They are here and there is nothing you can do about it. You hear their cries in the night and lock the door. Your pets come up missing and the garbage is strewn about the lawn. Coyotes not wolves are howling at your front door. I have been hunting all my life and I would have never dreamed of hunting coyotes until I meet the current hunting and shooting editors for Arizona Outdoorsman, Louis Urquides and Gary McCraw. They have introduced me to the world of predator hunting. A lot of hunters would scoff at the very idea of hunting coyotes but there is a ecological reason for hunting them as well as the thrill of matching wits with one of the most intelligent animals on the face of the earth. No doubt about it they are here to stay and they must be controlled and managed in the same way we manage an elk or deer herd.

Mike Scott (Owner) and Robert Glenn Wills (AZOD)

Mike Scott of Trophy Xcellerator Company invited team AZOD to the St. Regis Lodge on Crosby Pasture in Alabama, to take a close look at the coyote’s populating the area and the their impact on the Whitetail Deer population. What we found was surprising if not a revelation.

Originally owned and managed by St. Regis Paper Company, Crosby Pasture was purchased in 1968 as the company’s primary hunting property for its board members and special customers. These 12 square miles of land is well known for producing some of the largest trophy whitetails in the state and for its outstanding bass fishing. There are three spring fed lakes that produce monster Florida strain bass and large stringers of brim, catfish and crappie. Designed as not only a premier hunting location, but also a great place to relax and enjoy the great outdoors, the property is truly a sportsman’s paradise.

Crosby Pasture is now held by a private corporation and only allows corporate membership sportsman to access the property. A QDMA Wildlife Biologist and a fisheries biologist are employed to ensure the property is managed properly. Crosby Pasture is currently involved in a wildlife management project in conjunction with Trophy Xcellerator Company, WNST, Pennington Seed Company, Trail Timer and Antler King Products of North America. With over 80 food plots, and the help of Trophy Xcellerator, St Regis Lodge on Crosby Pasture is quickly becoming a showcase management property. The goal is to grow 140 class and better whitetail bucks in South Alabama while producing a stronger healthier overall wildlife population. With over 12 square miles to work with Crosby Pasture will lend itself to outstanding deer hunting as well as quail, turkey, wild hogs and dove just to mention a few.

In recent years local hunters in the area could not help but notice that the coyote population was exploding. Mike Scott thought it only good business to take a closer look at this new predator and invited Team AZOD to Alabama.

Our first afternoon on the property was spent driving around and getting to know the way of the land. Not only the facilities but also the land itself immediately impressed us. Being southern born and growing up in the south it was like a home coming, especially since Mike graciously allowed me to invite my father and mother as well. Dad had a blast fishing and provided us with a couple of great fish dinners.

It was immediately apparent that there was a large population of coyotes in the area just from the tracks on the dirt roads and from the scat. The most interesting thing about the scat was that nearly all droppings were full of deer hair. In the west an exploding coyote population means an abundant food supply and it is no different in the south. The coyote’s primary food source appeared to be whitetail deer.

The next morning we were up before dawn and in the field calling. We tried rabbit calls, bird calls and even fawn calls. Typically, even when not hungry a coyote will respond to a call just out of curiosity, this was not the case in Alabama. We were unable to call in coyotes. The terrain itself is a challenge with the thick brush and undergrowth. Seeing what you are calling in can be a problem. We were successful at calling fox and bobcats. One bobcat stood a couple of feet behind our cameraman, Rick Williams and watched the hunters for several minutes. Rick said he heard something in the brush and turned the camera around and filmed over his shoulder. You could see the animal blink its eyes and move back and forth in the thick brush just behind him. Rick said it made the hair stand up on the back of his neck. That afternoon we continued to call with no successes and it was a frustrated and disappointed Team AZOD that returned to the Lodge. Our host served a steak dinner for us that night and our spirits were lifted by the conversation and fellowship of our southern brethren and talk about the puzzle we were trying to solve. One of the guests had killed a nice 8-point buck (4X4) that day and the lodges guide, Lou Laurenson decided to dump the gut pile in an open area in the hopes that we could at least harvest a coyote and assess its health.

The next morning nothing remained of the gut pile, the coyote’s had come in the middle of the night and devoured the remains. Another day of calling and still no coyote’s. A weather front had moved in and a heavy rain began to fall that afternoon. Another guest had shot a nice buck and again the gut pile was dumped in the same area. Later that night we placed a recording device near the gut pile in hopes of recording the feeding coyote’s.

The following morning came and the front had passed. We awoke to the sound of a pack of coyote’s on the chase near the area where the gut pile was. It was an anxious Team AZOD that set out that morning, and again a frustrated one that returned that night. Two coyotes had chased a young deer within 20 ft of the gut pile. Four more coyotes had joined the chase within 100 yards. The fact that they ignored the easy meal was a new twist in their behavior. They were hunting in the manner of the pack. Taking turns chasing the animal until it grows tired and becomes easy to take down. Very much like their cousin the wolf takes down a bull elk.

The fact that coyote’s are very adaptable and intelligent is demonstrated by their behavior and feeding habits. They will even become vegetarians to survive. In Arizona around agriculture area’s where cantaloupes are grown I have found lots of orange coyote scat.

They are one of Gods most efficient predators but above all else one of his best survival experts. While expanding his territory this remarkable animal has modified his hunting tactics. The fact that coyote’s actually teach their young to hunt and are intelligent enough to learn form their experiences has created a very efficient deer hunting machine. His biological clock on the other hand has not changed. Coyotes will have large litters of pups when food is plentiful and smaller ones when times are hard. Survival rates are high for the pups. Their only danger is really the males who will kill the pups so that the females will breed again.

The introduction of coyotes into eastern forests adds a new twist into the management scheme of eastern fish and game departments. In the west coyotes are hunted from helicopters to protect antelope populations. In area’s where coyote populations are not controlled the antelope were wiped out by predation. This form of management is not an option for the east because of the terrain. It’s very difficult to trap coyotes and they soon learn to avoid the traps. Poisoning them is simply unethical and absolutely not an option either. That only leaves the hunters. In Arizona predator hunters harvest about 1700 coyotes a year and it does not even put a dent in the population. Predator hunting has not caught on in the east, but to maintain whitetail deer populations as a plentiful resource it will have to. Mike Scott knows this and many of the other southern hunters know it as well. The question is how do you hunt them.

(See AZOD Pictures here)

Team AZOD did not call in a single coyote during our stay in Alabama. What makes this so surprising is that one of our callers was Gary McCraw the president of the Phoenix Varmint Callers. I personally have seen Gary call in coyotes at will. There is a puzzle here for us to solve and Team AZOD along with Mark Cain of Modern Call Products are working on the solution. How do you call in a coyote that has a southern drawl? Well we’ll figure it out and when we do we’ll be going back to tackle this new and improved southern coyote. Until then keep FiFi put up in the house because he’s out there watching and waiting.

Special thanks to Mike Scott and Lou Laurenson for making our frustrating trip an enjoyable one. Mike has invited us back this spring to hunt turkey and we intent to also bust a few coyotes this time using our new and improved hunting tactics.

Portion of Team AZOD that went to St. Regis (From Left to Right: Robert
Glenn  Willis, Gary McCraw, Rick Williams and Ken Coon)

For more information on Corporate Memberships contact Editor@azod.com or call 520-684-1708 and ask for Robert Willis. I’ll put you in touch with the right people.