As I have said before I always picked up my coyotes and dropped them off where the ranchers could find them because they paid me per coyote and because I didn't want the surviving coyotes to find them so I could stand a better chance of calling them by using coyote vocalizations the next day or if I killed them in the morning in the evening of the same day. Male sounds if it was a male that I had killed, female sounds if it was a female coyote and pup sounds if it was pups that I killed. Using handheld calls mostly, I liked howls and barks mostly but also used kiyi's at times and in some cases wounded coyote yelps and howls seldom puppy squeals and squawks or yelps keeping them for the old smart coyote during denning season. Just what worked for me.
Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
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It certainly takes some intimate knowledge of their behavior to pull off that kind of hunting. Clearly you have been a very serious student.
I went back and read your story on the coyote and badger that someone mentioned. I had heard they would work together, and while many people might put that off to folklore, as a longtime biologist and observer of animal behavior, I seldom entirely write off stories like that. And in fact, I believe I saw that same alliance in action a few years ago myself. About a third of a mile away I could see a glimpses of couple animals acting kind of odd out in a pasture. With good binoculars I got a show similar to what you describe. A coyote and a badger were working a few yards apart, generally in parallel, or at least on the same lines along a fence row and ditch line. With the deep vegetation I could not see what they were doing exactly, but now and then the coyote might pounce, or the badger might rush at something, but not at each other. There are lots of meadow voles out there, great prey species for both predators. I remembered that old tale of them working together, and I am convinced that was what I was watching. Basically flushing prey for each other. I did not see any payoff from one to the other, but I don't doubt your own recounting. Critters do a lot of things we seldom get to see.
I went back and read your story on the coyote and badger that someone mentioned. I had heard they would work together, and while many people might put that off to folklore, as a longtime biologist and observer of animal behavior, I seldom entirely write off stories like that. And in fact, I believe I saw that same alliance in action a few years ago myself. About a third of a mile away I could see a glimpses of couple animals acting kind of odd out in a pasture. With good binoculars I got a show similar to what you describe. A coyote and a badger were working a few yards apart, generally in parallel, or at least on the same lines along a fence row and ditch line. With the deep vegetation I could not see what they were doing exactly, but now and then the coyote might pounce, or the badger might rush at something, but not at each other. There are lots of meadow voles out there, great prey species for both predators. I remembered that old tale of them working together, and I am convinced that was what I was watching. Basically flushing prey for each other. I did not see any payoff from one to the other, but I don't doubt your own recounting. Critters do a lot of things we seldom get to see.
M77Fan; Yes, they certainly do as an example look at how long Jane Goodall spent studying her animals befriending them and being excepted by them before she got to see the things that she did. We can spend our lifetime out and never see all that they do. Every time I got a coyote with a leg missing of crippled, I would wonder what had happened to it. The stories that they had to tell us would be amazing. I always tried to let them teach me something about themselves when I could even though in the end, I knew that I would have to kill them because they were causing a problem. Every animal no matter whether it is a predator, or a prey animal has something we can learn from them. The saying out of the mouths of babes is said for a reason. I have at times seen two species of animals that at first glance you would think would be at odds with each other seem to be cooperating with each other, or they may look to be sparing each other but if you watched them long enough it turned more like playing with each other instead of true aggression towards the other.
Yes, thinking about the unlikely allies of coyote and badger I was recalling the coyotes and elk. Almost nothing in nature is completely black and white.
We had bighorn sheep tags, and spent every summer weekend in our hunting unit scouting for sheep. That meant we were up in high mountain basins, mostly at treeline and the krummholz level. There we found sheep but also nursery groups of elk. One morning we were watching a bunch of cows and calves when we spotted 3 coyotes sneaking in. We thought they might be making a try for a calf, but with those big nasty elk mamas, wondered how that would go. The coyotes started feinting into the elk. The elk would chase them, but in a kind of prancing way. We watched in wonder as we realized that the two species were playing a form of stylized tag that had rules of engagement and was just done for fun and amusement. The coyotes would dash in and hook away then the cows would prance after them and circle around back to the herd. Even some of the calves joined in the play. Neither species really got very close to the other as if trying to make contact. After a while they all tired of it and the elk went back to grazing and the coyotes wandered off. That was one of a number of singular things that happened associated with that hunt. When we went hunting for real we were up there 3 weeks DIY on the mountain.
I got called one evening to go out and gun the next morning from the helicopter. I got to the airport early the next morning and watched the pilot do his preflight then helped get the helicopter out of the hanger. We were going 60 miles north of town to a ranch where I had hunted from the ground and air before. It was early June so the pups most likely would still be in and around the den holes. We picked up the rancher who told us the area that the coyotes were in. We flew it and got a pair of adults then saw the den and called the ranchers son who then went to take the den. We were doing a little more checking when following along down a trail I saw a coyote trotting behind a herd of antelope. I told the pilot coyote, coyote as the rancher had the headset on to talk to the pilot. He says where and I told him behind that herd of antelope he said no that's a fawn. I said I don't think so it's a couple of weeks early to be a fawn and I know it's a coyote, so he moved a little closer to them, well son of a b3456 it is a coyote good spotting we wouldn't have gotten that one. I have seen coyotes following antelope several times just kind of trotting along with them. I have also watched coyotes just laying on a hill side in the early morning sun watching a herd of sheep or in the shade in the afternoon not bothering them just acting like a herding dog and keeping an eye on them.
WYO300RUM
Well-Known Member
I guarantee if there were no cow elk around and they left calves hidden , some calves would of been Scooby snacks. Bears, wolves, coyotes and lions know when calving and fawn seasons are and just cruise around searching for them. Easy pickings.
Remember watching a animal channel video where a hawk of some kind and a honey badger worked together. Not sure the honey badger was a willing pardner as much as the hawk took advantage of the badger. Badger would be into everything and flush out small game the hawk would pounce on.
The animals tend to be able to read each other's intentions and react accordingly. When it's time to dine the predators change to serious and the prey animals become more alert and defensive even the babies become aware of mom being on high alert and react accordingly. We as humans tend to ignore that change in other humans but if we choose to, we can tell the change in them as well. all but the best have a signal or tell that gives them away our animals will pick up on it when we don't. Your normally calm horse reacts to a person becoming agitated, your dog or cat does the same thing to a certain person. Our young people still for the most part have that ability till we adults teach them not to listen to their inner voice telling them how to react to others. We are really a herd animal after all.
So much truth to all of that!
I have to be careful not to look for any length of time at the animal I am trying to take. They CAN feel my predatory presence. I once had a cow elk act like she had just been slapped when I looked too long at her. I was fairly close, maybe 30-40 yards in heavy timber. I was not moving, had the wind, had not crossed the area yet, and was not in sunlight, yet she suddenly spooked. We do absolutely have an energy field, and some humans are still attuned, but I think all critters are.
But then I have had other times when interactions were very different because of signals I was intentionally sending out. Like on that sheep hunt, there was a large herd of cows and calves living up there with us. They were understandably wary of us, but I had a magical experience with them one evening. I was headed to camp, and too tired to be interested in climbing around the herd in the meadow I needed to cross. I first encountered a cow and calf at about 15 yards at the edge of timber, and sort of turned away and sent the message I wasn't interested in them and transmitted as non-predatory vibes as I could. They edged away but did not run. I think that set the stage. I then slowly walked out into the meadow, looking around at the ground, off in the distance, anywhere but directly at an elk, all the while trying to send a non-predatory vibe out. The herd simply parted and let me walk through the middle of them. None spooked. They just closed back together behind me and resumed feeding. I will never get over that.
Yes, that works well. One of the first things a person should learn is not to stare at your intended target but to look beside or past them. Go to a restaurant or other public place say a shopping mall set and look directly at a person they will feel you doing it so take care not to agitate them. Some people have had that type of training in the military observe but not look at. Coyotes and other predators are extremely sensitive to being stared at.
If you ever make eye contact with a prey animal at close distance its over! Anytime I'm in close with deer I never look them in the eye! Your right, perception is what riggers adverse reaction. Nonchalant attitude goes a long way in getting close when you've been spotted. Ever had a bird land on the window of a blind? As long as you remain still your good. Cut your eyes at them it over.
I Got asked if I would go out and help one of the rancher's sons figure out a few things. I said that I would and arranged to meet at his house the next day. I followed him to a kill site where there was a new kill from that night. I skinned the neck back and looked at the teeth marks. Then told him it's not a coyote that killed this yearling ewe the teeth are too close together and small in diameter. They are most likely a bobcats work because of the size of the ewe as a red fox wouldn't be able to grab and hold on to one this sized. I started to walk widening circles around the kill site and found bobcat tracks. He then asked me to look at some of his M-44 sets, we got to his first set the top was level with the ground and it was out in bare ground with no backing to keep the animals from rubbing and rolling on it. I asked to see his tool kit for the M-44's, he had a hammer and setting pliers in the bed of his truck. I smiled and said here let me show you my tools, a bolt to drive a pre hole for the tube, a 9/16 fine thread bottom tap that was ground off so that it had full sized threads the whole length of it and 9/16 fine thread die nut, to clean the threads on the ejector and the top of the M-44 so they screwed together well and lessened the chance of setting it off while screwing it together. An 11/32 drill bit with a tee handle silver soldered on it to clean the inside of the shell holder (plastic capsule of sodium cyanide) or top so that you could slid it into it with the paper warning label still on it. A modified setting plier that had a notch for the bottom of the ejector to fit so that it didn't slip off of them, then I sharpened a point on an 1/8 drill bit drilled out the top jaw and silver soldered it in so that it didn't slip off of the ejector plunger. A large round screw drive with the end cut off of it to drive a hole for my warning labels that were folded around a nine wire that were bent into a u shape with a longer leg to push in the hole. All in a sealed 50 caliber ammo box with a hasp on it so it could be locked. I set mine at an angle by a short sage brush backing close but not so close that it affected a coyote from freely opening its mouth and grabbing it, I didn't want anything that would be in the coyote's face either as they did that, the angle put the ejector so that as the coyote reached down to pull it , it would eject the cyanide into and down its throat giving a good full lethal dose and it couldn't lay down on its side and pull it ejecting the cyanide into the air, you would know you had a good solid hit when the plug and the bottom cardboard from the capsule were both laying on the ground beside of the unit most often you would see where they had vomited almost instantly over the top of it and the coyote would be with in 25 - 50 feet red fox 10 - 20 feet if the eagles didn't carry them off to eat on them. Most people will have no use for this information but then I felt like rambling and there just might be someone that it might help out there that has been scratching their head going what went wrong here. Anyway, the son was shown this explained about that part of it and not to drive the tube down as deeply as he had been so that the animals didn't have to rub their nose in the dirt to get a good bite on the top. Later in the day we went over setting his snares a little differently as well as opening a female to see how many pups she had given birth to. He figured out that saving that old tom bobcat cost him more than the price he would get from the fur and got permission to kill it out of season from fish and game.
windypants
Well-Known Member
I had my best day ever today--I got two doubles. I went up looking near a neighbors calving ground this morning and had one cross the road in front of me. It was pretty close to another neighbors house and I didn't feel right about shooting there, so I went another half-mile to my destination. I started hiking up to a good lookout, but spotted a coyote across the valley behind me. And then I saw three more on the ridge above it.
So I headed for the lone one but had to circle around the cows and calves on their bedground. By the time I got to where I wanted to shoot from, this coyote was joined by the one that had crossed the road. I got set up, ranged it (376 yards), and made a heart shot on the first one and it ran a little ways before it crashed behind some brush. I quickly chambered another round, but the other coyote wasn't leaving. It would start to run then come back, but it was obscured by the brush. I tried a shot through an opening, but it must have been deflected. Now it decided to leave, so I hit the coyote fight button on my e-caller and it turned and came toward me. I dialed my scope back to zero and yelled when it came into an opening. I got it at 165 yards.
This evening I slogged through the snow up to a point across from where I saw the other three this morning. We were having a mini blizzard and it was snowing like a bugger, but I spotted two of them as soon as I got there about 100 yards apart. I did a single female howl to stop them and shot one at 367 yards. Then I hit the fight button again and tried to get on the other one. Between the poor visibility and struggling with the deep snow I was laying in, I didn't get the shot. But it was heading towards me last I saw it. So I zeroed my scope again and waited. After a bit It went back up to where I first saw it and I got it at 334 yards. Boy is that e-caller a big help for getting a good shot!
When I left there I cut the tracks of a spooked coyote behind me, so the second one had circled in. It looked to be a big male track. So the end result is that there are two dens full of pups that aren't going to happen. That makes 20 that I've taken in our valley this winter.
So I headed for the lone one but had to circle around the cows and calves on their bedground. By the time I got to where I wanted to shoot from, this coyote was joined by the one that had crossed the road. I got set up, ranged it (376 yards), and made a heart shot on the first one and it ran a little ways before it crashed behind some brush. I quickly chambered another round, but the other coyote wasn't leaving. It would start to run then come back, but it was obscured by the brush. I tried a shot through an opening, but it must have been deflected. Now it decided to leave, so I hit the coyote fight button on my e-caller and it turned and came toward me. I dialed my scope back to zero and yelled when it came into an opening. I got it at 165 yards.
This evening I slogged through the snow up to a point across from where I saw the other three this morning. We were having a mini blizzard and it was snowing like a bugger, but I spotted two of them as soon as I got there about 100 yards apart. I did a single female howl to stop them and shot one at 367 yards. Then I hit the fight button again and tried to get on the other one. Between the poor visibility and struggling with the deep snow I was laying in, I didn't get the shot. But it was heading towards me last I saw it. So I zeroed my scope again and waited. After a bit It went back up to where I first saw it and I got it at 334 yards. Boy is that e-caller a big help for getting a good shot!
When I left there I cut the tracks of a spooked coyote behind me, so the second one had circled in. It looked to be a big male track. So the end result is that there are two dens full of pups that aren't going to happen. That makes 20 that I've taken in our valley this winter.
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