away.

The wary animals make for a challenging hunt.

"They are very smart,'' said DuHoux.

They also appear to be sport for more people in the area. Anecdotal evidence suggests that coyotes are on the increase in the area.

DuHoux is a case in point. He said he used to hunt red foxes. When he noticed their numbers were declining, he turned his sights on coyotes. He was seeing them more often, he explained.

Scott Johnson, Johnson Furs, said the fur buying company south of Willmar used to handle as many as 5,000 fox pelts a year.

Now, it's less than 500 per year.

On the other hand, he said hunters and trappers are harvesting more coyotes. Ten to 15 years ago, it would have been cause for a picture in the newspaper if someone brought a coyote to the business, said Johnson.

"Now it's an every day occurrence,'' he said.

Johnson is convinced that coyotes have expanded their range to the area and their numbers are on the rise. "There's no question about it,'' he said.

The increase is real but probably not as great as many believe, according to Jeff Miller, assistant wildlife manager with the DNR's office in Willmar.

Along with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Miller and others devote a part of each September to setting scent posts and counting how often they are visited by predators. Years of data show that there is a slight increase in coyote numbers in the area, he said.

"It's more of a localized issue,'' he said. A coyote pack, consisting of a female and her offspring, can keep the fox population in check throughout their home range. A coyote pack's home range can cover several square miles.

DuHoux likes to cover an area that measures 26 miles from north to south in search of coyotes.

His efforts last year rewarded him with six coyotes. This winter has seen him bag nine coyotes.

He had intended to collect a $10 bounty on each in Chippewa County, but is out of luck. The county recently eliminated the bounty after learning it did not have the legal authority to offer it.

DuHoux makes no secret of his dislike for coyotes. He considers them a "scourge.''

He said his daughter lost a pet cat to a coyote once.

He said he believes we will see more problems like this if their numbers are not kept in check.

Yet there is no doubt he enjoys the opportunity to keep them in check. They provide the same thrill of the chase and reward for success as hunting any other animal, he said.

"It makes the whole day go better,'' he said of those winter mornings when he pursues them.

It's not wolf that sheep producers in Chippewa County are crying, but coyote.

The sheep producers are looking for some help with their need to control what they believe is a growing coyote population.

"For us it's a cause of hardship," said Bob Padula, a sheep producer and former University of Minnesota extension educator in the county.

He and other producers are upset that the county has been forced to rescind the $10 bounty it had placed on coyotes. Instead of telling the county what it can't do, Padula said producers would like the state to help producers deal with the problems they are facing.

Padula counts himself among the lucky ones. He's had coyotes frighten his sheep and chase them through fencing, but so far he has not lost any animals to the predators. "And I don't intend to," he said.

Neither did Mike and Jen Berven of Riverdale Farm, rural Milan. Two years ago they lost 68 lambs to coyotes just like that.

It happened during a three-week period. The lambs were on pasture, and made easy prey for the coyotes, Mike Breven said.

The couple operates an organic farm on land along the Chippewa River that has long been a part of Mike's family. Mike said he never saw a coyote on the property until 1986.

Coyote spottings, and the number of animals out there, have been increasing ever since, he said.

Coyotes have become a serious predator issue for the Breven's and neighboring producers for at least four years, they said.

Steve Jorgenson, who also raises sheep in the area, knows how to describe a serious problem. He lost 114 lambs to coyotes during one season.

There's no mistaking the modus operandi of the predators, said the producers. They find their lambs neatly dissected and their entrails eaten.

In contrast, they said that lambs attacked by dogs are usually badly mutilated.

If dogs were the problem, producers could find the offending dog's owner and collect an insurance claim for the loss, said Padula.

When coyotes are the culprit, producers see no compensation.

It's a hard loss to take in an industry where margins are slim, they said.

While an immature lamb may have a market worth of $40, the true loss to the producers is the $110 animal that never makes it to market size, they noted.

When a lamb is lost, the producer loses the animal and the expenses that came with feeding and caring for its ewe. It's the equivalent of having a corn crop trampled around the 4th of July.

Producers need to put lambs on pasture for economic reasons. Sheep add value best when they turn grass on hard to farm land into meat and wool.

But Berven and Jorgenson are finding it difficult to make use of the pasture economies that come with their industry. Their best defense against coyotes has been to keep lambs indoors. Along with the added building costs, the practice greatly increases feeding costs and the demands on their own labor and time, they said.

They've tried a number of predator control practices, but with limited success. Berven purchased a llama after hearing it could protect his sheep against coyotes.

The Andean import is a popular animal with visitors, but hardly a deterrent to the coyotes, he said.

The producers believe that coyote numbers are growing as more land is placed in CRP and CREP. They refer to them with sarcasm as the Coyote Reproduction Program.

They ask people to understand their sense of exasperation. Along with increasing their predator problems, the popular conservation programs have made the grasslands that are so important to their economic success scarce and more costly to obtain.

While large sums of money are devoted to these programs, the producers have not been able to find any sort of help for the issues they face.

Padula said he and other producers realize that bounties and the indiscriminate killing of coyotes may not be the solution. He said a comprehensive approach is needed to keep their numbers in check.

Taking that approach, he said, will require support from the state. The commissioner of the DNR has the authority to set bounties and allow for other coyote control measures.

Coyotes as sport and villain
Text version of this story

Some things we know about coyotes:

---

ABOUT US | ACTIVITIES | NEWS | RESEARCH | TEACHING | CONFERENCES | LECTURES
PUBLICATIONS | FELLOWSHIPS | HISTORY CENTER | SEARCH | LINKS

BACK | CRRS Home | SMSU Home