Published: October 12, 2008 11:05 pm         

DNR official says coyote here to stay

CHARLESTON — Love him or hate him, the coyote is a permanent fixture in West Virginia, and paying bounties to hunters is no way to deal with the often-troublesome animal, lawmakers were told Sunday.

“They haven’t worked in the West,” veteran game researcher Jim Evans told a legislative panel, in regard to paying hunters cash to bring them in. “They haven’t worked anywhere they have been tried. You have to reduce the population by 70 percent, and that’s just not possible.”

A recent survey by observant bowhunters suggested the population has begun to level off, Evans told the Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Committee.

Even so, the Division of Natural Resources official said, the coyote appears to have found a home in West Virginia, after initially showing up in 1950 in Tucker County.

Evans told Sen. J. Frank Deem, R-Wood, that the animal is about “a 50-50 proposition” when the negatives and plusses are figured in.

On the positive side, the coyote provides more recreational hunting and trapping opportunities, especially since the DNR expanded the night hunt from Jan. 1 to July 31. There is no season on daytime hunting.

“One thing is for sure — the coyote is here to stay,” Evans told the lawmakers. “We just have to learn to live with him.”

On the negative side, the coyote has proved himself a nuisance to sheep farmers in the Eastern Panhandle and to some pet owners.

A group based in Wyoming County is attempting to control the population by paying members bounties for bringing in furs in all 55 counties.

But after the committee meeting, Evans said the idea is futile.

“It’s a waste of money,” he said of paying bounties.

Instead, the DNR researcher said, the wisest use of such monies is to apply it to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s program of targeting individual coyotes identified as the “real troublemakers.”

“This is becoming a great problem in the state,” Sen. John Pat Fanning, D-McDowell, co-chair of the committee, advised fellow lawmakers.

While the Western coyote has been a familiar prop in old black-and-white western movies, with its distinct howl, the animal is just as vocal in West Virginia.

“We probably don’t hear it as much here because of the hills and valleys,” Evans said.

Coyotes can adapt to any climate and feed on wild animals, vegetables, fruits — even insects.

One myth Evans sought to explode is that the DNR released them as a means of controlling the deer population.

Actually, he said, the coyote population simply drifted into the East after pushing out the timber wolf. Two more appeared in 1970, including one with a ferocious appetite that ravaged sheep herds in Upshur County.

“In 1980, they just essentially took over the state,” Evans said. “And in reality, there’s very little we can do about it.”