WESTERLO — The head of a local hunting group says that deer populations are dwindling because of predatory coyotes, but the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation says a number of factors contribute.

Jack Milner, president of the Whitetail Deer Association, a Westerlo-based hunting club, says the coyote population is on the rise and deer numbers are dwindling.

Coyotes, he said, are getting larger and eating fawns. Coyotes, he said, which typically weigh 15 to 45 pounds, have gotten progressively larger, with cases of 50- to 60-pound coyotes being killed. (See letter to the editor.)
"Do coyotes kill fawns" Absolutely they do," said Karl Parker, senior wildlife biologist for DEC Region 4. "They don’t just kill weak or diseased fawns," he said. A variety of reasons, he said, contribute to deer deaths — "human take" and "the take of predators" among them. Other factors, he said, include changes in weather and habitat qualities. Parker said it was unclear whether deer populations have declined; more research would have to be done, he said. "Things do change."

Hunters, Milner said, are no longer buying licenses because there isn’t any game. Milner said fewer fawns are showing up in herds. Of a pack of a dozen deer, he said, he’s seen 10 does to two fawns. Most does, he said, have two fawns.
"Where did all the fawns go"" he asked.

The association is meeting at Boreali’s Restaurant in Howe’s Cave on March 25 to raise money to subsidize coyote pelt prices for the 2007-08 hunting season.
"Vermin destroy far more game and fur-bearing animals than are taken by all the hunters and trappers combined," Milner says in a letter to The Enterprise editor.
"‘Vermin,’" Parker said, "is a catch-phrase for ‘anything that you don’t like.’" He added, "We don’t believe there are any vermin. All animals have their place."
Milner cites a 1939 license from the DEC that states: "Kill all you can of foxes, cats hunting protected birds, harmful hawks, red squirrels, and other enemies of useful wild life. You will benefit both the game and your own sport."

The hunting season for coyotes is from Oct. 1 to March 25, and the trapping season is Oct. 25 to Feb. 15.

In July of 2003, a ban on feeding deer was enacted to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease — a communicable fatal neurological disease found in deer and elk.
"Feeding deer artificially concentrates them in one location for extended periods of time," says the DEC. "CWD is most likely transmitted from deer to deer by direct contact between animals, or indirectly through contact with waste food, urine, and feces that build up at feeding sites, although the exact transmittal mechanism is currently unknown," the DEC says.

Milner questioned the ban, saying he has never seen feces and urine at deer feeding sites.