Power went out and Coyotes on the prowl.....

Coyotes prey on lambs, kids, fawns--so a small child would be a logical target. I've yet to read or hear of any attack on an adult human, even by a group of coyotes.
 
In most rural locals coyotes have had enough contact with humans to know their stink and associate that stink with death. I'm not cavalier enough to say a child is immune to attack, but I don't imagine many human kids of prey size are unattended in the wild. I've seen your beautiful spread in one picture you posted Art. Your area might just qualify as the last bastion of coyotes who have been able to avoid enough contact to inspire deathly fear; then again I don't doubt you have had a few in your crosshairs. I don't think I have underestimated them as only a nuisance that affect me only by sharing the common food supply.
 
One time I was at a friend's house, I still don't know how he saw that 'yote out the window but he spied it a good 400 yards from the house. He took out his .22-250 with a jumbo scope. Well that coyote saw him with it, from that far. It took off, looking back every so often. Lost shot, so my buddy handed me the rifle and I got a quick glimpse. Sure enough it was a coyote.

Seems they know the shape of a gun from a long ways away. Like crows, only better.


edit.....
I forgot, you were talking about the dark. Well I'd wager they know they are safer when the houses go dark. They get shot at in the daytime and they get shot at when there's bright lights on them. They know where they don't get shot at much, which is, when it's dark and real close to houses.
 
Golden Retrievers have attacked way more kids than coyotes. Here in Maine the wolves and cougars are gone, we paved the way for coyotes. I hear them all the time, they're tracks run through the snow on my property. But I keep my cats inside and my dogs are only outside when they're with me.

If I had livestock to protect I'd shoot coyotes, and I've got nothing against those who shoot them for sport. But I admire coyotes, and I sure don't mind sharing my land with them.
 
I was out in the desert with a buddy of mine Thursday night watching the Geminids meteor shower. We were standing there having some coffee and listening to music and looking at the sky when I noticed a large dark form about 15 ft away from my friend. I nudged him and motioned towards the yote and he got all scared. I clapped my hands once and it boonied off, but my buddy was really skiddish after that. He got his 1911 out of the truck and kept looking behind him every now and then. I waited about an hour until he seemed a little more relaxed and while he was telling a story about some girl I snapped my attention to a spot behind him and pointed and yelled "JON LOOK OUT!"

hahahahah, he just about jumped out of his skin!
 
I waited about an hour until he seemed a little more relaxed and while he was telling a story about some girl I snapped my attention to a spot behind him and pointed and yelled "JON LOOK OUT!"
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I take it he had put away his 1911 by then :D
 
In the back country some fifteen mile northwest of my house, the coyotes don't really know what people are. Not many people go back there, even during hunting season. I've called coyotes up to the truck in mid-afternoon, and they often just run around the truck looking for the magic rabbit.

I watched a coyote slink through the yard one day, stalking toward the clock feeder. A dozen or so blue quail and some doves were at the feeder. The doves flew; the quail backed off and watched. Ol' Wily stopped some fifteen feet from the quail. A bit of stare-down, and the quail spread into a semi-circle and started walking toward the coyote. I could tell from the way their heads bobbed that they were doing the "Cheep-jonk" call. Wily just watched for a moment, seemed to shrug, and walked off down the driveway past the garage.
 
Coyotes don't bother me much, but I've stuck a few bullets in them because they will do a number in large packs to baby calves. What do scare the begizies out of me are packs of Javelina, aka Collared Peckary. These guys are often called "hogs" but are not. They get up to about 60lbs live weight, look like a hog, but aren't, and have teeth that will rip you to shreads. Their eyesight sucks, but accidentally walk into a pack while bird hunting, and you'll have some torn up dogs, or torn up you. My dog last year got out the back fence. I heard her yelping, and she was being chased by 6 of em. Couldn't find my shotgun shells so I ran out w/ a bow and arrow...Stuck 3 of them in the gut, before getting them off my dog. 2 weeks later, 150 stitches, and $900.00, my dog was better. Had I not lived so close to the vet, she would have blead out. She was ripped open from her anus to her vagina. Her right leg had a 6" gash. I told the neighbors who's kids had been chased, and called the city. They didn't do anything, so I baited them and took a bunch (10) out one by one, w/ my bow and a spotlight. Killed two w/ one shot w/ an arrow. My wife was my wittness.
 
Last weekend a hunting buddy shot a doe and it fell dead into a creek on a small mass of land. He hiked back to the barn to get his truck and spent less than an hour away from the deer. By the time he returned the biggest part of a back leg was chewed off. It had chewed up bone and all. The doe had other chewed on body parts as well. He must have scared them off with his truck. He did not see a one. I saw the deer and I can tell you that the coyotes meant business.
 
I was just getting ready to post a question about electronic predator calls when I saw this original post. Funny that you mention coyotes and lights going out. I have a story which is almost identical, but it resulted in my dog being ripped up and me shelling out $900 to keep her alive.

A little over a year ago, we had a power outage right at dusk. My wife was in cooking dinner (gas stove) and the boys were sitting at the table playing some electronic devices of some sort. I decided to let the dog (a 18 pound rat terrier) out to run before dinner. She does not go far, but she likes to get out of the kennel after her dinner and get a good sniff in if you follow what I am saying.

Right about the time dinner was almost ready, I heard her bark rapidly right by the back slider door. I heard the barking accelerate away from the house and I could tell she was in hot pursuit. Thinking she would keep running, as she does when chasing varmints or cats, I went out the front door to call her home. I had grabbed a flashlight on the way out, and I could not see her. After calling a couple of times, I see a coyote run out of the creek bed in front of my home. Then my dog comes hobbling out with her throat fully exposed and blood dripping everywhere.

I doubled back, called to the wife to wrap the dog in a towel and apply pressure to her throat. I went for my old Mossy and collected some 00 buck. The last time I saw the coyote, it was jogging away from our house. When I went back outside to look for it, the darned thing had doubled back and was in our driveway. I try to jamb a couple of shells into the gun, it proceeds to haul a** faster than I could get loaded. I got a couple in and cycled both of them, mostly for effect but hoping to find an obliterated dog the next morning. No such luck.

This all happened with the power out. We have coyotes (and mountain lions) with some regularity here. This is the first time I have ever had a problem with my animals, though. Well, not counting the cats that have all lost their lives in combat. But cats don't count. Plus predatory birds (hawks and owls) keep those numbers thin, too.

Lastly, I never thought I would pay $900 for a dog. But dangit if it wasn't about the easiest thing to do when I saw her all ripped up and in pain. Just like a family member, I did not even contemplate the cost (and that much scratch would buy a helluva nice new .22-250 for coyote hunting!).
 
Some of these stories make your hair stand up. And how could I forget to mention this, I may have posted elsewhere...saw a Coyote a couple of months ago or so...near my house...IN DA BRONX :eek:

HUGE sucker, healthy looking as all hell, about a 3 minute jog away from a very reidential area.

I reported it to DEC but no word back. I know they come down every once in a while (central park!) but still, so wild to see one.
 
I've used the Burnham tape in a baby boom-box to call a few coyotes. Mostly, though, I just use a mouth call. The wounded jackrabbit seems to work well around Texas. Coyotes do get educated, though, and varying with a cottontail call helps.

A buddy of mine at Terlingua GhostTown went outside to see about some noises in the yard. About a dozen javelina. His dog, Bam Bam, came out, spotted the javelina, and sailed in after them. After running off this pack, Bam Bam came proudly strutting back.

Bam Bam is a Chihuahua with the heart and soul of a Dire Wolf.
 
456-SGT.

I have 4 RT's and we also live in an area frequented by coyotes. If we hear coyotes nearby they stay inside. I hope your dog is doing ok. I love my RT's. On the other hand, we have also rescued a lab, a boxer mix, a pure blooded heeler, and a junk yard dog who raise a stink when the yipping starts. This is dairy farm country so the coyotes are fearful of human contact due to being shot at by the dairymen. They are eery to hear but often they will go silent if I just shout or clap my hands.

We also had a little fun with a feral pig last month as the persimmon tree in my yard was ripening. At dusk returning from a walk with all seven of the pack minus the heeler who was nursing a broken nail, a 200lb boar (no tusks) who had been eating dropped persimmons alerts the first RT. Before I could get inside to the shotgun, the dogs all pile into the woods after the pig. Barking, squealing, and general mayhem ensues for a few minutes including my Fiest/RT mix getting launched out of the tree cover before dashing back in. I just knew the dogs were going to be shredded. Three rounds of #3 buck fired away from the dog/pig drama into the rear of the property's tree line and the dogs break off the attack, the pig ambles down the fence line of my neighbor back into the cutover area left from Katrina. My neighbor saw the pig leaving and having heard the shotgun called to see what happened. None of the dogs had a mark on them. That was the first time in nearly thirty years living here anything like that happened.

I even had time to put on some ear muffs before firing. :)

I'm now shopping for a Marlin 336. Just in case.

LATT
 
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Javelina can put a hurt on your puppies!
 
I was just getting ready to post a question about electronic predator calls when I saw this original post.
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I haven't really got into electronic calling heavily yet. I have a couple of handheld electronics, but haven't had much opportunity to use them in the year I've owned them. The best call I've found for yotes where I hunt is the Primos "Can" doe in estrous bleat. I don't know what the yotes think it is (kinda sounds like a sick calf) but they come running to it. Killed three last year responding to that call. Trouble is I was deer hunting at the time. Oh well, dairy farmer whose land I hunt don't like yotes. Every one I shoot goes toward guaranteeing me an invite back the next year.

I haven't seen any this deer season, but I've heard a couple in the distance. I also haven't hunted as much this year due to my back injury either.
 
Hey RR , I'm about 50 miles west of you, I think. I'm curious about the howling habits of coyotes. They used to wake me up 2 or 3 times a week. Now,I hardly hear them at all. Know they are here because they set the cameras off, sometimes 3 or 4 at a time. But, they are quiet.
 
It comes and goes here. We go three or four nights without hearing them sometimes and then will hear them every night for weeks. Just depends. I don't know much about their habits and how weather or other factors may affect them. Haven't noticed any real pattern to it either. Usually when the neighbors' dogs start raising sand If I listen hard I can hear the yotes down the road in the woods. The other night during the power outage it seemed like they were howling from the neighbor's yard!. (hence the cat going missing :D)

I'm in southeastern Alamance Co. bout 2 miles from Orange Co. and 4 miles from Chatham.
 
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