Most Americans are shocked to learn that each year thousands of coyotes, foxes, bobcats, prairie dogs, crows, and even wolves are targeted in “wildlife killing contests” where contestants win prizes and awards for killing the most or largest of a given species. These contests, largely unmonitored by state and federal wildlife agencies, are legal throughout the United States and often occur on our public lands.
When left alone, coyotes regulate their own numbers. They are affected by the same factors that control many other wildlife populations: social structure, prey availability, territory, and weather. Most coyote populations, however, are under constant pressure from lethal predator control programs, and from fur trapping, sport hunting, contest hunts, and bounties.
These cruel, counterproductive programs can actually make coyote numbers rebound. Remember, coyotes are almost identical to wolves in social structure, in that only the alpha pair produces offspring, while other animals that are capable of breeding remain what is referred to as behaviorally sterile.Counterintuitively, programs aimed at reducing coyotes—such as lethal control programs, sport trapping, and hunting—actually cause coyote numbers to increase. Coyotes respond to indiscriminate control programs with a number of complex biological mechanisms, which work very efficiently to boost their numbers. When the alpha pair is killed, subordinate pack members breed and bear larger litters of bigger pups with higher survival rates. In order to feed more robust litters, coyotes may change their hunting habits to include unnatural and larger prey, such as livestock. Thus, increased persecution leads to bigger populations and increased predation—a response quite opposite from what the control is designed to produce.
Killing for prize or trophy is not a adequate reason for hunting. Its unjustifiable and unsportsmanlike. Please help stop these contests in NC.
