I've got a pack of Coyotes that are living in the woods behind my house.   I also have a small dog that I walk on a short lease at around 5:15am every morning on my property which means I'm probably going to start carrying the .45.    One would hope I could at least scare 'em off if they decided they wanted a snack.

 

I know the state is allowing centerfire Coyote hunts(AR-15!) and has essentially allowed the killing of these pests incidental to other hunting during spring Turkey.

 

I'm guessing the population has exploded in the last 5 years or so.  

 

Anyone else hearing or seeing more of them lately?

 

At least they aren't the "Dolphins of the woods" that bears are.

We have them in Salem co south jersey

Saw them a few times while hiking in Morris county. 

I have not seen them, but it's an unmistakable racket they make.  My wife has seen them a few times but she's home more than I am.

two summers ago one had 3 pups in my back yard along a patch of woods about 200' back. Watched them for 2 days with binoculars and was debating calling animal control but they dis-appeared and havent seen a trace since. And this is heavily populated/overbuilt Midland Pk/Ridgewood area Brgn county.

Salem county is loaded with em

Have them here as well in NW Warren County. In addition, have seen an increase in foxes. Don't have a picture, but the neighborhood has seen our first bobcat.

 

Been busy hardening up the chicken yard.

Have them here as well in NW Warren County. In addition, have seen an increase in foxes. Don't have a picture, but the neighborhood has seen our first bobcat.

 

Been busy hardening up the chicken yard.

 

Since this is an invasive species, I wonder if anyone cares if you plug one on your own property? 

we have them and fox here in middletown

Bobcat are protected in NJ.  Wanna good read?  Here's the FGW rules for release after trapped.

 

How to Release a Snared Bobcat

 

• Approach any trapped bobcat slowly to avoid causing them to move about excessively. Never attempt to render a bobcat unconscious with a blow to the nose or head or by any other means. Life threatening injury to the bobcat may result.

   

• A bobcat will allow the catchpole loop to be placed over its head, but it can be expected to react when the loop is tightened. Tighten the catchpole loop only sufficiently to hold the bobcat securely without preventing its ability to breathe. If a catchpole is not available, an alternative method to release bobcat is to cut a strong forked stick to allow the pinning of the bobcat's neck and shoulder to the ground while the snare is removed.

   

• It is important to keep the head of the bobcat pinned down to the ground. Quickly place a foot, with light pressure only, on the hindquarters to restrain the rear legs. Always be aware a bobcat may try to lash out at you with claws extended on any paw.

   

• Once the bobcat is immobilized, the canvas/carpet can be placed over the prone animal to quiet it as the cable restraint is cut off or removed quickly.

   

• The catchpole loop should only then be relaxed and removed to allow the animal freedom to escape. Important! - Special care should always be taken when releasing a bobcat. They are very capable of injuring the trapper with their teeth or claws.

I've seen one in my yard in cape may a few times. I very highly doubt that they would come near your small dog while you were anywhere in the vicinity. I would be more worried about feral dogs.

I wouldn't harm a Bobcat, I was talking about Coyotes.  The Bobcats are fine with me, specially as rare as they are.

Don't want to harm Bobcats either.  But just reading how to release a Bobcat from a snare trap I thought was hysterical.  Can you imagine the fury you are trying to deal with?

I can't imagine that cat would be happy to see you or all that cooperative

I set a no kill trap/cage I got a wild farm cat in it.

It went ape shit when it saw me , ramming its head into the cage so hard that its nose and mouth began to bleed, hissing and trying to bite me.

When I opened the cage door it came flying out and didn't touch ground for the first 20 feet , it was making all kinds of sounds going across the fields...... Not a happy kitty

So based on that I'd say Stay the hell away from a bobcat

Yeah when I was an apprentice we had cats around our building in the refinery. It was deemed job to get rid of them. They don't like being trapped

i've got a coyote parked right in my garage.

_{I've seen them all over CM County...Higbees, CM Point, , Lower Twp,  Tuckahoe,  plus Cumberland and Salem  they are definitely exploding.}

_{Trouble with policing your own land is if the municipality has a "no discharge" statute you can get in deep doo for killing a bad animal.} 

i've got a coyote parked right in my garage.

Nice!!! I've got a snake in mine!

I've seen them all over CM County...Higbees, CM Point...

Crap. I'll have to keep an eye out the next time that I go for veggies or pie at Rea's.

We have or had them in town and in the Ramapo mountains. They took a few dogs and even broke into a house. I used to hear them howling when sitting on my deck at night.

Then about a year ago they vanished no more howling.Or reports from my town or the surrounding area aboiut them. It's a pretty wealthy area up in the mountains and I always wondered if they pulled some strings or hired out to have the problem resolved?? But I've not herd of them in going on two years now. But I just saw a Bobcat last week and bear are common around here. Natures making a comeback as people around here longer then myself say ten or so years ago there were not even deer around this area.

I've been at this location 17 years and I can say for sure, I've never noticed the cotote's obvious presence before.  I'm sure they were around, but not in quantity and not making themselves known.

I first noticed coyotes in these mountains in the late 70's. Not as frequent as today but back then I always saw sign when I was in the woods. What was more common then were domesticated dogs running wild in packs. They were creepier. Often folks would dump their unwanted pets by the side of the roads up there and dogs would acclimate like the wild animal they are. The CO's would organize hunts every few years to cull them from the parks as they would get so bad. Back in the late 60's, this was a popular area too for "dog catchers" to go and snatch dogs which were then sold as lab animals.

I've been in NJ since the 70's.  It seems to me that the variety of wildlife in state has exploded in the last 20 yrs.  I don't recall seeing any wild turkey growing up despite living in an area with about 50% farming.  It seems that as the variety has exploded (deer, turkey, resident geese, etc) that the predators have equally exploded.  The ecosystem is remarkably resilient, and employs such checks and balances.  If for instance a great deal of the prey were to die off, the predators would react accordingly having less to eat.

 

That's my theory anyway.

NJ DFGW put programs in place in the 70's to increase and improve habitat to improve the health of game species. What you are seeing now is the fruits of their labor and your hunting dollars. It's driving the "tree huggers" crazy. They say we only do it to increase the ability to hunt something. DUH!!!!

NJ DFGW put programs in place in the 70's to increase and improve habitat to improve the health of game species. What you are seeing now is the fruits of their labor and your hunting dollars. It's driving the "tree huggers" crazy. They say we only do it to increase the ability to hunt something. DUH!!!!

The state needs to do more. Turkey and deer have become a fee-based product. Annual harvests of deer haven't changed much despite a smaller pool of hunters, although annual harvest numbers have been down for the last five years. Hunters just pay more to harvest them. Pheasant hunting is put and take. Quail are stocked as well and hunting is limited to two WMA tracts. There is little habitat left that would be considered carrying capacity to sustain them. Indigenous game like woodcock and grouse have a hard time staying local in forests that are all too mature. As for the tree-huggers, they balk each time talk comes up of foresting to create new growth. RGS has done volunteer work clear-cutting small lots of land in two areas of the state in an effort to create habitat, but it's not enough. The NJOA has a quail restoration initiative underway. We need more.

 

When there were no turkeys, the state bartered trapped NJ grouse for turkeys from Arkansas back in the 80's and stocked them. Then there were no grouse. (There were always a few turkeys in NJ up north along the Delaware, they would fly over from PA to the NJ side.) Unfortunately, the grouse have all but disappeared since the 90's, and their hunting season has been reduced for a number of years now.

We have or had them in town and in the Ramapo mountains. They took a few dogs and even broke into a house. I used to hear them howling when sitting on my deck at night.

Then about a year ago they vanished no more howling.Or reports from my town or the surrounding area aboiut them. It's a pretty wealthy area up in the mountains and I always wondered if they pulled some strings or hired out to have the problem resolved?? But I've not herd of them in going on two years now. But I just saw a Bobcat last week and bear are common around here. Natures making a comeback as people around here longer then myself say ten or so years ago there were not even deer around this area.

 

I saw a coyote the other day @ 6:00pm hiking from back beach to towards Wanaque ridge on the Indian Rock trail.  It was pretty big and walked past me about 20yds away.  It just looked at me and kept going.

Saw my first one on the Lawrence-Hopewell trail about 4:30 yesterday evening in Rosedale Park, Mercer County. ~50 lbs if I had to guess. I froze and reached for my Leatherman in my fishing vest. Like that would do any good...

I've been in NJ since the 70's.  It seems to me that the variety of wildlife in state has exploded in the last 20 yrs.  I don't recall seeing any wild turkey growing up despite living in an area with about 50% farming.  It seems that as the variety has exploded (deer, turkey, resident geese, etc) that the predators have equally exploded.  The ecosystem is remarkably resilient, and employs such checks and balances.  If for instance a great deal of the prey were to die off, the predators would react accordingly having less to eat.

 

That's my theory anyway.

 

We need to be able to hunt suburban Canada Geese. Remember, it's for the children.

 

A coyote ate a small dog right over the border in Rockland County, NY and I believe a small dog was mauled to death in Ringwood, NJ (Passaic County). One got whacked by a train maybe 2 years somewhere around the Valley Brook Rd rail crossing in what I believe is Lyndhurst. Perhaps they inhabit the swamp?

I have yotes in Mine Hill they are noisey when they get going at night. BTW coyotes generally are solitary meaning they dont run in packs. They may however compete for the same kill.

  From what i understand coyotes were all but gone from NJ ,then the state reintorduced them to keep deer populations down but forgot that yotes can have a couple litters of around 6 pups a year.

More of NJ fixing thngs