doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Report from the North Country

The reports of a few widely scattered coyotes in Penn. in the 1930's have been pretty much discredited as a source of any established breeding population. That's why I didn't even bother mentioning them. It appears likely they were introduced either intentionally or accidentally, but never actually took root and spread. Even a few pairs in close proximity would be unlikely to provide a healthy and genetically diverse enough population to successfully spread. The early 1960's in northeast Penna. seems to be the most credible and likely beginning of a successful breeding population.

In the mid- 1990's, the PGC attempted stocking many thousands of Sichuan Pheasants in an attempt to establish a replacement for Ringneck Pheasants. The stocking consisted of a ratio of 2 females to one male at 45 birds per square mile. Many were sighted during those years, but nobody would suggest that experiment was the beginning of a new species in Penna. I have not heard of any sightings for many years. Sustained efforts by PGC biologists and sportsmen to protect them and get them established failed miserably, in spite of the notion that Sichauns were even better suited to our habitat than Ringnecks.

There are many reports of PGC personell releasing coyotes into remote areas of Penna. during the 1990's. Supposedly, this clandestine predator introduction was in response to complaints by farmers and the Auto Insurance companies over crop and vehicle damage. But that's another story.