Quail and turkey have really been decimated locally over the past several years in direct proportion to the increase in Coyotes over the same time. Our state's Whitetailed deer herd has grown considerably from the early 1900's due to far better management and regulation.
In some areas it may seem that certain game animals and wildlife in general has decreased, when the fact is that's not entirely true. So much land today that is now privately owned and posted to outdoors activities holds much more wildlife than even several years ago when so much more land was open to the public. As land is posted and wildlife protected/limited from hunting and other harassment, the wildlife moves to those quieter, safer parcels of land so we see far fewer on open public lands. One trip to most any high dollar private hunting club will verify that, and especially so when that private club land actually borders a big parcel of public land.
I've hunted here locally for more than 65 yrs and seen much change. I've seen the times when almost every big parcel of land used for farming, ranching, and even citrus growing, was pretty much open to hunters. But then we hunters took care of that man's property by rehanging a fence wire if we found it down, not leaving gates and gaps open for his herds to mix, stomping on a farmer's crops, etc, etc. In fact over many years in the areas I hunted, I carried a small number of fence staples in my pocket and a pair of fence pliers just for those times I found a string of wire down. I always reported things back to the land owner that would be detrimental to them even if it meant going several miles out of my way or even cancelling my hunting trip for that day. In other words, back over the years people in general took as good care of a man's property and assets as he did.
Unfortunately today not so much. I've seen people deliberately drive a 4x4 truck through a man's wire fence rather than get out and open a gate/gap because there was a water puddle and muddy access in front of the gate. I've seen some of those same kinds drive trucks and/or ATV's directly across a planted field, and even seen where they have done donuts, etc, etc, etc in those fields. All of this kind of stuff is what causes more and more land to be posted and not accessible to the regular guy. And that same posting of large parcels of land is where the wildlife goes when pressured on public land. And lastly, the large number of people trying to utilize public lands often take a large number of game by legal means and as regulations allow. But the result is that the next guy usually won't see as much wildlife as the guy who got there last week.
So it's really a crap-shoot as to whether what we see as an increase or decrease in any particular wildlife is valid or not, especially when observing public lands. Those who live on or near certain areas and frequent those areas often usually have a little better grasp on the habitat and the wildlife it will/does sustain better than those who travel long distances for a one weekend or week long hunt. I've been fortunate to have seen it from both sides and will honestly say I think most wildlife has benefited, whether in numbers or in general herd health due to far better wildlife regulation and controls.
Just this one man's POV y'all! Something to ponder.
