Should Michigan’s year-round coyote hunt stop during the spring and early summer period when female coyotes nurse their pups? When killing male and female adult coyotes could at least potentially lead to dependent pups starving in their dens?
The Michigan Natural Resources Commission, a seven-member, governor-appointed body that sets hunting, fishing and game management policy in the state, in 2024 voted to halt coyote hunting during the pup-nursing period between April 15 and July 15. Hunting groups sued, arguing the commission was taking the action based on vague social pressure and politics, not sound science.
Now, an Ingham County Circuit Court judge has upheld the commission’s reduction of the hunt.
The Michigan United Conservation Clubs, which represents more than 40,000 hunters, anglers, trappers and conservationists and over 200 affiliated local clubs around the state, sued the state along with Michigan Trappers and Predator Callers, seeking to overturn the Natural Resources Commission’s Wildlife Conservation Order #1 of 2024 and reinstate the year-round coyote hunt.
Pups at issue
The hunting groups alleged the commission relied on unsubstantiated claims of negative public perception and potential loss of management control in reducing the hunt.
Cody Norton, a bear, furbearer and small game specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, during a presentation before the Natural Resources Commission before their vote, stated, “The department wants to ensure that coyote hunting remains as a management tool and a recreational opportunity in the future, and does have some concerns that the take of coyotes when they have dependent young could impact this.”
Norton also noted the change would make the coyote hunting season more consistent with hunting seasons for most other game species, which are generally not hunted during times when they have dependent young. And the change would not impact regulations surrounding coyote conflicts, which allow coyotes to be taken year-round on private property if they are causing damage to agriculture or livestock or other nuisances.
But Justin Tomei, the MUCC’s policy and government affairs manager, said research shows female coyotes rarely leave their dens while their pups are dependent upon her milk, and only spend a majority of their time away from the den when the pups are partially or completely weaned from their mother and could survive on their own.
Spring is an effective time to harvest coyotes, before crops impede views, Tomei added.
“From the perspective of MUCC, we thought the commission illegally closed the season, violated both their legal charge and their responsibility under Proposal G (passed by voters in 1996 and reaffirmed in 2014) which dictates that the commission needs to make their game management decisions based on the best available science,” said Tomei.
“The commissioners very clearly articulated their rationale, and it was more about, ‘If we don’t do this, there is some specter in the dark that may appear to take away this or other opportunities away from hunters and trappers across the state.’ At the time of the vote, it wasn’t about pup survival or any other biological factors. It was merely driven by a very tiny minority of hunters saying that we need to do this to look better in the public eye.”
Commission ‘fulfilled its duty’
Ingham County Circuit Judge Morgan E. Cole, however, disagreed in her June 3 ruling upholding the Natural Resources Commission’s action to reduce the coyote hunting period.
“Based on a complete and thorough review of the whole record, which is comprised of over 3,000 pages, it is abundantly clear the Commission fulfilled its duty under (state law) and used principles of sound scientific management to the greatest extent practicable in making its decision regarding the taking of coyotes,” Cole stated in her ruling.
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Animal advocacy groups hailed the ruling.
“We are grateful for the Ingham County Circuit Court’s ruling, which affirmed what we’ve already known: that the NRC’s May 2024 decision to limit coyote hunting season to nine months was based on rigorous scientific research, values and views shared by a majority of Michiganders, and just plain old common sense,” said Mitchell Nelson, Michigan Director for the nonprofit Humane Society of the United States.
Like wolves, coyotes suffer from a bad public perception, said Brooks Fahy, executive director of Predator Defense, a Eugene, Oregon-based nonprofit wildlife advocacy organization.
‘Creating more coyotes’
In areas where coyotes are heavily hunted, younger coyotes, who are better at breeding and tend to have larger litters, survive, Fahy said. And those younger coyotes tend to move into new areas.
“You’re talking about a species that has been so persecuted and so villainized, and for no good reason,” he said.
“Killing coyotes is one of the most futile endeavors imaginable. When you kill coyotes, you are just creating more coyotes.”
More: Bears are pushing farther south in Michigan. We have to learn to coexist, says DNR
More: Michigan hunting in major decline — why that matters
The MUCC is consulting with its legal team regarding potential next steps in the wake of the Ingham judge’s ruling, Tomei said.
“The coyote hunt is the vehicle we have to use now to defend Proposal G and the principles of sound scientific management,” he said.
“From our perspective, it’s bigger than three months of coyotes. What happens next when someone comes to the commission and says, ‘We don’t think you should be able to hunt bears with dogs?’ or, ‘We don’t think you should be able to bait bears?’ We don’t want the same extremely low standard of social pressures to dictate the manner of take of any species, whether it’s coyotes or deer, elk, squirrels, whatever it is.
“We want it to be based on what’s best for the resource and what’s best for the outdoor heritage.”
Contact Keith Matheny: kmatheny@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan court backs coyote hunting restrictions meant to protect nursing pups
Reporting by Keith Matheny, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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