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Predator Hunting
We can hear it now… daylight breaks, and the sound of braying donkeys echoes through the deer woods. Hunters, refusing to throw up their hands and do nothing about coyotes eating all the fawns and turkeys, turn instead to the Donkey Solution. All kidding aside, it’s no secret that donkeys despise coyotes. That’s why donkeys…
On whichever side of the philosophical predator fence you sit, there is no getting around the fact that coyotes are opportunistic killers. They travel along roadbeds, fence rows, edges of open fields and anywhere else there is a break in habitat. Their keen noses and sharp, alert eyes are always in the active, target-acquisition mode.…
It was a Saturday morning in early June. A pre-dawn summer rain had just stopped as I drove toward a local cattle farm to do a little coyote hunting. To me, any time is a good time to hunt coyotes, but this time of year—late May, June and early July—are especially key. That’s because it’s…
When coyotes first started expanding their range and numbers in Georgia in the late 1990s and early 2000s, hunters were told they don’t eat deer. Then the trail-camera pictures started showing up. It’s hard to argue that coyotes don’t eat deer when you see pictures of coyotes carrying dead fawns around. Now, scientific studies confirm…
Deer managers and hunters now know for certain coyotes in Georgia are taking a bite out of fawn numbers. Top deer researchers studying fawn mortality are finding survival rates significantly lower than they used to be, and coyotes are the primary fawn killer. Studies in the Southeast are finding only 20 to 25 percent of…
Coyotes are omnivores and opportunistic predators. They travel alone or in small packs, hunting and foraging mostly at night and covering miles of ground in search of food. Nose to the ground and ears perked to scan the landscape as it passes, they remain alert to react quickly on any feeding opportunity or danger…
Marty and Glad Simmons, of Clarkesville, were just hoping for a few nice shots of some deer on their trail camera, which is located several hundred yards from their Habersham County home. However, when they had a photo of a large dog standing on a log, which appeared not to be a coyote, residents began…
At the first glance, we thought we had the undeniable proof of cougars we have been looking for in our year-long cougar quest, but DNR officials have since pointed out a couple elements in these photos that leave species identification open for doubt. This series of photos was captured by Drew Atkins, of Franklin, on…
More than 40 years ago, I stumbled upon a paperback book titled “The Critters Come When Called.” Written by the late Russell Tinsley, the book covered the exploits of two lanky Texans, Murry and Winston Burnham. The Burnham brothers became legendary in the arena of predator calling. Winston has passed on while Murry, in his…
A coyote hunter using night-vision equipment on a .223 rifle shot and killed a U.S. Forest Service law-enforcement officer March 5 at the Ocmulgee Bluff Equestrian Recreation Area of Oconee National Forest in Jasper County. Officer Christopher Arby Upton, 37, of Monroe, was on patrol at about 11 p.m. when Norman Clinton Hale, 40, of…