half grown coyote stalking my chickens - Page 3

We have a year round bounty on coyotes because they are such a menace to livestock and people and aren't 'native' to this area. Now as far as restocking with wolves that interbred with coyotes, I have heard that one as the wolves were supposed to reduce the deer population, just a rumour, but I have seen the results of alot of the 'brilliant' ideas the gov just goes and does with hideous outcomes on a super large scale. So it wouldn't surprise me. Coyotes are not endangered species, they are as good for the environment as a feral cat.

Down here a few years ago oh I would say about 20 or so years we had issues with coydogs. The idea was that someone dumped these dogs after failed "wolf" hybrid breeding. But it came out that what more than likely happened is heavy hunting of coyotes deminished the population allowed for female coyotes and feral dogs to interbreed. I would assume and while I am not an expert that wolves and coyotes did something similar. Our biggest concern around here is bobcats, skunks, dogs and coons.

 

I have heard reports of coyotes sending in a female to lure male dogs out to kill but only in times of starvation. We had them coming into the boarding barn and grabbing cats in broad daylight. At one point in time we had an issue with a cougar but she never attacked anything at the barn. Bobcats were taking out a friends goats and chickens last year.

 

Coyotes "sending in a female" is a myth.  It is from Jack London's "Call of the Wild" at the beginning of the book and it involved wolves (which wolves don't do that either).

Never said I seen it or believed it just I had heard it. Of course I hear a lot of things from old timers around here that have since been proven to be myths.

More than likely the female had a litter to feed so was trying to sneak in to get whatever it could, dogs don't act on abstract logic reasoning....

I actually sat down and did some research on this last night. All myths have some sort of truth to them. What I found was this. At some point in time someone had some dogs that probably seen a coyote, wolf ect. stalking them for free scraps, maybe they wanted to eat the people who knows. In most cases I could find wolf/coyotes have happened during times of harsh long term weather. Anyway dogs seen one ran out and was probably killed maybe partialy or all the way eaten. We know coyotes will snatch smaller animals and eat them. Dog or otherwise. And recently they have been reported coming in during the day and attacking smaller humans. Recently as in the last 10 years. I know here we have been under a drought. Im sure its hard for the wild animals to make it out there and a small dog, cat, chicken is easier to catch and feed to their pups than say a mouse or vole. The other day I seen the biggest coyote I have ever seen. The thing must have weighed in at 75 or 100 pounds. But since we do not have wolves down here I assume he was a hybrid of some sort.

if it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck........of course they are hybrids
 

Coyotes do fill an important niche in the ecology.  Besides keeping the local cottontail and sage rat population under control, their best work is disposing of all the unwanted dogs and cats who are taken "out to the country to live on a farm"

 

I fence them out and don't have problems with them.   A couple of times a year, they swing through to make sure they are still fenced out. There is no food here for them, so they don't stick around.

 

However, if any individual coyote starts to cause problems, he will be taken care of. In the meantime, I am live-and-let-live up until the point where they pose a danger to me and mine.

 

I do wish, though, that the coyotes would eat more deer.  This place is overrun with very unhealthy looking deer and they really need some serious thinning out.

Deer are the bane of my life around here. Mainly because I hit one a week after I got my new car. Not enough things to eat them and not enough tags being issued during hunting season. There is a herd of about 25 or so does that visits the local hasting parking lot. What for I have no idea.

Wow, this post really got out of hand .  Yeah Oregon Blues, our barn is for some reason the local one to dump off the unwanted pets in.  I currently have 2 cats up for adoption that we trapped, neutered and rehabilitated.  The dumped off cats usually learn to survive quick and turn wild within a week on their own.  People suck some times, just take the poor thing to a shelter (which have a high turnaround around here without putting them to sleep).