This is all speculative, but I had an idea I thought I would bring to the forum to see what y'all thought.

Could coyotes help keep deer honest? Coyotes hunt during the night. Could this deter deer from feeding as much during the night? If it was dark and I was a deer that knew there were healthy populations of coyotes around, I would spend a little more time watching my butt than I would foraging for food.

This would apply differently to different types of deer (doe with fawns as apposed to mature buck), but do you guys think it could affect their habits?

Something to think about...

Do not see that on my place. We are overrun by coyotes but the majority of my protein feeder pictures are night shots.

Doesn't matter.....they are plenty alert while feeding anyway.

Only thing not keeping your coyotes in check will do is get you less deer

This is something I am trying to figure out right now.
This is the 3rd year on a lease in Foard Co that only myself, my wife and a friend hunt.
1st year a lot of deer.
2nd year I was dealing with some health issue that kept me from hunting, so don't know what it was like.
This year not seeing a lot of deer and have noticed a huge increase in coyotes and an enormous increase in pigs. My buddy thinks it's the pigs, but I am leaning more towards the coyotes keeping the deer away.

I have been on a lease in Red River Countyand this is the worse year for coyotes.
Didn't see much in deer but lots of coyotes. Dropped two this weekend.
Last year was too many hogs.

Coyotes change their habits depending on the area and food availability....this is why they are such a good predators. Just try to get them thinned out before fawning begins...and your deer population should do o.k. As far as deer eating at night and worrying about yotes...I haven't caught them both on camera at the same time...ever.

I've been hunting 2k acres in Foard for 17 years and yes yotes and hogs do effect the hunting but the drought and the amount of new hunters is the big difference.

On a brighter note this is the best fawn crop in years

I am on the other side of the fence. I think coyotes have a lot less of an impact on deer herds than popular belief. It doesn't make sense for such an efficient predator to chase a deer half way across the county for a meal. In the area I hunt, there is a lot of rabbits, small game, and roadkill all over the highways. It just doesn't make sense that coyotes would choose something as weary and able as a deer when they have other options that will consume much less energy.

Also, coyotes keep the rabbit populations down which saves a lot of our wheat and forage for our deer. I think conservative populations of coyotes have benefits for deer herds that may not be very apparent. Hence the topic...

Shoot em!

Absolutely. After reviewing trail cams and hunting the place for a week, I feel like Kevin Sumlin. I have a ton of freshman with a lot of potential and a lot of seniors I can't wait to get rid of. Gig em.

If you like to shoot yotes, doing it for the sake of protecting your deer herd is a convenient excuse. Truth is coyotes hunt smaller prey the vast majority of the time. Hell I filmed a coyote eating corn off a road less than 10 yards from a group of does and fawns a few weeks ago.

See a yote, shoot a yote!

Only good yote is a dead yote. Coyotes will decimate a fawn crop if not kept in check, and when the last two years of drought has the fawns scarce anyway, throw the yotes in and you have a very small percentage of fawns that survive. 2016, 17, etc... will be terrible years for deer hunting on many free ranging places in Texas because of the drought of 2011 & 2012 (13 only marginally better) and coyotes. We had less than 5% survival rate on fawns in 2011 and 12, and a lot of that was coyotes.

When I say I'm deer hunting, I'm mostly really coyote and pig hunting. I let most all deer pass by unharmed, but no coyote or pig gets a free pass. For a while I was really stacking up the varmints, but I guess the word got out among the survivors to stay away from that crazy guy's place. I can't find a pig or yote, though I try.

I've been coyote hunting for years now, and the deer herd is larger than it's ever been. I think that's connected, but I can't prove it. I have shot a lot of coyotes (one weighed a full 50 pounds).

x 2 here

I happen to believe that coyotes messing with grown deer is a rarity. But, fawns are that easy prey that you speak of. They can decimate a fawn crop if left unchecked.

Apparently my deer don't care

I like shooting all of em

A single coyote will not try to take a deer down alone but a pack of coyotes will. Hogs will kill fawns also. We had a cow die during birth of a calf and put a game cam on the tree next to the deceased cow and a herd of hogs well I will just say I couldn't believe it how vicious they were. There was nothing left but the hoofs. I have noticed over the years of hunting when the grass and weeds are tall you have a better fawn crop due to the better cover for the fawns also turkeys. When the grass and weeds are short from lack of rain the fawn and turkey crop is low well at least on our hunting property. Short grass no cover from coyotes. This weekend I had three doe eating corn and I could hear coyotes howling in the distance and the does didn't care and then a coyotes responded with a howl real close and the does didn't think twice and they booked it and didn't see them again. Just my opinion.

I agree with this. It's all about balance. I have to think of things from so many different angles to manage our farming and ranching, as well as our white-tail herd, that I try to keep an open mind about things. All my buddies shoot every coyote they see on sight - no question about it. I tend to take a step a back and think about how these decisions will impact every aspect of my ranch. It's been nice not seeing hundreds of rabbits munching on my wheat all year, but I'm starting to see the coyote population coming up a bit so I'm already planning some predator hunts for this spring.