Heard something out near the wood stacks last night......

was out on a walk this past summer when we spotted one (coyote) coming towards us. it took the woods and she never saw it....till we got up there about 1/4 mile where it was in the grass/shrubs just watching us from about 30'. nothing else...just looking. around here, they have been considered more of a pest than anything. the real threat comes from the wolves. yes, the dnr decided in their wisdom that we shohuld have wolves again. many troubles reported over the years since then... pets being killed in their yards (then sometimes consumed) livestock killed in their stalls in barns yes! horseback riders "followed" right back the the barn. hunting dogs lost to wolves-meaning killed-not lost in the woods. dnr is trying to take them off the endangered list so there would be a controlled harvest but damn green peacers keep blocking it. so lwhen it comes to coyotes, there is a lot worse to be had!

It aint the coyotes that get us out here so much as the mountain lions. Yotes seem pretty dang harmless compared to a mountian lion with kits or just plain hungry.

Pineburner said:

It aint the coyotes that get us out here so much as the mountain lions. Yotes seem pretty dang harmless compared to a mountian lion with kits or just plain hungry.

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more great news...we now have a breeding population of cats here also. the dnr denied it for years-after all-who could be trusted when a sighting was called in; just dismissed it as house cats, etc. finally, people started taking pics and videos-still they denied their presence. someone finally hit one (killed) with a vehicle near escanaba so they actually did a autopsy on it to verify it was a cat! wow! then said it was probably a pet turned loose or an escapee from a game zoo...yeah, right!
enter bow season...near dusk in onw of our wilderness areas (just about the whole u.p.). a guy was up in his tree stand when a cat came up to the tree he was in, circled the bottom of the tree whildd smelling the ground, then looked up the tree right at him-eye contact and all cat left at that point and hunter decided whether he should leave now in the fading light with the cat still around in the area or wait till dark to give the cat more time to leave and walk out in the dark? he left while there was any available light but also said he had his arrow nocked for the walk out.
close personal friends have seen moms with cubs cross the roads in front of them at 3:30 pm so there was no mistaking them. we have them but as of yet, i've only seen one while in a car on the way to work. would much rather run into a moose or bear or wolf than a cat while in the woods.

Dave, if memory serves me right, way back in the 70's almost the very same thing happened near Escanaba.

As for the wolves, that has really hurt a lot of folks in the UP, especially those who depend upon the deer hunters coming every year. I know of many who just don't go to the UP any more because the deer herd is down so drastically.

As for the dummies who protest the killing of some wolves, they are the ones who cause certain things to happen....like dnr going to work and finding dead wolves on the door steps. Also the most disgusting thing is that some folk have taken to shooting the wolves....but not shooting to kill quickly. They want them to be able to run a long ways from where they were shot before dieing. I wish this was more known to the dummy so-called animal lovers. It is a sickening thing to be sure but there does need to be a lot of thinning done.

no state wildlife or DNR agent in his right mind would knowingly release a coyote, at least in NC.
If fact, the game warden in our county said if he saw one he would pull over and shoot it right there...

The wolf issue out west is totally different, and I think people get the two confused. But the coyote
"population" has supported itself by moving eastward and southward. They are especially bad
in the NC mountains but good ol Hillbillies are taking care of the song-dogs one shot at a time.

Here in the piedmont, people are just now starting to hunt predators after deer season ends.

Hubby and I know all about yotes in the U.P. We lost a cat five days after moving into our rental home 3.5 years ago. We've been told there are cats here, too, though haven't seen one. A town resident said they can be heard screaming behind her house in the hillside. Nice, eh? Would love to see a wolf, moose, cat and many other critters that reside here in the Yoop.....from the inside of a vehicle that is . We heard on the news that the DNR is holding a "lottery" to control the moose population. Don't they know the wolves already take care of that?

Hey YooperWife, that screaming probably came from a bobcat. It is amazing the screams they can come out with. Nothing like a mountain lion. I'll never forget the night one scared me out of my wits. I was extremely close to it. I had my rifle too and the fingerprints are still there! Made hair stand up that I didn't even have! btw, this was over by Shingleton.

Will coyotes really go after a full sized Lab? I ask because my BIL has coyotes in a large wetland area that his subdivision house backs onto. He worries enough that he won't leave his 80lb lab in the yard after dark at all. I've never said anything, but since I haven't heard of coyotes actually killing a LARGE dog I would be very surprised to see even a pack take that dog down. I think there's enough small animals and deer around that it wouldn't be worth the risk (likelyhood) of death for them. A quick search on the Wikipedia says they attack large dogs only in "exceptional cases". Whatever that means (ie. no data). There is one case I know of a guy being killed by coyotes on Cape Bretton N.S just a few years ago, but that was likely coy-dogs or coy-wolves. I think yotes are gonna keep being a bigger & bigger threat to livestock and pets as they continue to interbreed with dogs & wolves, expand their territory and quickly adapt to living in suburban and urban environments. One animal that's very hard to control, especially since the red wolf is gone and deer populations remain high across much of the east.
Folks in central Ontario are getting a little antsy about the growing population of Coywolves as coyotes have expanded their range north to meet the remaining wolf ranges in the area around Algonquin Park. Size of a wolf, attitude of a coyote. No thanks.

Jags said:

midwestcoast said:

Will coyotes really go after a full sized Lab?

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One yote - NO!. But leading that big dog to the pack - yeah.

I have yotes come right into the yard. A couple of observations:
A single yote will get pretty close to my dog(s).
The "Pack" never enters the yard. Only singles. The pack stays further away.
A large yote is about 40-45 pounds and are not "stocky". The average size lab is twice their size.
Danger comes when a yote can lead the pet to the rest of the pack, or surround it.

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If they are in your yard, you need to worry. I would hastily begin baiting, trapping, or hunting activity asap.

We have 'yotes in our area also. They will kill smaller dogs and all cats. They really keep the rabbits down (good for my young grape vines). They get quite large though in our area. Two miles north one was hit by a car and it looked to weight 80lbs or more. It was a really good healthy size.

I agree with JLove though, the .243 is a good round for varmits.

little spark

yup I have been trying to get my friend to sell me his little Savage .243 he keeps taking out of the safe and letting me fondle.
It's nothing much, just a composite stocked Savage model 10/11, but it's had pro trigger work done. He had to get me
to adjust the trigger since it was "too light" of a pull for his tastes. I thought it broke like a glass rod @ 1 1/2 lbs - perfect for
sitting down on a bench but too light to hunt deer with. We bumped it up to around 2 1/2 lb pull effort and it's awesome.

Only thing I'd do to it is camo paint or have it dipped, nice big objective AO scope, and glass bed the action. Coyote Death Dealer