Coyote program angers professor
The state is offering incentives in an effort to reduce the coyote population.
Berry College professor Chris Mowry is howling mad with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources for its spring and summer initiative to reduce the coyote population across the state. The Georgia Coyote Challenge started March 1 and continues through August.
Hunters will earn an opportunity to win a lifetime hunting license from the DNR.
“From a scientific perspective we believe that removing predators is not a good idea; it disrupts the balance of the ecosystem,” Mowry said. “Secondly we feel like it’s inhumane. There is already open season on coyotes yearround.
“To incentivize people going out and killing coyotes just for the chance to win a prize of a lifetime hunting license, I just don’t agree with,” Mowry added.
DNR Region I Game Management Supervisor Chuck Waters said the hunts may help focus attention on taking coyotes during the time of year when they have the most impact on other wildlife.
Mowry, who has directed the Atlanta Coyote Project from Berry College since 2014, said no one really knows how large the coyote population has become.
“Predators, when left alone, will control their own populations,” Mowry said. “It appears to us as if it’s just an attempt to raise deer numbers. There’s no good data that indicates that is the case, and do we really need more deer?”
Waters said there is ample evidence linking the impact of coyote predation to fawn survival.
“There is also documentation of their impact on eggs from turkeys and even sea turtles,” Waters said.
Coyotes exist in every county across the state and have adapted to virtually every type of habitat, according to the DNR.
Mowry said coyotes have essentially filled a
void left by the removal of red wolves from the Southeast.
Area participants in the DNR’s Coyote Challenge must bring coyote carcasses to the regional Game Management office, 2592 Floyd Springs Road, Armuchee, from Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Participants can submit up to five coyotes for five entries in the drawing in a single month.