Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
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I don't have any pictures now; I don't know where they went. I had some of one that was pretty big still had its milk teeth and was already big as the coyotes here with nice silvery legs and ears not the brown of our coyotes. I showed it to the game warden and asked him what he thought he said it was a hybrid with a dog. The other one was colored like a German Shepard big feet but smaller body. I killed one out on the Cheyenne River that had long shaggy fur that was a yellow color with blue eyes, the helicopter pilot had a head mount done with its head, it was running with three other coyotes that all looked like your normal coyote for that area. A few years back they were selling them in Denver, but people soon found out they didn't make good pets. They always had a wild streak in them. Back in the 30's one of the government trappers here in Wyoming had several that he had bred. It used to be that if you typed in coydogs pictures of him and his would come up on wikapeda. According to the USDA APHIS Wildlife Services, studies only about a third of the coyotes studied with DNA sampling had any domestic dog in them, a large portion had some wolf in them depending on where you were as to what type of wolf. In the northern states as you would expect it was mostly grey wolf. In the southern and eastern states, it was red wolf. Down where you are it was Mexican Red wolf, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, were states with Mexican Red Wolf hybrids. California and Nevada weren't mentioned but I know there were studies done there as well. Illinois and Ohio both had large DNA sampling done. The Chicago area had Gray Wolf hybrids.
We have what they call mountain coyotes here that are a bigger coyote, with a blacker mane some will go 60-70 lbs. They have bigger feet and I suspect if they had DNA testing done, they would have some wolf genes. My guess would be it had some Mexican Red Wolf not one you would get much for at the fur buyers. Looks like you have several animals marking at that sent post and they have a mostly meat diet, coyote, cat, and fox, our little swift fox will do that kind of marking in the middle of the road where there is some feature like two roads coming together, or a good stock trail coming into the road or crossing over it.
In 1986 I was visiting with a very good knowledgeable trapper out of Montana about some smart coyotes I was having problems with. He suggested that I get some fresh scat from a coyote out of the area, kill the coyote open it and push the scat out of its bowels so that I got the smell from the scent glands on it put it in a clean glass jar, as I pushed it out of the bowel, and use that on my backing, and no other sent a really clean trap and pan cover, sometimes what we have to do isn't always clean and pretty, to catch the bad actors. That's why the disposable gloves and garbage bag in the truck. Extreme steps for extremely well-trained animals. You can also express the anal glands of a freshly killed coyote, from another area, and just use that on a nice flat set with a low backing in the vicinity of a natural marking spot. Again, I like to use a cotton ball with a piece of 16-gauge tie wire pushed through it as an anchor for it, that gives some visual appeal and isn't gaudy and too much, just a subtle sight attraction aide to my scent post. Not disturbing any more dirt then needed to set the trap and really well blended back in. With these smart ones, sometimes, you need to change your mind set to where it's like if it finds me it will shoot me kind of line of thought it's like going into a war zone challenge and approach. No, it won't shoot you, but you want that type of mind set that you are going to go into its home and not let it know that you were there, set up a booby trap for it and come out on top of the adventure. They are predators and they are at level yellow all of the time but when they have been trained, they will be at a level orange, and go to level red at the siltiest hint of something being out of place. I'm sure glad that they all aren't that way.
trapper1954
Well-Known Member
heres a how I get a non target out. Rope the back feet and tie to the head.
AKWARD LOL. Whoops. It happens.
It's interesting the ways people release unwanted catches. With antelope I normally laid on them and released the spring tension. I figured out that not using any urine stopped them from visiting my sets as they were wanting to mark it with their own urine. I have released a couple of great Pyrenees dogs and they just kind of were happy to see someone and let me release the spring tension. With out of season bobcat catches I have a catch pole that I hold them by the neck and then release them. Badgers are a different story, a nice piece of oak and wacke them across the bridge of the nose take them out of the trap, they will snort and wake up look at you turn and go the other way. Not using bait at a set lowered the chances of skunk catches and the type of set made makes a difference as well. With snares I don't use trail sets to avoid unwanted catches and in fence dig under sets you can tell what animals are using the hole by what sign is left in the wire and the dirt the size of the hole says a lot as well, but the loupe size is a major determining factor as well as how it is placed. Badgers crawl under a fence with their nose almost on the ground so if you place the bottom of the loupe off of the ground so the fox, bobcat or coyote's feet go under it so will the majority of the badgers. Deer and antelope, the size of the loupe is a big factor, the hole is also a big factor with them. But I don't have a lot of the animals that other people have to contend with, pigs' aoudads ect. so, I would have to take the time to study them and figure out what was the major contributing factor in them investigating my trap sets and how that they used fence crawl under holes. That's all part of the alure of doing predator control work using my mind to figure things out that the average person has no need to even think about. I told one of my wife's friends that I would feed and water for her so that she could go visit family for Christmas. She only has 17 cows, so it really doesn't take long, and I haven't really done any of it in over 50 years so it's kind of interesting for me, as well as enjoyable.
trapper1954
Well-Known Member
Yep, natures earth movers, drag it up by the chain enough to hit it on the bridge of the nose or put a 22 long rifle in its head. The fur badgers have some really nice fur that won't break when used to trim the hood on a parka when it gets frosted with your breath, The hair badgers not much use for anything. There was a time when the Air Force was using a lot of parkas that a good fur badger would bring $25.00 skinned and squared flat stretched. I have had a few people from the badger state ask for them to be mounted as they are called a furbearer here, they have to be tagged with an international furbearer's tag, for the taxidermist. The season is 12 months out of the year here and I have been asked not to turn any of them loose alive. They are an interesting creature to call in, you will see some grass moving then see it running bow legged like a bulldog, stop look and listen then run some more towards the call. I called a mom and its young ones in one day; she had three young ones. They got about 20 feet before I started shooting them, they all stopped and just stood there, never did break and run. I had my son with me one day and called one in by itself, he didn't see it till it was about 50 feet out I had a good laugh at his expense because it really freaked him out that it was so close to him before he saw it, why didn't you tell me it was that close dad! I was looking out farther for a coyote to move and you let it get that close to me.
trapper1954
Well-Known Member
That guy was holding on tight down there and I just took the trap off.. That was a middle of the road set
I have had them do that before. It is amazing how tight they can hold on to dirt and it seems like they can swell themselves up, like a cork in a bottle. It helps to have been around them enough to kind of know what to expect of them. Hissing, growling and pulling all the way.
I had a guy once tell me he had parked his truck opened the door and stepped out slipped on some ice and fell down out of his truck. I laughed at him and asked if he was okay. Then I asked him why he wasn't aware of the ice when he parked, and why he hadn't seen it when he opened his truck door. Who the h890 pays that much attention to where they park was his reply. I do you were raised in town weren't you, I grew up in the country, where you looked to see if you had a mud hole, cow pie, cactus or rattle snake where you were parking and that when you opened your door to get out you double checked to make sure you hadn't missed something before you got out of your truck. You're an a250876, maybe so but I'm not the one who ended up on my back after doing the splits when I was getting out of my truck this morning. Gotta have a little sense of humor at times even if it as dry as the Sihara. It's only funny if everyone laughs or at least smiles. May everyone have a safe and healthy weekend, and a very good Christmas, spend good time with family and friends, time is the only thing that I can spend that I can't make up or get back! May God bless us all again this coming year!
trapper1954
Well-Known Member
10 4 as we say on the radio and same for you and yours. You all have a blessed holiday be safe and keep one eye open. We will be QRT.
Not a lot of people understand Q codes that haven't been trained RTO's from what I can tell QRT is asking if you should stop transmitting. I see no need to do that. There are well over 100 Q codes if I remember correctly. Maritime are different then aviation and lrrp are different all are different yet from civilian.
