Coyotes

[dentonfabrics]

Two nights ago, we were awakened by a pack of coyotes very close to my house. This was the third time this week we've heard them, the other two times were in the morning.

And twice today, I saw a solitary coyote trotting down the road in Nash Stream Forest. I saw a grey one heading in, then a light brown coyote on the way out. Both looked healthy.

Are coyotes more active this time of year? There's a lot of misinformation on the web about them, probably due to cross-breeding and regional genetic differences, but I'm quite sure that this is not their breeding season.

Anyone have any information/opinions/etc?


bob

 

[Chip]

get used to it. they will kill cats and small dogs, carry and transmit mange, hunt in yippy packs at night and run solo through your yard during the day. it used to be only the sick were ever seen, but with little or no hunting pressure they have no fear of man. many states have 10 month hunting seasons with no bag limits, which indicates the DEP's view of them. DNA indicates the eastern cotote is a coyote/wolf hybrid.

here's "our" coyote about 15' away from my wife, who's inside our garden.

 

[Waumbek]

They've been all over the place here (Franconia) all summer.

 

[NewHampshire]

They are very active year round. We have a pack that occasionally traverses the powerline cut about 25 yards behind our house and we can hear them at any time of the year and at any given hour of the night. With all natural predators (except for man who does not actively hunt them as much as more popular game) non-existent they have moved into places they once did not frequent. They are now pushing into more suburban areas as the years pass.

Brian

 

[sardog1]

The young of the year are now about 4-6 months old, depending on when they were whelped. (Conception occurs in January -- March, gestation is same as dogs at 63 days, so whelping is from late March to late May usually. Most estrus sign that I see hereabouts is in end of January and very beginning of February.) This means that some young are now old enough to be out learning the ropes. And they're all quite hungry as they grow.

So, I would expect to see more activity this time of year from the need to feed and teach young'uns. Plus the cooler weather facilitates running around during the day when you can see them. They're "out there" all the time, perhaps just more visible to you when they move around more now during the daylight hours. (Kinda like SAR dogs -- you may have no idea how often they cruise through your neighborhood during the night when it's cooler. )

 

[Fisher Cat]

We heard them when at the Sugarloaf II site about 3am in the morning. Growing up we heard them on occasion throughout the year, I can't recall any particular time them being more "active" than others. Course, we had plenty of livestock, and were deep in the woods, but we never, ever lost an animal to coyotes. Now Great Horned owls, weasels, raccoons, and hawks...that's another story!

 

[una_dogger]

I have heard them the past two weekends in a row in Twin Mountain. When I lived in the Hudson Valley, NY -- where we had a high density of coyotes, I often began to hear them nightly this time of year, purely anectodotal, but I always took it as a sign of the coming of colder weather.

 

[Bigfoot]

I am never concerned about them. My wife is an Alpha Female and the pack master. If we hear them in the night she makes a noise and they all behave. I on the other hand am the omega.

 

[Waumbek]

Chip's backyard coyote picture (post #2) shows the tell-tale (ahem) distinction between coyote and domestic canine: coyotes run with their tails pointing straight down, your fido house pet runs with a tail straight up, straight out, windmilling, corkscrewing, wagging laterally,
circle 8's, etc....

 

[Hillwalker]

It's time

It's time to put a bounty on them.

 

[Chip]

Deer do MUCH more damage/death/disease unless you include pets, I guess. I'm surprised insurance companies haven't proposed a bounty on deer.

 

[dentonfabrics]

The young of the year are now about 4-6 months old, depending on when they were whelped. (Conception occurs in January -- March, gestation is same as dogs at 63 days, so whelping is from late March to late May usually. Most estrus sign that I see hereabouts is in end of January and very beginning of February.) This means that some young are now old enough to be out learning the ropes. And they're all quite hungry as they grow.

So, I would expect to see more activity this time of year from the need to feed and teach young'uns. Plus the cooler weather facilitates running around during the day when you can see them. They're "out there" all the time, perhaps just more visible to you when they move around more now during the daylight hours. (Kinda like SAR dogs -- you may have no idea how often they cruise through your neighborhood during the night when it's cooler. )

That sounds right. I didnt get a real close look at the grey one but the brown one was definately a youngster.

NH has no closed season for hunting or trapping coyote so I dont think we really need to put a bounty on them. Besides, who would fund the reward money? F&G? Don't think so.

 

[Hillwalker]

Funding

That sounds right. I didnt get a real close look at the grey one but the brown one was definately a youngster.

NH has no closed season for hunting or trapping coyote so I dont think we really need to put a bounty on them. Besides, who would fund the reward money? F&G? Don't think so.

Wonder who paid the bounties on Porcupines, Bears, and Bobcats when I was a kid here in NH?

 

[SAR-EMT40]

A couple of pictures that I took (remotely) at night at my workplace of a few coyotes that were scavenging a deer carcass I found on the property. I can't remember if I posted these before. I know the quality isn't the best.

Keith

 

[dentonfabrics]

Wonder who paid the bounties on Porcupines, Bears, and Bobcats when I was a kid here in NH?

Probably Fish & Game. They had money back then. Not anymore.

But anywayz, here's a picture of the coyote in question...

 

[Squintyken]

i hope this is rare...

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2154123

Toronto musician dies after coyote attack in Cape Breton

Mary Vallis, National Post


Taylor Mitchell, an up-and-coming singer-songwriter from Toronto, died this morning after she was attacked by two coyotes while hiking in Cape Breton Highlands National Park yesterday.

"[The victim] was airlifted to the QEII hospital in Halifax, where she died of her injuries early this morning," Sgt. Bridgit Leger of the RCMP said in an interview.

Officers with the RCMP detachment in Cheticamp, N.S., responded to a 911 call placed around 3:15 p.m. yesterday. When they arrived on Skyline Trail, a popular hiking route in the park, they found two coyotes attacking the young hiker.

 

[Hobbitling]

it's extreeeeeemly rare. like mind bogglingly rare.
possibly a first in history.

I'd bet on rabies, but who knows. If the coyotes near Toronto are as large and wolf hybridized as those in the northestern US then they'd make a formidable threat if they put their minds to it.

 

[DrewKnight]

it's extreeeeeemly rare. like mind bogglingly rare.
possibly a first in history.

Someone being attacked, or someone dying? On the attack front -- not so rare, especially if you take into account smaller children.

When coyotes really moved into Boston's South Shore about 15 years ago, my own personal first live sighting coincided with a small child being attacked and pinned down in his own back yard a few towns away... the toddler's mother ran out and beat the coyote off, and the kid survived with severe lacerations to his scalp. If the mom hadn't been close by... who knows?

I did a quick search -- WikiPedia (yeah, yeah, not an unimpeachable source!) cites 41 coyote attacks on humans between 1988 and 1997, and 48 between 1998 and 2003, and reaffirmed the kids-as-targets thing.

The same article stated there had only been two fatalities -- including the one in this thread -- so yes, deaths are fortunately rare. I guess to me it comes down to the usual mantra of dealing with wildlife -- treat them with respect and don't put yourself (or especially your kids and pets) in nature's crosshairs.

 

[Peakbagr]

I love to see coyotes.
Saw one last week out walking my dog. A black one on the right of way under power lines about 100 yds away. Quick look at each other then poof, disappeared into the brush.

Once I had one run by me almost close enough to touch. It was chasing a deer that hunters had shot at. The coyote was so intent on the scent and trail that she either didn't see me or deliberately ignored me as she ran by.

I love hearing them out back at night howling. I do keep close tabs on my small Lab on walks in case she were to run into a group of them.

 

[Chip]

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2154123

Toronto musician dies after coyote attack in Cape Breton

Mary Vallis, National Post


Taylor Mitchell, an up-and-coming singer-songwriter from Toronto, died this morning after she was attacked by two coyotes while hiking in Cape Breton Highlands National Park yesterday.

"[The victim] was airlifted to the QEII hospital in Halifax, where she died of her injuries early this morning," Sgt. Bridgit Leger of the RCMP said in an interview.

Officers with the RCMP detachment in Cheticamp, N.S., responded to a 911 call placed around 3:15 p.m. yesterday. When they arrived on Skyline Trail, a popular hiking route in the park, they found two coyotes attacking the young hiker.

Very sad. The stuff legitimate nightmares are made of. Our eastern coyote is a DNA mix of western coyote and red wolf. I wonder if, in that part of North America, they might be mostly red wolf, which would make this somewhat easier to understand.