Coyotes have finally showed up

[woodmort]

I've had the same game cam posted since fall--nothing but red and gray foxes and a lot of deer. Finally, on the 29th, a pair of coyotes made a entrance. Click on the video link, coyotes 12-29 on my webpage jimmortensen.com . The lead animal is a big'un.

 

[7L Farm]

That is for sure a big un. The ones I see hear at the farm in Texas are half that size. I'll be good & keep my thoughts to myself.

 

[grasjm36]

Woah! Are you sure that isn't that crazy wolf coyote mix they've discovered in NY?

 

[CMV]

Well, they look healthy enough. May be just passing through? I haven't seen any around my way since fall. They are huge, aren't they? Still stuns me how big they are here in the Northeast compared to the ones out West.

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
Yeah I've seen them out in MT and it is like comparing bantams and regular chickens. I'm hoping they're on their way to someplace else but my neighbor says their is a den about half a mile SE of here. They do move seasonally too so maybe this is just their winter area. Until they bother the chickens I won't mess with them.

 

[janinepeters]

Hard to tell how big they are with nothing in the photo for scale. Do you have a photo of their tracks with something in it for scale?

 

[Arrowhead07]

They are plentiful here. I mean packs of 4 or more, They wake you up ay night and lay down in the cattle pastures waiting for the best treat ever! (placenta)

I hate them! They will tease dogs to chase them and then gang up and kill and eat the dogs. they do not kill enough deer and cause nothing but problems!

 

[woodmort]

Quote:
Here's a daylight picture of some full grown whitetail deer from the same camera.

Their prints in the snow were well mixed with the deer that use that trail all the time so hard to get a single print plus it is so warm that most have melted. I did spot one print on the pond and it was as big as a good sized dog.

 

[janinepeters]

Really hard to tell. I looked at the the two side by side but I can't really tell when the coyotes are the same distance away from the camera as the deer.

Anyway, seems like you have identified a wildlife corridor, and if you're interested in sizing the animals, you could stick something in the ground you know the size of. And photos of tracks, when you can find them, with ruler in photo for scale. Do you have any tracking books? Two good ones: Mark Elbroch's "Mammal Tracks and Sign", and Paul Rezendes's "Tracking and the Art of Seeing". Both give ranges of track sizes for many mammals, including coyotes and wolves.

 

[woodmort]

Judging by the shrubs when the first coyote is broadside to the camera it is about the same place as the nearer deer. I have a couple of tracking books the problem lies in that most give the track size for western coyotes which have a smaller foot and length between strides. I'm not exactly sure how tracks would help determine size, however. I do have about 100 pictures taken by the same camera of everything from robins to deer so have a good idea of size at that distance and that coyote is big--I'd guess 50 lbs or better. I suspect it is the resident male that uses this territory. I'm only sorry that I don't have a still picture but that camera takes a 5 sec video then waits 30 secs to take a still and by that time the animal is usually gone.