I tried that with the one that followed me. Nothing deterred it. I screamed myself hoarse one day, and repeatedly blew a hunting dog whistle, waving my arms, etc. It continued to follow me and 3 medium sized dogs, barking along the way.
My biggest dog was not happy about it and kept stopping in between me and the coyote as we retreated. I was grateful for that – my other two dogs were one old, deaf and kind of blind 13 year old, and a 12 month puppy who had a lot of bravado but was likely to run away if anything bad went down.
Not to hijack, but it appears that I have a playful coyote puppy living in the woods near my outdoor ring. I have found a jolly ball in a paddock moved, a fly spray bottle down in the ring appears to have been used as a play toy more than once, some small puppy-like poops in the ring, small holes dug in the ring (down to the stone dust) and lots and lots of footprints in the ring!
And then I actually saw him yesterday morning. Absolutely adorable as all floofy puppies are. He was laying down kinda on the edge of the woods outside the ring (maybe 20 feet away from me) - when he saw me he got up and sauntered off into the woods.
He doesn’t seem to be bothering the horses. Just enjoying the facilities. Do I need to do anything do you think?
I know we have lots of coyotes generally around and they haven’t been a problem. My husband spotted one quite close to the barn around dusk, but no issues.
Didn’t read all the comments, but that long pee, and the barking also… Hmm, i’m going to guess she was in season and looking for a male dog.
We have a bunch of them here…they will bark on occasion. Mostly they do that yip yipping stuff, but sometimes bark. I holler at them. And my dogs bark at them. I don’t think they cross the creek tho. Have never seen their tracks around the compound. There are so many possums, squirrels and raccoons …oh and groundhogs and armadillos that i’m guessing our guys here are pretty fat.
We tend to get very dry here in PNW as summer goes on, and this year things are really dry. Coyotes will come in closer to barn area for water. I now put small water containers out near wildlife trails on our property to try and avoid coyotes getting comfortable coming in too close.
Horses are not bothered by them. In fact, my mare will sometimes chase the coyote in pasture.
We have suburban eastern coyotes here. Very comfortable around people. They live in the little pockets of woods and brush and along the high tension power lines. But they are commonly seen in suburbia and in town. No packs seen.
Mostly people are happy to coexist and the coyotes keep the rodent population down. Unfortunately the coyote family near me have had issues with mange. Last year a mangy youngster was getting weak and desperate and was approaching people walking small dogs. He tracked me with my small dog and was not dissuaded with any noise or rocks I could throw while holding my dog. Definitely not normal behavior, but he was obviously sick.
I didn’t say they think together, but I do think it’s very plausible that they could use each other (in the pack) to their own advantage. Again, not luring in the way we think of it (as I said above) but they very well could be using the pack to their hunting advantage.
In the particular example discussed, if a dog wanders to investigate one coyote, another could come behind and take it down while it’s distracted other one, and drag it off. Did they plan it? Probably not. Would they share food? Well, I would figure if it was large enough and one got a belly full, they’d walk away and the next coyote would dig in. Not “sharing” in the sense we share.
Again, in my area, they certainly enjoy a newborn calf if they can get one. That’s a far cry from a “small rodent”.
As far as evidence goes, not that Google is super reliable but the US National Parks website (which should be halfway reliable) even discussed how coyotes hunt in pairs or with several other family members of the pack.
When the distressed (stupid) baby dear was screaming its head off basically in my back yard, it only attracted just one coyote.
At my house we are all for letting nature be nature, but I refused to watch that happen in my back yard so Mr. Trub hung out in the yard (safe distance from the baby and coyote) and was enough of a presence to keep the coyote from coming too close, until the mother deer appeared. The mother deer being there was enough for the coyote to trot off to do other things.
And yes, their main diet is still rodents, rabbits and simple small things, but if a distressed fawn is available I have no doubt they would have gladly dragged that off for a meal too.
[quote=“Pico_Banana, post:63, topic:787416”]
it appears that I have a playful coyote puppy living in the woods near my outdoor ring. have found a jolly ball in a paddock moved, a fly spray bottle down in the ring appears to have been used as a play toy more than once, some small puppy-like poops in the ring, small holes dug in the ring (down to the stone dust) and lots and lots of footprints in the ring!
…
He doesn’t seem to be bothering the horses. Just enjoying the facilities. Do I need to do anything do you think [/quote]
Nah. Just secure any items you don’t want wandering off and don’t leave out cat food. Enjoy the little one’s antics!
That is possible but it’s not really the right season; at least not in my area. But not sure where the OP is. Here, females would be in season in early spring, and pups born in May or so. Apparently, unlike domestic dogs, they only mate once a year. (I just looked that up because I didn’t know; it wouldn’t make sense to come into season again in the fall but domestic dogs typically cycle every 6-ish months.) But of course - any individual can have an abnormal hormonal pattern once or twice.
I had a litter on the property last year–four babies! They played hard! I had no issues with them when they were a family unit other than seeing evidence like holes dug and various dog toys relocated. I had a camera on that part of the property and regularly got raucous video! Once the parents kicked them loose, two of the young ones did investigate a lot closer to the barn, and had zero fear. I hazed them hard at that point.
If you find your guy is still very curious once he looks more like a grown animal, hazing is important. Fear of people helps to keep them safe.
I was reminded of this thread while hacking around the farm this morning. Coyotes are very, very common and very habituated in the area I live. They really don’t cause much bother, unless you let your cats free roam outside. I’ve been barked at, we had one juvenile coyote hang on the front lawn of our 60 unit condo complex. I’ve never really worried or been concerned.
This little guy was really interesting - I’ve never really bought into coy-dogs or coy-wolves, but this one is an unusual very dark brown with a patch of white on his chest - which I have never ever seen in a coyote. Standing still, he looked very much like a dog. But in motion he was all coyote.
We had a blue merle coyote around for a couple years. He was very distinctive! Can’t imagine he was anything but a dog cross, not sure how you’d get that color otherwise. He wasn’t bold, thankfully. Still guessing he got shot for his unique look.
Interesting! This coyote wasn’t a true black color. More of a “smoky buckskin” if he were a horse
The splash of white patch on his chest was what was most unusual to me. I’ve never seen white on any coyote before – and I’ve seen quite a few.
My understanding is that breeding with domestic dogs is unusual (the above article suggests 50 years back) so you’re more likely to see recessive traits coming out then an actual 50-50 (or 75-25 etc.) animal. But of course it is not impossible, or that 10% would not be there!
For the discussion a few days back of taking newborn calves, the same article I linked above mentions baby deer being an important food source in the early part of summer in New York State so calves would be a natural extension of that.
ETA: By “cooperative hunting” I am definitely not entering the “luring dogs“ argument! I am thinking more of the deer they will take down in the winter if they find one hampered by injury, disease, or deep snow.
When I took my hunter safety course the discussion of humane killing wildlife included the fact that adult white tail deer have no natural predators in our area (NY) and that they do not consider a three legged deer to be in need of being put down because they have found that even with only three functioning legs, the white tail deer do just fine (because of the lack of predators).
Since we have a very active coyote and coydog population in this area, I doubt they are hunting white tail in packs if the DEC is finding injured three legged deer are living just fine.
I’ve been going through this. We tried the air horn and I’m not sure it did anything. We were also hazing at the same time. I put up some empty soda cans filled with rocks as noisemakers, put out ammonia soaked rags in a baggie, etc. The cans and rags worked, but they just moved to a different area. We now put out a HULPPRE motion activated lights and sounds alarm from Amazon. It wasn’t too expensive. We’ve had it a week and we put it in a different spot every night. I’m having fun just wondering if the coyotes are getting bothered. Good luck!
I don’t know that they hunt as a pack, but in my corner of west Texas, we hear them nightly as a group. It’s several to many voices together, from the same location, sometimes in response to a single call elsewhere. The group sounds like lunatics - weird, unworldly yipping and “laughing” along with howls and barks. It’s fascinating…and I know they’re definitely several to many of them because they’ll let it rip from our driveway or front pasture, mere steps from my door. While they may not be working together to bring down a pronghorn or mule deer, they are very definitely spending time grouped up.
He was laying down kinda on the edge of the woods outside the ring (maybe 20 feet away from me) - when he saw me he got up and sauntered off into the woods.
