[renegade]

mountaineer made the false statement that they were re-introducing wolves into PA and you said "good point".

you said "When I was a kid seeing or even hearing of a coyote sighting was unheard of and they say bounties didn't work, who is kidding who here?"

I said "The coyote population wasn't that big back when you were a kid."

Then you said "if the coyote population was so bad at one time that the PGC thought it needed a bounty on coyotes, then it must of worked because coyotes were unheard of when I was a kid. What was the point of having a bounty if the population wasn't that bad?"

Then I said "Coyotes were never an issue back then because they weren't in any large numbers. There was never a bounty on coyotes. They didn't start showing up until the 1930's and have slowly increased since."
Make sense now? We were talking about the time frame of when you were a kid. There were even less coyotes before you were a kid.

My comment about the bounties was to bounties in general. Most bounties were on birds and foxes but they realized they weren't being effective and in some instances having the opposite effect, and they ended all bounties in 1965. There was never a bounty on coyotes because they were never a problem due to their low population. You really should get that book I mentioned before on the history(100 years) of conservation in PA. I detect a bit of a history buff in you and I think you would find the book a very interesting look at wildlife management of yesteryear.

I said "research" started in the 80's, not the discovery of coyotes. Just because there was no research doesn't mean they weren't keeping track of the animal in logs or journals. In 1930's they trapped a few and discovered they were a breed of coy-dogs. Then 4 years later they trapped one in Elk county that was a full fledged eastern coyote. So yes they had kept track of them on paper.

The last wolf was killed I believe it said in 1890 and the last panther in 1903. I don't have the book with me. I hear a mountain lion / cougar / puma was spotted recently over in state college climbing a boulder on campus, and someone swears they got pics of it!

[renegade]

"I know exactly what Mountaineer said and it was nothing about the re-introduction of wolves into PA.

[quote="Mountaineer"]Re-introduction of the once endangered Wolf is a sure sign bounties worked at some point time. [sad3][/quote]

I was assuming and Mountaineer can correct me if I'm wrong, that he was talking about the re-introduction of wolves in the western states, in places like Yellow Stone National Park."

So do you know or were you assuming? Since we were talking about coyotes in Pa and bounties in Pa., I had know reason to jump to the assumption he meant out west. But neither here nor there it's irrelevant....
Yes there was a bounty on wolves from the 1600's thru the 1800's and it worked. Different era. I'm not saying a bounty wouldn't work to lower the population, the PGC reached that conclusion before. I'm saying it isn't practicle in today's day and age, both financially and socially. Someone has to pay for it and I don't think it would fly with the sportsmen or politicians. The PGC is in financial trouble now. They aren't going to dish out revenue unless an equal stream of revenue is coming in.
Now if they did something like added $1 to the license (approx. $850k) and gave a bounty of $20/coyote but limited it to 42,500 bounties (850k/20=42,500), that might have a chance. But that increase won't happen without the additional needed increase right along with it. And then theres still the social aspect with the animal rights lobby that would have to be overcome.

The wild pigs issue will have a different twist because it will effect many more people and livelihoods, whereas coyotes are helping with what many people want, a smaller deer population. And the pig issue is already being dealt with (I don't necessarily mean successfully) because of it's damage potential. But if you think about it, it's similar to the deer / habiatat issue, but on a whole other level.