So, what I heard was they referenced a study that showed human feeding of coyotes increased the population and the alluded to it being more continuous or possibly year round. That nasty word - anecdotal observation in my area - very few people feed year corn round. None of my 15 adjacent landowners feed year round. A few of them not at all - half about two months - and me about 6 months. There are 100’s of thousands of acres in this state where supplemental feeding is not even allowed - as in all federal and state owned lands. At least in the podcasts I listened to, they talked about feeding of corn and how it might affect coon abundance - but did not provide supporting documentation specifically related to coons. My personal opinion is, it probably would - especially if provided year round - not quite so sure if only provided two or three months - but I have no evidence to support that.
Their reference to trapping and the quickness with which coon populations recover is similar to what I see. That is why I do my trapping Mar-June. I usually see considerable repopulation within four months of my stopping trapping. I have not seen that the last 18 months - I would guess that is more related to something outside my control - maybe distemper or parvo - but I would guess my coon population the last two years is 25% of previous years. During that same period, my feral hog population is 10% of what it was two years ago.
There are so many variables. And while controlled research is often considered more true to form and more factual - it is somewhat anecdotal also, because it is generally site specific and likely not representative of the entire range of a particular species. As an example - these guys question the effects of supplemental feeding turkeys. Tall Timbers Plantation has found great value in supplemental feeding of quail - well, that is quail and not turkeys. About five years ago, I had two adult hen turkeys and eleven poults show up about the first of august. I mowed a five acre food plot and me and my wife fed them a mixture of bird seed and milo - for two months - until they finally left the end of September. We spread the seed randomly around the cleared field. Not a bird was lost in that two months. That is phenomenal in my opinion. I am not sure eleven poults living together have all survived two months - anywhere.
And yes, that is definitely anecdotal evidence - but it matches success seen with supplemental feeding of quail in northern Florida. I dont relate that experience to support supplemental feeding of turkeys - but mention it because, even though I saw success and so did Tall Timbers - I think it is a long ways from proving successful across the whole of turkey range. I think a lot of things are probably consistent across the whole range - but I think several studies would need to prove that.
