The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources – or UDWR – quietly approved an increase in the coyote bounty in January 2025.
Coyotes killed in designated mule deer habitat areas are eligible for a $100 reward. Coyotes killed elsewhere are eligible for a $50 prize.
The goal is to reduce coyote predation on mule deer fawns, another attempts the state is taking to bolster mule deer numbers through predator control efforts.
But how effective is predator control for increasing mule deer numbers?
Julie Young is a Utah State University professor and director of the Berryman Institute for Wildlife Damage Management.
“In Utah, coyotes play an important role,” she said, “in that they primarily eat lagomorphs and small mammals.”
Lagomorphs are animals like rabbits and hares.
Young said that these small mammals can outcompete cattle and sheep populations if their numbers aren’t regulated. Additionally, they can be vectors for spreading disease.
“They also do the same thing with our other mesopredators,” she explained. “So red foxes, gray foxes, bobcats. It's not that they're going to kill them all, but they're going to keep their numbers in check.”
Young said there have been studies in Utah and the surrounding states that examines the efficacy of coyote removal on mule deer populations.
“We participated in a study in collaboration with UDWR on the Monroe Mountain Range,” she said. “And found that through the removal of coyotes, that there was no increase in fawn survival, except for in one small area. It represented about 10% of the Monroe Mountain Range.”
Young mentioned an additional similar study in nearby southern Idaho.
“The impacts of coyotes in mountain lions were mainly compensatory and not additive,” she said.
Compensatory mortality describes when an animal is predated upon but would have later died from other natural causes.
“Disease, bad winters, droughts, and fires," Young explained.
In a rapidly changing climate, water availability and access to sustained food resources like grasses and shrubs play an outsized role in mule deer herd health.
The division says it will evaluate the bounty program by tracking coyote removals and doe-to-fawn ratios in mule deer herds statewide.
The bill to increase the coyote bounty in Utah was sponsored by Sen. Calvin Musselman. He did not respond to UPR’s request for an interview.
