Seal Hunting;Please comment on question of Coyote native or not

bill c68 said:
You may have seen lot's of Coyotes over 70lbs but have you ever weighed one? I don't want to sound like a #### or try to discredit you but here on PEI there have been 80lb coyotes seen on many occasions but the largest on record trapped or shot was a little over 60lbs. They still look huge mind you, the 35lb one I shot last year made my 60lb lab look tiny.

Yes they are bigger here but Biologists say they run between 30-65lbs no bigger. now put that into perspective, I believe 35lbs is big in the west... am I right in saying that?
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I worked with PEI Fish and Wildlife and UPEI in the mid-90's on a study into the ecology of PEI coyotes. We collected, dissected and weighed over 250 animals over two years. The following numbers are based on memory here but i have the report I wrote at home and can dig it up to get exact numbers. The average weight was in the low thirties, but that included juveniles. The average adult weight was about 40lbs for adults. The largest was a shade over 55 lbs.

That said, PEI coyotes were significantly larger (5-10%) than NS and NB coyotes on average. This was believed to be due the abundance of abandoned apple orchards on the Island that allowed coyotes to supplement their diets with fallen apples under the snow. Number one food item was voles followed by snowshoe hare, followed by apples. Nearly every coyote with voles and hare in them also had significant amounts of apples. Those three food items made up about 75% of the diets in the animals we collected.

The average litter size (based on uterine scarring) was about 5 pups.
 
sjemac said:
I worked with PEI Fish and Wildlife and UPEI in the mid-90's on a study into the ecology of PEI coyotes. We collected, dissected and weighed over 250 animals over two years. The following numbers are based on memory here but i have the report I wrote at home and can dig it up to get exact numbers. The average weight was in the low thirties, but that included juveniles. The average adult weight was about 40lbs for adults. The largest was a shade over 55 lbs.

That said, PEI coyotes were significantly larger (5-10%) than NS and NB coyotes on average. This was believed to be due the abundance of abandoned apple orchards on the Island that allowed coyotes to supplement their diets with fallen apples under the snow. Number one food item was voles followed by snowshoe hare, followed by apples. Nearly every coyote with voles and hare in them also had significant amounts of apples. Those three food items made up about 75% of the diets in the animals we collected.

The average litter size (based on uterine scarring) was about 5 pups.
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I guess the difference is in NB and NS Apples do not stay on the ground very long. Yes 55lbs seems to ring a bell with me, maybe I was wrong when I said just over 60lbs.
 
bill c68 said:
I guess the difference is in NB and NS Apples do not stay on the ground very long. Yes 55lbs seems to ring a bell with me, maybe I was wrong when I said just over 60lbs.
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No there were some larger that came in in the years after I finished my study. Just under 65 seems to be the number that sticks in my head. Danny Clark had a couple in over the years that were over 60 on the scale I believe.
 
sjemac said:
No there were some larger that came in in the years after I finished my study. Just under 65 seems to be the number that sticks in my head. Danny Clark had a couple in over the years that were over 60 on the scale I believe.
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Good ol' Danny!
Regardless, 55lbs-60lbs whatever. I still hear people say they are 75-100lbs, which I highly doubt.

Sounds like we know some of the same people... do we know each other?
 
Thanks for the comments. The girlfriend is a prety good shot too!


As for the coyotes, I am trying my best to find the picture and article of the 70lb'er shot in Trinity bay. I did find an article from about 10 yrs ago that said at that time the largest documently weighed coyote in PEI was 25 kg.

In Newfoundland the Coyote is having a field day on rabbits and Caribou.
Caribou replaced the coyotes deer portion of thier diet in Newfoundland.

I don't know of a whole lot of the smaller wester coyotes, that even packed up, could take a Caribou down.

I'll keep looking.
 
Something I don't understand here.

I remember years ago selling my coyote hides to the fur auction in Winnipeg (Dominion-Sudac) often they were sized at large to x-large.

If these yotes are only 35lbs and you fellows have 70 pounders the fur buyers must buy them as jumbo's or something like that and I have never seen any jumbo's sell at the auctions or or even seen a price list refering to them.
 
The Eastern Coyote doesn't fetch as much at auction as the western coyote, despite the size difference due to coloration and length of guard hairs.

The first confirmed coyote was a road killed pup on the west coast. A trapper in the same area picked up several more in Fox snares. 3 adult coyotes were observed crossing the pack ice between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland by reliable sources located on several boats in the vicinity.

The coyote in Newfoundland has basically slipped into the ecological niche left vacant by the Newfoundland Wolf, extinct since the '30s. They have no natural enemies, and have succeeded in populating the entire island since 1986. They are hunting in packs and our caribou populations are really feeling the brunt of this new predator. In central Newfoundland, espeically the Middle Ridge Herd, there is close to 100% calf mortality! Coyote and Black Bear predation is having a massive impact on the herd. I used to regualarly hunt Area 64. Back in the 90s you'd have no problem encountering herds of up to 100-200 animals at one time, with many, many smaller herds of 20-30 animals...Last time back was 2004. In a 14 day hunting trip, we saw a total of 13 animals, all of which were much smaller than the majestic animals we hunted just a few years previously. Kill sites and coyote sign was everywhere you looked. It was so bad that I'm not planning on applying for that area again. What the coyote's haven't killed, local outfitters have drove to hell and gone with their helicopters. Its a sad state of affairs!
 
Paler coyotes fetch more money and western coyotes are in general much paler. I have seen red, white, black, and blonde eastern coyotes in addition to the typical grey and brown. I have several Eastern and Western coyote pelts tanned at home and the western ones are by far softer.
 
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