N80
Super Member
We have a lot of coyotes here. And there seems to be a lot of coyote mythology out there. Latest rumor here is a story about a guy leaving his deer stand in the dark being followed by a pack of coyotes that kept coming back even after he shot at them.
Plenty of farmers claim that the coyotes eat calves. What they usually see is coyotes getting the afterbirth after a calf is born or eating a still born calf. No reliable witness around here has seen a coyote kill a calf. One semi-reliable witness claims he saw one after a calf but the mother cow had no problem running the coyote off.
The local biologist says coyotes primarily eat mice and rabbits. They say they do not attack or eat full size deer. They say they do not hunt in packs. They say they would be unlikely to have any success with a full grown turkey.
Others say that coyotes develop hunting habits based on the environment they live in. So how they behave here might be totally different from how they behave out west.
I bring this up because of one second-hand report and one instance I witnessed first hand. The second-hand report came from my wife. She saw three coyotes chasing a doe across a field in front of our cabin. The coyotes were not close together like an organized pack but they were all following the same doe. My wife said the doe was running but not flat out. She ran in a large circle and came across the field again before jumping in our lake and swimming across. The coyotes did not follow. It was in the spring and I think she was baiting them away from a fawn.
The first hand account was last Wednesday. I was deer hunting and heard something running into the valley I was in and a large doe came flying down the hill, flat out, tail down, as fast as she could. Maybe 20 yards behind here came a coyote. Also full steam ahead, hot on her trail. I whistled several times and the coyote stopped but was out of sight. I heard something else coming and it was another coyote also running flat out behind them. I whistled again and it stopped and I killed it.
So I have no idea what to believe about coyotes and their interaction with deer. Was what my wife and I saw actual 'pack' hunting? It certainly was not cooperative pack hunting like wolves but it was still more than one coyote following the same game. Where they really chasing this deer for food or just because they are dog-like and chase stuff? Can a coyote out-last a deer enough to finally catch it and then take it down? How many coyotes does it take to take down a healthy adult deer....which can fight really hard and be dangerous when cornered. Why would a hungry coyote expend that much energy (long chase, dangerous take down) when we are swimming in rabbits and mice?
Would be interested in any reliable info about coyotes vs adult deer. I'd be willing to guess that we don't really know a whole lot of cold hard info about coyote behavior.
Plenty of farmers claim that the coyotes eat calves. What they usually see is coyotes getting the afterbirth after a calf is born or eating a still born calf. No reliable witness around here has seen a coyote kill a calf. One semi-reliable witness claims he saw one after a calf but the mother cow had no problem running the coyote off.
The local biologist says coyotes primarily eat mice and rabbits. They say they do not attack or eat full size deer. They say they do not hunt in packs. They say they would be unlikely to have any success with a full grown turkey.
Others say that coyotes develop hunting habits based on the environment they live in. So how they behave here might be totally different from how they behave out west.
I bring this up because of one second-hand report and one instance I witnessed first hand. The second-hand report came from my wife. She saw three coyotes chasing a doe across a field in front of our cabin. The coyotes were not close together like an organized pack but they were all following the same doe. My wife said the doe was running but not flat out. She ran in a large circle and came across the field again before jumping in our lake and swimming across. The coyotes did not follow. It was in the spring and I think she was baiting them away from a fawn.
The first hand account was last Wednesday. I was deer hunting and heard something running into the valley I was in and a large doe came flying down the hill, flat out, tail down, as fast as she could. Maybe 20 yards behind here came a coyote. Also full steam ahead, hot on her trail. I whistled several times and the coyote stopped but was out of sight. I heard something else coming and it was another coyote also running flat out behind them. I whistled again and it stopped and I killed it.
So I have no idea what to believe about coyotes and their interaction with deer. Was what my wife and I saw actual 'pack' hunting? It certainly was not cooperative pack hunting like wolves but it was still more than one coyote following the same game. Where they really chasing this deer for food or just because they are dog-like and chase stuff? Can a coyote out-last a deer enough to finally catch it and then take it down? How many coyotes does it take to take down a healthy adult deer....which can fight really hard and be dangerous when cornered. Why would a hungry coyote expend that much energy (long chase, dangerous take down) when we are swimming in rabbits and mice?
Would be interested in any reliable info about coyotes vs adult deer. I'd be willing to guess that we don't really know a whole lot of cold hard info about coyote behavior.