SportsmansLife.com » Varmints & Predators

Varmint & Predator Hunting

Sportman's Life Staff — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 23:13:45 +0000

Predator and varmint hunting is the practice of hunting smaller animals like coyote and fox, usually in the name of something other than food. Whether for sport or for protection of the land, many people engage in varmint and predator hunting. Find out more information on many of the commonly hunted varmints below.

Raccoon Habitat

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:04:17 +0000

Raccoons are extremely adaptable, being found in many kinds of habitats and easily living near humans. They require ready access to water. Raccoons prefer to live in moist woodland areas. However, they can also be found in farmlands, suburban, and urban areas. Raccoons prefer to build dens in trees, but may also use woodchuck burrows, caves, mines, deserted buildings, barns, garages, rain sewers, or houses. Raccoons can live in a wide variety of habitats from warm, tropical areas to cold grasslands.

Raccoon Diet

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:02:53 +0000

Raccoons are omnivorous and opportunistic. In some habitats plants provide a larger percentage of a raccoon’s diet than animals do. Plant foods vary from fruits to nuts, including wild grapes, cherries, apples, persimmons, berries, and acorns. Where available, raccoons may also eat peaches, plums, figs, citrus fruits, watermelons, beech nuts, and walnuts. In some areas, corn is the most important item in their diet. Raccoons consume more invertebrates than vertebrates.

Crayfish, insects, rodents, frogs, fish, and bird eggs are all possible components of a raccoon’s diet. Raccoons have adapted to include trash and other food available in suburban and urban areas in their diet. Some raccoons eat carrion from road killed animals. Raccoons travel in straight lines between their dens and rich food patches.

Alligator Habitat

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:42:27 +0000

American alligators are found in freshwater wetlands such as swamps, marshes, rivers, lakes, sloughs, and on certain occasion some smaller lakes. They greatly prefer calm water so they can swim and breath more efficiently. When the water is calm, an alligator can sit motionless at the top of the water only putting their nose out of the water. If the water were rough or moving, it would be more difficult to sit still and wait for prey. They can live in water with certain levels of salinity however they can only stay in those areas for a short period of time as they have difficulty expelling the excess salt.

American alligators will make dens and burrows in the mud. They use their head, tail, and feet to create a place they can find shelter and hibernate during cold months. In the event that their home body of water dries up, alligators will relocate either by swimming or walking to a new water source and even take up refuge in a backyard swimming pool.

Alligator Diet

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:40:48 +0000

Alligators are primarily carnivores in their diet eating lots of fish, aquatic reptiles, and other small aquatic mammals, however they’ve been to known to eat oddities such as soft drink cans. As young, they consume lot of insects, small crustaceans, and small fish.

Alligators do the majority of their hunting at night in and around the watery areas where they live. They will strike and hold their prey and try to swallow it whole as they do not have teeth to grind their food. They will sometimes take their prey under water, drown it, and then tear off pieces of their prey. They’ve also been known to hold food in their mouth to the point it begins to decay so they can swallow it. They have a unique opening in their throat which allows them to capture prey underwater and then expel the water.

Alligators do not hunt very well on land and will typically sit motionless at or near the water’s edge and wait for prey to come into range. This technique allos the alligator to grab the head of their prey and pull it into the water where it can then drow.

Crow Habitat

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:57:19 +0000

American crows prefer to live in more open regions that have trees for shelter growing nearby. Cultivated farms and wide open grassy areas are what most crows prefer because they can find and store food there. American crows show substantial numbers in urbanized areas as well showing great adaptability to new developments.

Crow Diet

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:54:58 +0000

Crows will eat both plant and animal matter, literally consuming almost anything. During their breeding season, they will eat lots of insects and bug larvae, fruit, nuts, seeds, grains, worms, and even pick the remains of dead animals. They actively hunt prey, such examples are frogs, rats, young rabbits, and mice though they are more likely to scavenge. They will oftentimes eat the eggs in a nest of another bird species as well, and even eat the refuse thrown away by humans.

American crows will actually store food away for future consumption. They prefer to use multiple locations to store their food rather than put it all in one location. They may use a nook in a tree, or a secluded place on the ground where they will cover their food to keep it from being found by another predator.

Crows are somewhat advanced in their feeding habits in that they will hold a nut and use their bill to crack it open. When confronted with a a thicker shelled food item, they will fly high up into the air, drop it, and follow it to the ground and eat it after it cracks open.

Fox Habitat

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:41:03 +0000

Red foxes live in a very wide array of habitats, ranging from forests, tundra, plains, prairies, deserts, mountains, farmlands, and even developed city areas. They prefer to live in areas where there is plenty of growth and cover for safety and hunting. They can be found anywhere from living at sea level all the way up to about a mile above sea level.

Fox Diet

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:37:12 +0000

Red foxes eat a mixture of small rodents and mammals with plant life, nuts, and seeds. The majority of their diet is rodents, rabbits, bugs, and fruit. Red foxes wills store food at times and are very good at remembering where they’ve stored their food. They have a unique tactic for hunting mice where the fox will trial the mouse, stand still, jump and stiffen its legs, and pounce on the mouse. This tactic is similar to what coyotes use.

Coyote Habitat

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:19:42 +0000

Coyotes live in every live zone available from the low lying valley floors of the Desert Southwest to the tops of mountains. They’re most common in wide open areas, prairies, and high mesas. It’s preferred region is wide open grasslands however it will move to any location where it can find food.

Some studies show that coyotes stay within a home territory of about 10 to 12 miles in their common desert and low foothills regions. In areas with steeper mountainous areas, it’s likely that they have separate summer and winter areas as the cold weather forces them to move for shelter and food.