New to coyotes

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Astrolopitec said:
Anything to watch for ?

Umm Yeah, watch out to keep your pistol handy and your ammo dry ;-) Good luck with that !
 
Depends. If you have a dog or cats and they go outdoors you should be aware that they are now more obvious objects of predation. We make sure our cats are indoors by sundown and we don't let them out until the sun is well on its way up. No guarantee of safety, but wild things tend to venture closer to "our" areas when the activity level is low... dusk, night time, and dawn. Coyotes are pretty new to our area, too. And there have been cases of cats grabbed off decks or from a yard and there is the occasional story of a child being attacked (usually toddler size).

Coyotes are beginning to overwhelm fox populations in my area, too. And there is growing momentum to increase hunting of coyotes on the grounds that they are doing damage to the deer herd. Personally, I don't really care and I don't see any great decrease in deer population. But they are a growing presence and I think it's wise to be alert if you know there is a pack in your area.
 
We have had coyotes here as long as I can remember. You can go outside most any night of the week and hear them yipping. They have never caused any problems or got close whether I was home or in the woods hunting. If I had any that did not seem afraid of people or hung around the house I probably wood sell his fur.
 
enjoy em, there cool
 
cncpro said:
Umm Yeah, watch out to keep your pistol handy and your ammo dry ;-) Good luck with that !

If I had brown bear in my region for sure! But not such "luck".
Last year a teenager girl got killed by a pair of coyotes in the east coast.
And around 10 years ago we lost one of our x-country champions to a wild cat while training North of Quebec city.
But I guess one is more likely to get stroke by lightning.
Maulings are much more common in B.C. (brown bears, grizlies and all sorts of wild cats and stupid tourists).

Thanks Bobbin and Ncountry.
You very much confirm what I had gathered so far.
 
They will attack regular domesticated dogs at times. We had two dogs that tried to "make friends" with them, and they both got away, but one had to be stitched back up.

Welcome to the forum, Juan. You have some amazing aurora pictures on your web page.
 
We live in woods and hear the coyotes yipping several nights per week. There's a good sized population of them around here. I raise hogs and chickens and keep a dog that stays outdoors and untied 24/7 and have never had a problem with coyotes. They could easily come in and scoop up the hogs especially when they're on the small side yet - I do keep them in a high-fenced pen until they're around 50#, and the chickens free-range through the woods until dusk when I close them in though I've left them with the coop open for days at a time too and have never lost one to predators of any kind. Hard to believe but the dog's presence seems to keep them away from our immediate ground. I'll hear them running around and yipping sometimes within a few hundred feet of the house, and the dog will growl and bark at them but stay right near the house. My last dog I used to have to call back in because it she would run off after them growling and barking. They've probably got plenty to eat without having to risk tangling with the dog, but if they were hungry enough I doubt the dog would stop them.
 
We have many coyotes around here. They are very shy and it's hard to even see one. They never bother anything, even calves in the pasture. Sometimes the howling and yipping at night wakes me up, but other than that there are no problems. They do dig holes in the hayfields looking for moles and mice too, which we have to watch out for when working the fields.

Wolves were reintroduced to this state and are now getting closer to here. I am afraid they will cause problems. They already kill hunting dogs and cattle in other parts of Wisconsin.
 
They may go after pets, but won't go after you. We used to sit around the fire when camping and take turns howling. The coyotes would answer back and get closer and closer until they crested a hill and saw our fire nearby. Creepy, exciting, but not dangerous. I see no reason to kill them really.
 
Coyotes are generally much smaller than you may imagine them. I have quite a few around me and have never seen one bigger than a 20 or 30 pound dog. They are pretty harmless buggers unless you happen to be a rabbit or small rodent. The packs are usually quite small (if they are even packed up) and they are rather timid when it comes to humans.

They do like dog and cat meat although I doubt they would try and take on a large dog like a lab etc. I have seen them run from my English Springer (60#s).

I had one in my sights last year while sitting in my deer blind. I couldn't shoot it though, looked too much like a dog. The real problem is the decline of the fur market and the extermination of wolves, bears and mountain lions from much of the US. Not too many people bothering to trap or hunt them for furs anymore since the price for a pelt is down and the food chain is all screwed up with coyotes filling the niche of top non-human predator. As the wolves move back in, you should see less yotes. Whether that is good or bad I'll let you decide :)
 
As long as you are not a Road Runner, you should be OK.

We have them near me too. I am in the suburbs about 40 miles North of New York City. The howling at night is kinda creepy.
 
Up until almost a year ago we had several here. Howling echoing throught the swamp can be a bit unnerving.
They'll take a deer.
They've had problems in other parts of town with pets in back yards disappearing.
We've got no wild animals at all right now ( I guess between the coyotes and raccoon rabies the woods are quiet).

I had two of them going by the back of my house pretty much the same time of the morning for a while.
I found a coyote den in the swamp in the side of a hill.
 
they have definitely adapted very well to the environment we produced by moving into their space.
For work I own/operate a nuisance wildlife damage company, but when we have our seasonal downtime which usually happens between December and March, I do still fur trap.
We have an early season specifically for canines to attempt to keep the population at a manageable level. This year I averaged almost 50lbs on coyotes, my largest being about 52 or so.
Last year I caught one that weighed in at 62 lbs.
So at least here, they are growing in numbers and definitely size. But for the most part, YOU, have nothing to really worry about. We have one at camp in the adirondacks which would come in to about 15 ft of us while sitting around the fire.
 
Flatbedford said:
As long as you are not a Road Runner, you should be OK.

:

lol: Just watch out for falling anvils, "black holes" in the road, and anything manufactured by "acme". Otherwise they're perfectly harmless.
 
I've had them circle me in the woods in Texas, howling the whole time. It was pretty exciting. We've lived with them in Texas and in Virginia. I agree with most others here, protect your small pets and livestock and enjoy the coyotes otherwise. There's something truly wild about them.
 
Juan,
I just visited your website and found myself envious. The telescope and observatory are great. Its wild that you "listen" to the stars too. I'd love to see an image of Saturn through that scope. I've seen it through a 6" scope and was amazed.
 
In Maine they are public enemy #1. The deer hunters hate them with a passion. Just last week someone stopped at my house and asked where the big coyote hunt was. Apparently one of my neighbors, who owns a big chunk of land invited a bunch of folks over to shoot as many as they could. I've seen them(dead coyotes) hanging from a tree in front of their houses, look at me I killed a coyote.:) I've seen dead coyotes beside 95 that must have weighed 50 or 60 lbs. You can hear them at night here and I can see their tracks in the snow all around my house. At one time we had sheep, pigs and chickens, never had an issue. I lost more chickens to raccoons than coyotes.
 
Wallyworld said:
In Maine they are public enemy #1. The deer hunters hate them with a passion. I lost more chickens to raccoons than coyotes.

Same here! I'm a deer hunter and make little effort to fill my tag each year, yet to hear some other hunters we need to put whitetails on the endangered species list because of coyotes.
Although I haven't lost a chicken to a predator yet (discounting my old dog!), but my dog has treed a few raccoons and woke me with his fanatic barking from under the tree. If the coyotes wanted to get our chickens they'd have little problem taking one. I hear them howling sometimes and they're closer to the house than the chicken coop is! The dog will bark at them but I doubt they're all that intimidated by him. I'm sure that some places have more problems with coyotes than we do, but I wonder also if there's not an adequate prey population for the dogs. I wonder if folks that have had many problems with coyotes (undoubtedly) taking their pets live in suburban areas where the prey population might be low. Here we've got plenty of hare, grouse, and smaller critters that must be plenty easy pickings for coyotes so that they're well fed.
 
They are in our area but not in the immediate area of our home. Yet. I suspect the incidence of pet predation is due in large part to inadequate prey, too. We have always made it policy to keep the cats in at night wherever we've lived. It's just safer, why tempt fate if you don't have to? And in '04 we had a fox attack and mortally wound one of our cats. When I responded to the fox's cry and scooped the cat up I came within 3' of the fox. He was beautiful, in fine fettle, and he'd clearly capitalized on a cat that was older and not at the top of his game any longer. He was "just doin' his job" and while it was a tough loss it was part of the bargain we made when we opted to let the cat outdoors. Life in the food chain, baby.

I feel the same way about Fishers. There was a thread about them that was so filled with "rural legend" and misinformation it wasn't worth responding any more. Wild animals survive because they hunt. Hunting culls the weak and disabled. The entire eco system operates on this premise. If they don't hunt successfully they will die. End of story.

Bothers me that people attach nefarious motives to animals that are just doing what their genes tell them to do.
 
All sounds well and good, but be aware that coyotes with rabies could be deadly to humans.

My beagle was attacked by 3 coyotes and died shortly after. My malamute seems to get on O.K.
 
Bobbin said:
They are in our area but not in the immediate area of our home. Yet. I suspect the incidence of pet predation is due in large part to inadequate prey, too. We have always made it policy to keep the cats in at night wherever we've lived. It's just safer, why tempt fate if you don't have to? And in '04 we had a fox attack and mortally wound one of our cats. When I responded to the fox's cry and scooped the cat up I came within 3' of the fox. He was beautiful, in fine fettle, and he'd clearly capitalized on a cat that was older and not at the top of his game any longer. He was "just doin' his job" and while it was a tough loss it was part of the bargain we made when we opted to let the cat outdoors. Life in the food chain, baby.

I feel the same way about Fishers. There was a thread about them that was so filled with "rural legend" and misinformation it wasn't worth responding any more. Wild animals survive because they hunt. Hunting culls the weak and disabled. The entire eco system operates on this premise. If they don't hunt successfully they will die. End of story.

Bothers me that people attach nefarious motives to animals that are just doing what their genes tell them to do.

Yet I'm sure you attach nefarious motives to trappers and hunters when you are only mildly educated in the goings on of the wild. I trap,hunt, fish,use and preserve natures bounty but one thing I abhor more than anything is a hungry predator. When they become overpopulated and hungry , there are no limits.
10 years ago there was no such thing as a coyote or fisher in my area. NOW myself , a few other trappers and 3 groups with dogs remove over 300 coyotes/year locally.This overpopulation is from nearby states outlawing trapping and some hunting methods and the states introduction of these animals.Some creeks are nearly void of fish due to the intrduction of otter. Small game populations are dwindling due to the voracious appatite of the coyote and fisher.
Sorry but I dont want predators living near my home as well as I don't want murders,rapists and molesters living near my home.Just because they have fur and look cudly doesnt make them harmless. Would you think of a rapist differently if he wore a fur coat and drove a Beamer.
 
Read the entire thread?
 
Well said Bobbin, couldn't agree more. I have hunted all my life and spent countless hours watching and learning
the ways of the nature that surrounds me. To me hunting goes hand in hand with understanding the way things work in
nature. In fact when all is said and done its the learning and understanding that brings more satisfaction than pulling
the trigger. I have lost many chickens to hawks.( red tailed) I feed wild birds and have cooper and sharp shinned
hawks blow through often picking off birds. People have asked why i dont shoot them...lol i try and explain ...predator
and prey. As for a hawk taking a chicken, if the bird is willing to chance comming so close to the house to make a kill
i figure he needed the bird more than i and im ok with it. as far as the coopers and sharp shinned hawks taking song
birds, i have to say i find it to cool to watch a hawk take a meal. Its part of the game. Nature has a way of balance,
populations fluctuate in nature ,predator and prey alike. Coyote are no exception they will work deer herds over but
the strongest of the herd survive and when there are to many coyotes there numbers will fall off . its nature.
Sorry about your cat ... But dam glade to hear you have the ability to understand predator and prey
 
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