Questions about coyote behavior (rabbit, look, Michigan, Texas)
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I agree with stevo6. You shouldn't have a problem and since you have two dogs that makes three of you. If you do have a problem just stay close together as you go back home, as coyotes normally pick out a single victim before moving in to kill.
Also on the .22 ammo mentioned in the topic, they do make a huge ball that is fired from the primer only (no gunpowder in the round). It is a lot better than the .22 bird shot although it still will not kill very often.
Coyotes are sneaky animals. They will send a female coyote in their pack in heat to lure male dogs close enough to kill them. We had a coyote kill a fawn literally in our front yard. They can attack you and they certainly would grab one or both of your dogs and take off with them.
Please don't get mad at me folks but I was wondering how would a single coyote fair against a bigger dog such as a rotty or a decent size pitbull? I was wondering because if some of these butthole dogfighters might let their "fighters" loose on a coyote would people still get mad?
As I said in an earlier post, coyotes can, and have gone after people. And a coyote will try to snatch or bite a pet.
I cannot give direct links to youtube videos because of the nature of them, but here is a youtube search so people can decide for themselves if they want to view them, some a grapic and there is vulgar language in them.
Coyote attacks are considered by some wildlife experts as a rare occurrence, but with urban sprawl and complacency of people feeding wild animals, people are coming into contact with animals more and more.
Okay, so coyotes will inevitably kill dogs. Which begs the question, what about all those coyote/dog crosses out there?
We have coyotes all around out here, and while we've lost cats, it's never been to a coyote (mostly to old age). We've never lost a calf or foal to coyotes. When we had a Great Pyrenees, the coyotes avoided our place (and every other place in the area with a GP); something about a breed that was bred to be able to successfully fight bears seems to make the coyotes uncomfortable. Donkeys are good for that, too, but impractical in an urban environment. Also, there's plenty of natural prey for them here, something that might not be as much the case in an urban environment, either (though most people would be surprised at the wildlife that exists right around them but takes care not to be seen).
Speaking of which, I used to often see, 40 years ago, a coyote running with a pack of dogs about five blocks from downtown Dallas.
Don't think for a minute that they only kill smaller animals than themselves.
They kill livestock also and not just chickens, they take down cattle, sheep, horses etc.
Not really, adult sheep and calves or foals, but adult horses and cattle are way out of coyote range. Big tom cougars will only rarely target grown horses or cattle, the risk is just too high. Wolves prefer to avoid large dangerous targets that can kill or injure them, and a wolf is triple the weight of a coyote. Even adult deer are tough prey for coyotes. An adult buck wearing a rack can easily fend off one or two coyotes, and a doe defending a fawn will kick and stomp a coyote or bobcat to death. Predators have a high sense of risk/reward, and wolves and coyotes are masters at sizing up a situation and backing off from risky ones and exploiting ones in which they have an edge.
Contrary to popular belief, coyotes only occasionally form packs, they do not have the complex social structure that wolves have. Coyotes usually hunt alone or in male/female pairs, packs are usually family members, parents and young.
Not really, adult sheep and calves or foals, but adult horses and cattle are way out of coyote range. Big tom cougars will only rarely target grown horses or cattle, the risk is just too high. Wolves prefer to avoid large dangerous targets that can kill or injure them, and a wolf is triple the weight of a coyote. Even adult deer are tough prey for coyotes. An adult buck wearing a rack can easily fend off one or two coyotes, and a doe defending a fawn will kick and stomp a coyote or bobcat to death. Predators have a high sense of risk/reward, and wolves and coyotes are masters at sizing up a situation and backing off from risky ones and exploiting ones in which they have an edge.
Contrary to popular belief, coyotes only occasionally form packs, they do not have the complex social structure that wolves have. Coyotes usually hunt alone or in male/female pairs, packs are usually family members, parents and young.
In PA; our Game Commission use to tell us that coyotes would only go after the sick and helpless. I was fishing with a friend in a small jon boat in the middle of a lake about half mile long and quarter mile wide. We heard a splash and looked at a deer that jumped into the lake. It swam right towards us and passed within a hundred yards as it headed towards the opposite side of the lake. It was a spike buck and we thought that we could see that it was bleeding from the neck. We followed it to shore. When it came out of the lake; a coyote was waiting for it on the there side of the lake. We did not see the coyote/s take the deer down – but (after swimming a quarter mile and injured) I would not have put money on the deer escaping.
My father and brother-in-law also spotted a four point buck that was driven into the lake by the coyotes. They thought that they saw blood on the hind quarters of the deer.
My feeling is that coyotes are opportunist – driven by availability and hunger. They will do what is necessary to survive - that is why they are now thriving.
It should be noted that in Eastern states such as PA most coyotes are hybrids, the result of matings with wolves, thus tend to be half again as heavy as are our pure strain Western coyotes. They also exibit more wolf like behavior, such as forming small packs. Because of these differences they do take adult deer. Three or four 40 pound Eastern coyotes are certainly a threat to a deer, although once again a mature buck with antlers would still be a formidable target for such a group, and very well could bang them up pretty good and fight his way clear and get away. In the West, a pair of 25 pounders is not much of a threat to a big buck, and the wise coyotes usually rarely try, except when they have some kind of advantage. An example of this might be a buck badly injured during the rut, or one weak from winter starvation hampered by heavy snow.
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