Man suffers injuries while fighting off 3 attacking coyotes (Colorado)

[dmccarty]

The deer herd on our place has been reduced by at least half by coyotes. I finally saw four deer recently which is the most I have seen in a long time. We have heard the coyotes yapping right off the back of the house several times including last spring. Coyotes have eaten deer near the barn area and I just found part of a deer skull back there. The first year we lived on the place, a coyote was trotting down the driveway one early morning, which was the first and last time we have seen one.

Last December a pack of coyotes were running a deer near the house. The deer was using the trails I made, the huge wood/stump pile and some downed trees to try to shake off the coyotes. The deer was circling around the pile, trails and down trees so I grabbed a pistol, a mag light, and my oldest kid and I went out to see if we could see the chase. There is an intersection in the trails that I figured the deer was using so we went quietly down the trails to that point but either the deer heard us or knew that circling was not working and the chase headed out to the west. Best I could tell the chase was a mile or so away when I could no longer hear the coyotes.

If you are out at night, a nice 3-4 D cell maglite will work wonders on keep four legged critters at bay. My maglite is getting close to 20 years old and just has the old bulb in it, not one of the super sun bright bulbs that are sold now a days. One night I was working and a dog was being a bit too aggressive and loud. I aimed the flashlight at the dog and flicked on the light for a split second. That dog was most unhappy, shut up and left. I don't think that little trick is not going to work in the daytime but a maglite can be used as a club as well.

On night the coyotes were yapping in the yard and were near the chickens. Now the Chicken Tank was in a fenced in garden and if you read my Chicken Tank thread you will know that it is going to take a very large, strong critter to get into the Chicken Tank. I think the coyotes were had made a kill in the yard and were not going after the chickens but I woke the wifey up and mentioned the coyotes near the chickens. She of course had not heard the yapping that was 20-30 feet from our room. But as soon as I told her the coyotes were out near the chickens she turned into the Female Flash, jumped out of bed and turned on the outside lights. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

I did not want her to get up since I was listening to the coyotes and figuring out how I could see them without turning on the perimeter lights. I never had a chance when momma was worried about her chickens. :laughing::laughing::laughing: As soon as the lights went out the coyotes were gone.

Which makes me wonder why these coyotes attacked this guy. Yes, the coyotes could have been habituated to humans but I wonder if he was not doing something else that caused the attack. We frequently hear the coyotes but we have only seen ONE even when TRYING to see them.

Right around the time I left Florida there were two people attacked by gators. I figured they had to have been enticing the gators and eventually that turned out to be the case. In a third incident, a kid was attacked and killed by a gator while the family was on a sand bar in a river. Hmmm. Well, right after the kid was killed we went kayaking down the river and passed the gator and the sand bar. I have a fuzzy photo of that gator somewhere and that was the second to last time a person saw that gator. A trapper was putting in a boat just after us to go get the gator. I was always suspicious of that kid being killed. Well, after seeing the itty bitty sand bar, the crystal clear water around the sand bar, and the narrow river there is no doubt in my mind that the people were feeding the gator before the kid was attacked and killed. The river at the sand bar was no more than 20 feet wide, our kayaks had a tough time navigating the river because it was so narrow. The sand bar was very small maybe 20-30 feet long and 6-8 feet wide. The shallow water was crystal clear and there is no way you could not see a gator unless you were blind. The river was down in a bit of a stream bed with no cover to speak of so the gator could not have ambushed the kid. The only plausible explanation is that the family was feeding the gator and the gator attacked the child.

In the two other cases I mention, both men where were attacked were feeding the gators. One case was on the L69 canal in Dade county where two men were fishing. One man, a firefighter, said he was cleaning the weeds off the prop when he was attacked by the gator. Well, I spend many an hour on the L69 and there are almost no weeds in that canal from Broward all the way down to Dade. The canal is deeply dredged channel with rocks on the side. Most the stuff growing is Saw grass and Cattails which is not going to foul a prop and that vegetation is growing along the edge of the canal which is full of rocks. Not some place you want your prop to be. The firefighter eventually stated that he wanted to wrestle a gator which is what he was trying to do when he was bit. The other case was an old guy who had been feeding the gators for a long time below his sea wall. One day he was feeding the gators when he slip and feel in the water. :shocked: Opps. I can't remember if they killed that gator on the L69. I would be surprised if they did because the place is full of gators. The sea wall gators were almost certainly taken out.

Later,
Dan

 

[MossRoad]

The deer herd on our place has been reduced by at least half by coyotes.

My guess is that you living in the fastest growing urban area in the country the deer are getting reduced by cars, not coyotes.

 

[bcp]

Animals are really good at reading body language. If the victim was behaving like prey, they may have treated him as one.

Occasionally I try "stalking" an unfamiliar dog and it will usually run away fast if out of his territory. Deer are the same. They will stand around and watch me work, or pass nearby without fear. But stare at one and move slowly toward it and it leaves the area at a run.

Bruce

 

[MossRoad]

Coyotes at our rural property still run at first sight of people. The ones here in town just act like wise stray dogs. They keep their distance, but don't run unless you chase them. And if you stop, they stop and start walking again. Truly a remarkably adaptable animal.

 

[pitw]

Dang tough to guess what happened if'n I wasn't there to witness the act. I've had mangy coyotes act aggressive but only because they were ill. Been attacked by healthy coyotes because I was calling them in for a shot and they all wanted away once they figured out I was not a chunk of prey. I think the last previous poster came fairly close to diagnosing the cause.

 

[dmccarty]

My guess is that you living in the fastest growing urban area in the country the deer are getting reduced by cars, not coyotes.

Lots of cars and deer are meeting in the road but that has been going on for years. The wife got a nice 8 pointer a few years ago. But the decline in the deer herd started with the arrival of the coyotes. Most of the deer on our place do not travel across a busy road. I would guess they have a couple of square miles they can roam with out crossing a road. Even then, only one near by road is sorta busy, the other two roads they might cross, have very low traffic and very little deer collisions.

The deer that hang out at our house and neighbor hood do not have to cross these roads with the exception of the bucks. The coyotes are killing the deer. I am the only one that hunts our land and the neighbor hood up front is too built up for hunting. A man on some neighboring land hunts but he would be taking from a second doe herd that visits our land and his. Even with hunting, the deer herd was pretty stable or even increasing, but in the last year, the herd size is down by a good 50%. The only explanation is coyotes or disease and I have not heard of any disease problems locally. Knock on wood.

Pretty obvious the coyotes are doing the killing when they are taking deer in your back yard 20-30 feet from the bedroom and leaving dear skulls, legs, and hide around the house. There was a danged deer leg right off the porch one morning. I don't think our dog brought it to the house and for our dog to have found the leg, it would have had to have been very close by. Within a 100-200 feet of the house.

Later,
Dan

 

[cqaigy2]

You can have some of our deer, Dan. We have lotsa deer and apparently, not enough coyotes.

 

[dmccarty]

You can have some of our deer, Dan. We have lotsa deer and apparently, not enough coyotes.

You know, before the coyotes arrived, I was thinking we were starting to get too many deer. Now we really don't seem to have enough and I wonder if I should hunt them this year. Assuming I actually have any time to go hunting.

One thing that has changed over the last couple of years is that the deer are now jumping over our six foot tall garden fence. We did not have a garden in the last two years due to lack of time, , but we have seen deer in the garden several times. The only thing growing in the garden are weeds and some volunteer tomatoes. The deer have eaten some of the weeds for sure but there was food outside the garden that was easier to get. The first time I saw the deer in the garden was in the early morning when I would leave for work. I think the deer had beded down in the garden. It surely is a safe place from coyotes and I wonder if that is why one or two does have been getting into the garden.

The garden fence has four feet of mesh wire on the bottom and HT wire higher up. One part of the fence, on a side away from the house, is torn up at ground level. It looked like something was trying to get INTO the garden...

The numerous doe herds are obviously smaller than a few years ago. A couple of the herds in front of use used to have at least eight deer but I have seen no more than four this year. I have seen four fawns this year across these deer herds and we should be seeing far more than four.

Later,
Dan