I find the observations on this thread pretty interesting. If I remember correctly an adult male's territory can range up to 40 kms, adult females somewhat less. Transient pups wander pretty far as well in search of a territory of their own. I've read that coyotes will travel 30 kms in a single night. I think that it would be very hard to determine anything about the coyote population based on only a few quarters of land but that's just my opinion.
Hunting and trapping pressure would have to be extreme and constant year after year to have a dramatic effect IMO, but who knows? If the habitat supports coyotes, I can't imagine coyotes ever being totally eradicated from there. I tend to lean more towards what Marty stated that Mother Nature or someone nearby putting out more attractive bait to lure them there instead to yours.
Last year we experienced a season with hardly any pups in this area and they accounted for only about 5% of my catch. Of those, about 50% were diseased and had to be tossed. This year things are better than normal with an abundance of pups. I haven't kept count but I would guess that about 50% (maybe more) of this year's catch have been healthy, high grade pups. If there is a dramatic reduction in the coyote population in a certain area my money in a bet would be on disease being the culprit as opposed to over harvest. What the hell is AC virus anyway......Air conditioning?
