jgconst contacted me on the THF and asked if I wanted to come down and hunt his lease near Spofford. I told him that if we could get access to all the ranch, I would make the trip. Long story short, Steve and I loaded up last Thursday afternoon and met John at the ranch about 6:00 PM. We drove over some of the ranch which looked pretty callable with quite a few openings. Dropping John back off at his camp, he asked me what I thought? I told him that the ranch looks good, but I didn't see but one pile of coyote scat after driving the roads for two hours.
Steve and I were on the ranch before daylight on Friday morning, welcomed by a slight sprinkle that only lasted a short while. Long story short, we called most of the day, taking a 4 hour break in the heat of the day and never saw one predator and only one coyote track while walking the roads. That evening we met up with John and the ranch manager when he told us that he had not seen a coyote or even heard one in months. They had moved goats on the ranch and were snaring the fences and running lots of guard dogs with the goats. They were also in the process of fencing the ranch into 500 acre pastures.
That afternoon, I found two coyote tracks and one bobcat track on the east side of the ranch in the mud at a stock tank. I told Steve our only chance to call up a predator on the ranch would be at that tank so we would be there at first light.
Twelve minutes into the call, I see a coyote standing broadside about 150 yards away in scattered short brush. About the time I get my rifle on him, he starts to move to the left so I turn the FREQ back on playing Money Bunny and he stops in some grass that conceals most of his body. I take the shot and the coyote lunges forward for a couple of jumps and then piles up.
Steve said, "Dang that coyote sure was cautious". My response was, "anytime the population of coyotes drop extremely low, Mother Nature steps in and causes the survivors to be extra cautious. Just her way of seeing the species survive".
A big thanks to John for inviting us down to his hunting lease.
Adios,
Gary

Read a story once about field mice, and it posited that any species has both cautious and ambitious animals, with both being necessary for the species' survival. The ambitious or brave animals move the herd and its territory forward but are most likely to perish. At the same time, the more cautious members of the species are responsible for reproducing and carrying on the species as a whole. Seems your supposition is correct, with the low numbers probably being constituted mainly by the more cautious members of the pack.

Interesting site.
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/spofford-texas/

I agree with you wholeheartedly. Murry Burnham is the first hunter who ever educated me on that subject and it makes perfect sense.
Adios,
Gary

Animals are not stupid. They hunt, eat, sleep and reproduce. They make mistakes and they learn. Sometimes I think their 'curiosity/playfulness' comes from boredom. Other times it's 'hey, maybe lunch over there?' or 'don't mess with mamas kids', or at times, a hot chick? So not a lot different than people. Keeping my son's border collies this week, one likes to mark a certain chair in the house. Put a basketball next to the chair, problem solved. He loves playing with a small ball, big one- nope. Why? Who cares, just a learned response.

Gary,

It was nice meeting you and your son Steve at the ranch. I would have thought you would have seen more varmints since I have them on camera. When coyotes took down an Axis doe and wounded her fawn I suspected the coyote population was fairly large. I did manage to snare one a few weeks ago.
I enjoyed touring the ranch with you and hearing your observations of the ranch. When you pointed out that you were not seeing sign or scat of the coyotes I realized you were right. I hadn't seen any either. Thanks for coming by and giving it a try.

I enjoyed the footage you have on Facebook Carnivore TV. The varmints really like your caller.

Verde

Thank you for having us down. It was really fun even though we did not find many predators. I learn something every time I go hunting. When you stop learning, it's time to quit. Finding the tracks around the stock tank was huge, just needed to get out of the truck and look for sign where it had to be.
Adios,
Gary

People often forget this, not understanding that some of them have been virtually unchanged for 10s of thousands of year. They are very good at being bobcats, coyotes, deer, opossums, etc. How they are is what has gotten them this far.