Coyote story

They've gotten up to 100 pounds now? Jesus, biggest I've heard of...
I had a chance a month ago at one at 11 yards in Westchester, NY, pretty much someone's backyard, dunno how it saw me, I was about 30 feet up, it came from behind, and as I turned my back to it to get my bow it musta seen me move & just BOLTED...if gun was permitted in that area I'd of had a reallly good chance; it stopped about 50 yards away.
 
Their Environment

Here along our river trails coyotes are not generally aggessive, but they are also not overly afraid. I have seen them out in broad day light sunning themselves on a levee. People are jogging and bike riding by a hundred feet away on the paved trail.

There is a place up north of here were I have gone pheasant hunting several times. It is not unusual to kick a coyote out of hiding. They always take off at full speed towards the opposite end of the field. They have been shot and even pepperd with birdshot. They know that the humans there are armed.

The river trails forbid hunting and any hunting weapons. Those coyotes are not worried about humans.

I think that most wild animals learn quickly when to avoid us and when to not worry about us.
 
My sister in law lives in Sun City AZ and has been surrounded by coyotes when she was out walking her little dog. She had to pick up the dog and try to chase them off. A neighbor finally chased them off and she took refuge on his front porch. Seems they don't have much fear of humans because nobody shoots at them there.

My sister in law has started carrying pepper spray, at least.
 
The Real Danger

Our stupid state has banned mountain lion hunting for the last ten or fiftenn years. Once in awile you here of stories of these cats with little fear of humans.

Last year a guy was up in our foothills cutting logs with a chain saw. He put the saw down to take a break. A cougar was standing in the grass less than one hundred yards from him. Apparently a chain saw does not disturb them much.

The guy kept a shotgun in his truck. He grabbed it, loaded it, and racked a round into the chamber. He was getting ready to defend himself. The cat then turned around and walked away into the forest at slow pace.

Bold coyotes are bad enough. Here in California we have bold mountain lions.
 
We have plenty around us in the Adirondacks. I've been sitting on watch listening to them howl at times it sounds eerie with them howling on either side of me. I'll take a shot at them any chance I get. Tagging one of them can sometimes seem more satisfying then getting a deer only because their detrimental effect on the deer numbers
 
While working out in the woods in southwest WA., a guy had a cougar circle, follow and stalk him as he made his way back to a road for safety. I ran to the area and missed a running shot.
I have heard that if you see a cat...shoot it.
The ones that won't bother you will not let themselves be seen.
 
Anyone who has read my previous posts about carrying while walking at night already knows what is comming, but I cant resist...

I live in a small village (I guess that's what you would call this place) in Maine. My house is pretty much in the center of an area with about 10 houses around it... fields on all sides. We have a pack of coyotes that roam around here. Someteimes you hear them on the hill behind my house, in the distance. Sometimes you can see them roaming around the field acrossed the road... but they are ALWAYS there. I dont know the exact size of the pack, but I counted 23 of them one night when the pack was passing through my back yard. I grew up in VT, and that state is overrun by coyotes, so the site of a pack in my back yard is nothing new... but I have never in my life seen one this large. I have yet to hear any stories from the neighbors about them, but they act more like the neighborhood dogs than they do coyotes. When they were playing bingo at the church one night, I was standing in my driveway watching what looked like 3-4 dogs running around the cars playing... Until I saw about 15 of them cross the road onto my lawn. Needless to say, I didnt stay outside long. They definitly dont act as aggressive as the coyotes in VT, which is a good thing. (people from VT know what I mean by this.)
 
Chased? Me oh my! Mine are trained to know better than that. They'll sometimes stop and look back over their shoulder at me, but with great suspicion.

Fully justified suspicion.

Art
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Yup. They'd do better not to take that last look at you, from what I've seen, though:
 

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Hundred pound coyotes??!!?!!

My experience with actually handling coyotes is limited, but I've seen a lot of 'em in the wild. I'm not sure I ever seen a FIFTY pound 'yote, either alive or dead. I'd have to guess the average across Texas is 40 pounds or under.

Art, how much would you say that animal in the photo above weighed?
And Long Path, didn't you recently post a picture of you holding a fresh killed yodel dog? It looked like it had been really healthy, a few minutes previously.

There were recently a couple of news stories on from one of the FtWorth/Dallas area TV channels about "mega coyotes." They hang out in the larger suburbs, raiding garbage and eating pet food -- and pets. They are said to be half again the size of a large coyote, 60 pounds or more. Not surprisingly, the weight estimates are exactly that - - Entirely anecdotal and reported by city folks. And, I must admit, a suburbanite seeing a bushy-haired, well fed coyote prowling through the alleyways of Plano or North Dallas could be a bit, uh, disconcerted.

Don't get me wrong - - I wouldn't want to be set upon by any number of 30 or 40 pound coyotes, in good shape but hungry, and totally unafraid of man.

Various sites with coyote information, including range of size/weight - -
http://www.desertusa.com/june96/du_cycot.html

http://www.bright.net/~swopejak/coyote.htm

http://www.fishbc.com/adventure/wilderness/animals/coyote.htm

http://www.canismajor.com/dog/coyote.html

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/mammals/dog/Coyoteprintout.shtml

http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Canis_latrans.html

Best,
Johnny
 
Behavior Change

Some time back I caught a show about the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone.

Prior to their introduction, coyotes in that area had become pack hunters. Acting more like wolves. When the wolves were back, they went back to being solitary scavangers.

The wolves are also reducing the number of coyotes. There was a wolf pack on the show with a female member that detested coyotes. She went out of her way to attack and kill them. The other wolves would sort of ignore a coyote hanging around after a kill. But she bee-lined after them. Then other pack members would help her dispatch the coyote. It was a quick battle.

Maybe other parts of the country with coyote population problems should have wolves reintroduced.:eek:
 
Yeah, I put a 225g .35 Whelen bullet into the back of this 'yote at about 35 yards this May while hog hunting in the Panhandle. I'll eat him raw right now if that 'yote made 40 lbs. (And I'm hedging, because I know he was likely less than 30 lbs.)

But Rich, you were there! Who'm I convincing?!? :)

Whoops. Image is sideways. Well, you can still see how small he was, even given that I'm kind of a huge guy holding it.
 

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Okay, I can't stand posting a bad pic. Here, this looks a little better. Please note, by the way, that I did the exact opposite of the "cheater's trick" of foreshortening by getting behind the animal to make it look bigger. My right hand is actually about 4 feet closer to the camera than the coyote in this pic:

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Johnny, I'd guess--in restrospective memory--that the yodeler weighed maybe 35 pounds at most. It's pretty much the common size of the coyotes around here. In areas of more game, they're known to be more in the 40-pound class. I'd be dubious about claims of much more than that, absent some weighing on scales.

That particular shot was a bit low in the chest; maybe 40 yards, with a 165-grain Federal HooWah load from my '06. It left most of the lower chest and some lung/heart on the ground. Still, the dog spun in a circle three times and then ran some forty feet.

Ya never know...

Art
 
About three years ago, the farmers who live around me were talking about an extra large, extra bold coyote they had seen around. It would be standing right next to a busy road during the day. They said it was the size of a German Shepherd.

Well, about a week after that, it did me the favor of standing broadside at 300 yards in the neighbor's pasture. I missed the shot and it took off and I dropped her on the run with the second shot. :cool:

Turns out it was a female, larger than most males. Still, I don't think she went over 40 lbs.
 
An aggresive coyote needs to be removed from the gene pool. You all have something to look forward to as the timber wolf is allowed to expand to its former range. The Michigan DNR has determined that the wolf has probably exceeded its social carrying capacity in the U.P. In other words people are sick of them and capping them if given a chance.:rolleyes:
 
One of the thing to keep in mind about coyotes is that they will mate with feral dogs this may explain why in some areas you get some real monsters. I've shot some obvious crossbreeds (one of which appeared to be a Coyote/Rottweiler cross) in eastern Colorado that were far larger than the normal coyote, weighing in the 50-60 lb range. Feral dogs are almost worse than coyotes though, especially large breeds.
 
Comparison

Last night I caught a couple of miutes of a nature show. It was about wild dogs: coyotes, wolves, and so forth.

The part I was watching showed the interaction between the wolves and coyotes in the Yellowtone area. The wolves dwarfed the coyotes. It was like seeing a Brittany next to a large lab.

A couple of years ago, while walking along our river's trails, I ran into a guy walking an interesting looking dog. It looked like a coyote. He agreed with that observation. In fact, he found it as a skinny stray on that trail area. He approached it and it showed no aggression at all. He took it home and made a pet out of it.

This dog had a strange behavior. He was very timid of other humans. When approached, he would duck behind his owner's legs. He was very friendly towards other dogs.

I still think that it was some kind of dog-coyote cross breed.
 
I don't know how you people go hiking in places with things like mountain lions and after having coyotes encircle you without a firearm because its not allowed there. I'd either never go back or say to heck with that rule. I saw a very ferocious (and by ferocious, i mean irresistably cute) fox on a hilltop once here in a city of about a million. I hate racoons though, i've had them actually come up and take food off my lap at state parks when my mind wanders at night around the fire with friends.
 
Wuz out while ago to sorta give a "Merry Christmas!" smile at the world at large, just after sundown. Clear, no wind. Really nice evening. Some three or four coyotes were yodeling down by the creek, driving a buddy's dog nuts.

Neat to hear the sundown serenade. :)

Art
 
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