Are you seeing as many deer as you usually do during deer season? More importantly, are you seeing does with fawns? If you primarily see adult does, then you may be having a predator problem, as some in Virginia suspect. Although coyotes prey on adult deer, they can be devastating to fawns who are totally helpless, save for their spotted camouflage. Coyotes kill much more protein in the spring to feed their pups than at other times of the year, and this predation frenzy puts fawns in the bull’s-eye. Bill Cochran makes his case in The Roanoke Times.
It wasn’t a pretty sight, a dead deer in the middle of a field, one of its sides ripped out and most of its organs gone.
Buddy Faison, host of the popular Virginia Hunters & Fishermen Facebook Group, put a picture online and suggested the killing was the work of coyotes. He didn’t lack for evidence. On the way to where the deer was found, he spooked a couple of coyotes and heard others howling… [continued]
Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
