Coyotes (Alpha female)

[chickbea]

Quote:

 

[nnbreeder]

I gotta agree, I've been hunting Coyotes close to 30 years now and have only seen packs in late fall/winter and they have been family groups. Now in extreme weather they may band together for hunts but that is unusual as they generally just don't get along.

 

[willkatdawson]

We had beavers in our lake. Their dam was causing damage to the near by road so the state sent a wildlife biologist from the ag dept to trap them. He was great to talk to, like a walking encyclopedia. I asked him when the coyotes were yeping and screaming loudly did that mean they had made a kill. He said no. He said they are solitary hunters. He said the loud yeping was either the a female in heat returning to a group or a mother returning to her pups and the pups asking for food loudly. He said the fact that they don't hunt in packs is why they only have sucess in hunting animals under 50lbs or so. He also said they will eat a kill together leading some to think they killed the pray together. I hope he's right because I have three large dogs that live outside. I live on 30 acres and have seen several coyotes but to my knowledge have never had any trouble. I pray I don't.

 

[chickbea]

That's interesting to know. When I hear them running by me at night all yelping and hooting it always sounds like there are about 50 of them! Of course, everything sounds bigger at night - when I'm camping a chipmunk outside of the tent sounds like a bear to me!!

 

[keystonepaul]

yep, the last couple folks on coyote structure got it right- family groups till the pups disperse. Coyotes do come together at times to hunt in the winter, but don't spend the whole time together. We've seen mostly singles, some doubles a few triples and foursomes, and one fivesome of tracks when hunting them in winter with hounds. Following mile upon mile of tracks finds that they might spend several hours together and go thier seperate ways, especially if theirs more than two together in winter. They do sound like fifty when several are howling though!! Keystonepaul

 

[Jarhead]

Usually when I see coyotes they are all females trolling for younger males at the pub.

Sorry I just couldn't resist.

 

[Rainman]

Quote:
I feel I must point out that the land needed to grow food to feed cows is much larger than what you need to feed a human. The amount of caloric energy (and land) lost by feeding the cow to then eat is very high. It's pretty inefficient (I admit it's definately very tasty, boy do I miss me some cheeseburgers

). Though I am a fan of Kingsolver, in her new book she states that eating local meats makes it environmentally okay. However, she misses the point that it isn't the transport of the meat that is the issue, but that animals with multiple stomaches (cows, sheep, etc., not chickens or pigs) put out huge amounts of methane, also known as cow farts

. That is where the real greenhouse gas issue is coming from with these animals, not the transport. Gross, but true. So though she is technically right with the quote you sited as well as the one in her newer book, it is overly simplistic and doesn't take into account the fact that all we can all hope to do is lessen our impact, it's not all or nothing.

As a side, I just picked up the book you quote on tape from the library today, and I'm really excited to listen to it while putzing with my weaving.

Human caused climate change is a complete fraud. It's been running out of steam fast since those "decimal point" errors where discovered in NASA data. We should really be concerned about the global cooling that is actually happening.

 

[Jarhead]

The global cooling thing is very interesting. We have been noticing it for a few years here. This summer was unusually cool here. Sure we had some hot days, but nothing like it was 20 years ago. We have noticed a generally milder climate in the spring and fall as well. Not just us noticing either. Just in talking to others casually it comes up, even the old timers notice. Nothing scientific about it as far as this goes, but it seems to have cooled off a few degrees over time to me.

 

[Akane]

If a pack of coyotes comes across a dog they will kill it as a group. They may choose to hunt alone but they will fight together if it happens. Large dogs have been killed easily that way. Luckily coyotes are mostly cowards. They would prefer to go after something smaller that they can eat and avoid your large dogs unless both happen to run into each other in the yard or the dogs start something with the coyotes. Not to say they won't go after just about anything if they get hungry enough though.

Our weather has been odd since last fall. It's hasn't really been hotter than usual or colder than usual. It's both. We had some extremely cold days with record lows and some record highs alternating all winter through summer. Then the temp just dropped out a few weeks ago and it's staying cooler than usual but stable now. We also had excessive snow and rain to the point if we hadn't had those record highs melting each snow fall off before the next Iowa would truly have been one big lake by summer.

 

[AngieChick]

Quote:
I feel I must point out that the land needed to grow food to feed cows is much larger than what you need to feed a human. The amount of caloric energy (and land) lost by feeding the cow to then eat is very high. It's pretty inefficient (I admit it's definately very tasty, boy do I miss me some cheeseburgers

). Though I am a fan of Kingsolver, in her new book she states that eating local meats makes it environmentally okay. However, she misses the point that it isn't the transport of the meat that is the issue, but that animals with multiple stomaches (cows, sheep, etc., not chickens or pigs) put out huge amounts of methane, also known as cow farts

. That is where the real greenhouse gas issue is coming from with these animals, not the transport. Gross, but true. So though she is technically right with the quote you sited as well as the one in her newer book, it is overly simplistic and doesn't take into account the fact that all we can all hope to do is lessen our impact, it's not all or nothing.

As a side, I just picked up the book you quote on tape from the library today, and I'm really excited to listen to it while putzing with my weaving.

Human caused climate change is a complete fraud. It's been running out of steam fast since those "decimal point" errors where discovered in NASA data. We should really be concerned about the global cooling that is actually happening.

I am not going to get into a discussion about global climate change, the factual scientific research is out there and if people choose to ignore it than that is on them. People confuse climate and weather all the time. Look up the Academy of Sciences reports, there are also many more reports from the interntional scientific communities. If people choose to ignore the facts and cling onto the opinions of the very very very few dissentors that are propped up, then there is really nothing anyone can say to change that.