Never saw such a thing in 35 years of hunting

Follow up *** got 3 more this morning

rlg said:
This weekend (about one hour before sunset), I was in the bush setting up some elevated feeders on land owned by a sheep farmer.
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Wow, elevated feeders (about 12 inches above the snow) with a few cups of dog food work really well.

Got three more this morning and no more than 50 meters away.

Skippy said:
This is always my cousins excuse...You'd think after "35 years of hunting experience..." you'd have learned ;)
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Hey skippy, I went in with my rifle this time;)
 
Rule #1: Have a Gun.

rlg said:
Because I had no gun. I was setting up my elevated feeders with about hour of daylight left and making all kinds of noise. Who expected this kind of action?
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I hope that you won't make that mistake again.
 
I've been coyote hunting with some friends and their hounds for about 20 yrs. We drive the concession and side roads looking for fresh tracks for the hounds. Frequently, we'll see coyotes in the open fields. Multiples are common, and the most that I've personally seen together was 7. In the areas that we've hunted regularly the coyotes loose their boldness pretty quickly.
 
Coyotes often hunt in packs, for years one of the favorite tricks i have noticed is a ##### will sit out in the field to lure a dog out when the dog gets out in the field far enough the pack will leap out of the bush and kill the dog.
 
I saw 6 Coyotes working together to hunt gophers this past spring, of course all I had was my 22LR, and they were about 300 yards out into the field, but they all worked together to flush out gophers, one would dig and bark, while the others laid motionless infront of holes, and out would come a gopher and they would pounce on it.

I watched for about 5-6 mins, they got 5 gophers, I tried calling them in closer but why would they want to work for more food after such an easy lunch? :D
 
As CV32 has said, the "Eastern Coyote" here in Newfoundland regularly hunts in packs and bring down fully adult Caribou and Moose. They're generally big bastards, and they obviously have a lot of wolf blood in them. One old time trapper who spent decades trapping on the Labrador swore that some of the coyote tracks seen in our area were almost identical to wolf tracks he regularly saw up north.

Not surprising here in Newfoundland for them to fall into this type of behaviour, as they are now filling the ecological niche once held by the now extinct Newfoundland Wolf.

They've been known to drive small herds of Caribou into deep powder or snow with a thin crust that won't support the Caribou but will support 'yotes and then proceeded to kill 5-6 adult caribou at one time.
 
crazydave said:
Coyotes often hunt in packs, for years one of the favorite tricks i have noticed is a ##### will sit out in the field to lure a dog out when the dog gets out in the field far enough the pack will leap out of the bush and kill the dog.
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This is what I was going to say. I've seen em do it from the combine....

But overall I don't think its an "evolutionary" change. They been doing it for hundreds of years. Why do you think they have howled for thousands of years? They are a social animal.
 
Despite popular opinion, coyotes, wolf/coyote hybrids have, in fact "evolved".
Many of the articles mentioned talk about "hybridization", which certainly produces a superior critter (just ask Darwin)
In S/W Ontario, coyotes never hunted in packs. This animal appeared about 30 years ago and was a solitary hunter. In the last 10 years there behaviour has changed dramatically.
 
Coyotes are a intelligent animal that i think hunted in packs since the day they were created, even though they hunt in packs they are smart enough to know when to run as when my shepard goes out in the field they head for the hills quick. But at 146 pounds and a snout as big around as a 2 litre pop bottle he doesn't have much to fear from coyotes.
 
crazydave said:
Coyotes are a intelligent animal that i think hunted in packs since the day they were created, even though they hunt in packs they are smart enough to know when to run as when my shepard goes out in the field they head for the hills quick. But at 146 pounds and a snout as big around as a 2 litre pop bottle he doesn't have much to fear from coyotes.
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You have to watch that thought process. A friend lost 2 Rotties because they can't run... Yotes hamstring them like they do deer, and its all over. Even a big dog goes down to 5 or 6 yotes.... gramps watched them do this 50 or 60 years ago. Farms dogs learn or die
 
Pickupman said:
happened to my dog last year and shes 120lbs, 5 of them came up by the house and circled her,I heard her barking a strange bark and went to see,they didnt even flinch with me there,luckily I was cleaning a shotgun next to the door and went out,got 2 which was damn good for night time,full moon helped
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I love when I can clean a shotgun beside my door. ;)
 
Thanks for the info everyone.
I heard a radio piece about the coy-wolf thing in eastern Canada and north eastern US. I think the piece was in response to that woman being killed by Coyotes. It substantiates everything Sjemac says with genetic proof of interbreeding. It was a while ago now so a little tough to recall but it sounded to me like massive population expansion in those areas from the time of the original US colonies wiped out the eastern wolf. It was an area where coyotes did not occur. The result was a hybrid critter.
The interesting thing now is the clash of populations now happening in the north eastern US. The researcher said the well established coy-wolf (his term) is now comming into contact with the eastward expanding western coyote with the area of contact being NY state and there-abouts.
To the original poster: I doubt the pack behaviour is new. I think it was a feature of both species since time began.
Question: What is the size difference? The radio guy said that it was not uncommon for eastern coy-wolves to go to 50 lbs. I don't think many western coyotes go beyond about 35. Sjemac, your expertise on the western version would be welcome here.
 
smokin'stoegie said:
Despite popular opinion, coyotes, wolf/coyote hybrids have, in fact "evolved".
Many of the articles mentioned talk about "hybridization", which certainly produces a superior critter (just ask Darwin)
In S/W Ontario, coyotes never hunted in packs. This animal appeared about 30 years ago and was a solitary hunter. In the last 10 years there behaviour has changed dramatically.
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I was in the Galapagos islands this past fall. Great place, highly recommend it.

Visited the darwin centre a few times. Scuba diving...

However Darwin died.
 
i witnessed two farm dogs that i owned do a classic lure on a groundhog . one dog a female walked slowly towards a groundhog about two hundred yards away while her male counterpart circled around and rushed the hog making a kill. i had never seen any thing like it before or since . this pair of dogs always were bringing home hogs so i would assume they had a routine that worked .must be wired into there brains .
 
Arctic Blaser said:
You have to watch that thought process. A friend lost 2 Rotties because they can't run... Yotes hamstring them like they do deer, and its all over. Even a big dog goes down to 5 or 6 yotes.... gramps watched them do this 50 or 60 years ago. Farms dogs learn or die
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I guess it depends on the dogs in question, when i was young we had samoyeds on the farm we actually used to breed and sell. The male samoyed would bring coyotes back and leave them on the steps of the house, sometimes 2 one time there was five coyote's on the step. The male samoyed
got a hold of a groundhog once and shook it so hard the guts flew out of it!
 
Buddy of mine just outside of Alliston found 6 deer carcases in his hay field over the summer and picked all the bones he could find so they did not get into the hay equip.

He is a trapper part time and figures that the coyotes are waiting for the deer to feed in the field while 2-3 coyotes stand down wind , 1 circles up wind of the deer and makes the deer drift back to the waiting dogs. I think he may be right , as this is a very big field and a deer would have a huge running advantage , yet they are getting slaughtered out there.
 
Schlephunter said:
Thanks for the info everyone.
I heard a radio piece about the coy-wolf thing in eastern Canada and north eastern US. I think the piece was in response to that woman being killed by Coyotes. It substantiates everything Sjemac says with genetic proof of interbreeding. It was a while ago now so a little tough to recall but it sounded to me like massive population expansion in those areas from the time of the original US colonies wiped out the eastern wolf. It was an area where coyotes did not occur. The result was a hybrid critter.
The interesting thing now is the clash of populations now happening in the north eastern US. The researcher said the well established coy-wolf (his term) is now comming into contact with the eastward expanding western coyote with the area of contact being NY state and there-abouts.
To the original poster: I doubt the pack behaviour is new. I think it was a feature of both species since time began.
Question: What is the size difference? The radio guy said that it was not uncommon for eastern coy-wolves to go to 50 lbs. I don't think many western coyotes go beyond about 35. Sjemac, your expertise on the western version would be welcome here.
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Last year up in northern alberta there was a biggest coyote challenge. 40 lbs was quite common so i would guess 35-40 pounds would be averarge.
 
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