Martin High, a friend of mine, and a hardcore rabbit hunter was recently sharing his experiences from the past rabbit season.
High is also a professional forester with some serious training and experience in dealing with our natural resources. In other words, he's not just "a good old boy running off at the mouth."
High raised concerns about coyotes and their potential impact on rabbits in Southeast Tennessee.
High lives in an area where there have always been plenty of rabbits close to his house. But he doesn't hunt those rabbits. He simply likes to have them around for his dogs to run for exercise and training.
High told me, "about 4 years ago, we began getting a small pack of coyotes that comes into our neck of the woods around January. They come back the same time every year, and I've noticed that rabbit jumps do drop at that time, and have dropped overall over the last 4 years."
He goes on to say, "I've noticed in my 30 years of hunting rabbits is that now you find rabbits in the thickest cover you can find. We used to walk them up in the woods kicking tree tops and have good hunts, or in fescue/broom sedge fields left un-mowed over winter. But now they are in the thickest honeysuckle/briar patch you can find which I relate to predator pressure."
High's comments got me curious so I tracked down a pair of coyote experts. Cary Cook is the TWRA Regional Manager in West Tennessee. Cook has hunted and studied coyotes for 25 years.
He told me, "Cottontail rabbits are a major portion of coyote diets when available. It is reasonable to assume that increasing coyote populations would affect rabbit populations and behavior."
Cook adds that, "currently in western Tennessee we are experiencing a natural downward cycle of coyotes and a corresponding increase in rabbit numbers."
Cook also pointed me toward Dr. Mike Kennedy of the University of Memphis. TWRA has contracted with Dr. Kennedy to do research on coyotes, including stomach content analysis.
"As far as rabbits, the highest percentage (of consumption) is going to be in the winter," said Dr. Kennedy.
He says that 37% of coyote stomach contents revealed they had been eating rabbit. In the Spring that dropped to 22%.
Dr. Kennedy says that a favorite food for coyotes is persimmons, when they're available, of course.
Unfortunately Dr. Kennedy says that no one has ever done any research that correlates coyote populations directly to rabbit populations. He says however, "I don't know of any case where coyotes have caused a population crash (in rabbits)."
He says that more coyotes are a possible explanation for a decrease in rabbits, but "there are lots of other possible explanations as well. We saw many rabbit population fluctuations before coyotes arrived."
As to coyotes affecting rabbit behavior, he says perhaps in very localized situations, but he doesn't believe we're in any danger of coyotes creating a new breed of super-rabbits.