I'm in Maryland and for the years between 1975 and about 2000 I shot a lot of groundhogs. Now it is rare to even see one.
I hunt at least once a year in Wyoming and during the day there I would see at least a couple of coyotes. But back East it is rare to see them . They seem to have become mostly nocturnal.
About 5 years ago I was at a taxidermist's shop in Maryland right after hunting in Wyoming and I saw at the back of the shop what I thought was the body of someone's pet. When I mentioned that to the taxidermist he suggested I take a closer look. It was a female coyote that had been shot by a deer hunter. It was about 2 and half years old and weighed 53 pounds. The male coyotes in Wyoming average about 26-28 pounds and the females between 22 and 24 pounds. The dead coyote was the offspring of coyotes that had moved to the East via our Northern states and Southern Canada and had interbred with wolves. This was verified by DNA tests.
So now here in the East we have big coyotes who are mostly nocturnal. And here in Maryland we rarely see them during the day.
In addition to very few groundhogs here we also don't see many ground nesting birds. Pheasants are now almost non-existent.
I miss the pheasants and the groundhogs a lot and rarely even get to see a coyote.
Steve
