# Are the groundhogs disappearing in your area?



## Bowhunter57 (Feb 9, 2011)

I've not seen any physical evidence (a coyote with a g-hog in its' mouth), but there's more than one hunter in this area of the state that agrees the groundhog population is dwindling. I used to cover several miles with my vehicle, going from farm to farm shooting groundhogs. I've not seen more than a half dozen while driving around all the areas that I used to hunt.

I made a trip to Maine, several years ago and talked with some of the local hunters there and they said that they have to be carefull to not shoot too many groundhogs. I asked if there was a such thing as shooting too many groundhogs. They told me that if they shoot too many the coyotes would move in and wipe out the remaining population.

This seems to be the trend in this area. 

Do you see the groundhog population in your area becoming less and less?
If so, do you think that the coyotes are the reason?

Your thoughts and opinions are appreciated.
Thank you, Bowhunter57


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## bkr43050 (Apr 5, 2004)

We have plenty of yotes in our area and we also have plenty of groundhogs. You would have a hard time convincing me that you could wipe out the hog population. I don't hunt them as much anymore myself but my boys show about 40-50 on our 35 acres of crops fields last year. They were just saying the other day that there are a TON of hogs already showing up in the fields.


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

Sure isn&#8217;t a lack of either of them here.


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## T-180 (Oct 18, 2005)

There hasn't been many in my area for at least 5 years, which also seems to correspond to the yote population growth spurt. Coyotes hurt the hog poulation for sure, but I don't hear any farmers complaining about that.


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## Bowhunter57 (Feb 9, 2011)

T-180 said:


> Coyotes hurt the hog poulation for sure, but I don't hear any farmers complaining about that.


T-180,
I've had farmers in my area, stop complaining about the g-hog losses, but have picked up on complaining about their cat losses around their out buildings and barns. A farm cat makes an excellent snack for a coyote. It'll just stand there, hiss, snarl and the coyote will clap a mouth full of razors on it and shake until it's tenderized enough to start snacking.

It doesn't hurt my feelings to see the cats get eaten, but the farmers certainly need them to keep the mice/rat population down around their buildings and livestock.

Bowhunter57


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## Smallmouth Crazy (Apr 4, 2006)

There was a noticable drop in hogs around the area I hunted years ago. Around my house is a bit of a different story they are around here..but its needless to say no hunting.


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## T-180 (Oct 18, 2005)

I agree with you bowhunter, I meant that no farmer is complaining about the loss of groundhogs. The cats have taken a hit & I personally am glad for the yotes thinning the over population. I have had farmers complain about the coyotes getting up around their barns & spooking the animals & have done a couple jobs removing them.


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## CRAPPIECOMMANDER (Feb 25, 2006)

I can assure you this will and is happening in some areas. I hunted Coyote's in a rural part of Indiana close to Indianapolis that had an exploding population of Coyote's do to all the large scale dairy and pork operations. The Coyotes had almost completly wiped out the hogs in a matter of a few years there. Every abandoned barn was full of old hog holes but I never laid eyes on a single hog the entire week I was there. All the old timers told me how many groundhogs there were years before and how fast they had disappeared when the Coyote's showed up. Now granted it was the perfect landscape for the Coyote's to hunt them with VERY little cover, no fence rows and perfectly flat ground. If a poor old hog got very far from his hole and a Coyote saw him he didn't have a chance. It made for some interesting hunting (trying to hide) and I saw some crazy stuff. Saw a Coyote running out of a barn with a mouth full of afterbirth in the middle of the day, saw Coyote's bedded down in mowed water ways because there was no other cover. Pretty cool experience over all.


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## crappiewacka (Apr 7, 2009)

Also, take in consideration, the amount of raptors in the area. My son is doing a study at WVU about the impact on muskrat decline with raptors as focal point.


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## Saugernut (Apr 22, 2013)

I haven't seen any hogs for a long time now. I used to love to hunt them, still have the rifles but no opportunities.


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## pkent (Oct 31, 2011)

started with the grouse,I found them dead on top of the snow pack back in the 80's.Then the rabbit count went way down, groundhogs next.the raccoon are way down also.last summer I went to my buddies pond to fish.5 rotting dear by the water,1 dead goose and on the way out found 1 dead turkey .the coyote's are killing the wild life for sure,but I think there is something else going on here.I have seen the deer numbers go down alot in the last 6 years also. I hope we find something out soon,the game is running out. this is just me talking about what I see in my area.


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## half pole (Feb 10, 2014)

My opinion is there is way to many yotes around. About time there was a bounty put on them.


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## T-180 (Oct 18, 2005)

pkent, what area are you in ?? The **** population is very high over most of Ohio & there appears to be no shortage of rabbits. We took 25 **** out of a 8 acre woods last year & still took another dozen or so from the same one this year. Everywhere we go, there is plenty of **** sign. We saw many rabbits this year when running the Brittany for birds & saw tons of them when helping combine the crops the last couple years. The mild winters & early springs have helped that. 
The yotes have a big impact on the fawn, g-hogs, pheasants, etc. but it sounds like something is poisoning things in your area.


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