This thread reminds me of how much the gen-pop is removed from wildlife. So much hysteria, and myths, surround coyotes.
I’ve coexisted with them on a small livestock farm for over two decades. They have been a non-issue and are (along with snakes) one of the best rodent population controls you can ask for.
Actually 2 people have been killed by coyotes. Google says 400,000-500,000 coyotes are killed in the US per year. That means the live population could easily be 4-6 million. 2 people killed? Ever? Coyotes are pretty benign. Horses kill 20 people a year (7.2M in the US in 2016)
Cows take their time giving birth, they lay down and strain, get up and walk around, lay down again, strain some more and eventually lay down for one more hard push and deliver, then lay there resting for a bit.
A neighbor had some cows he was watching, everyone was having coyote problems, too many had raised the past few years.
This one evening check he drove up to an eerie sight, one cow was laying down straining and a half circle around her hind end of coyotes, some dozen of them, some were laying down, some standing up, watching her.
As he drove closer, coyotes scampered and he found cow with calf half out, already chewed on by coyotes and now dead, also the cow’s hindend badly torn into and one leg in shreds.
He had to put her out of her misery.
He said he kept having nightmares over that, a year later sold out and became a salesman in a farm machinery dealership.
Most people don’t know what wild animals do, those cute pretty documentaries rightfully don’t show the real gruesome world of eat or be eaten, is not proper fare for today’s humans and our tender sensibilities.
If you are living with it, well, you know, when someone will say, oh, wildlife is not hurting anything?
We know they don’t know and will never understand it really is a dog eat dog world out there, we have sublimated that to being oh so polite when we do it to others in our civilized world, we don’t go bopping other’s in the head to use them as our resources, but that is what wildlife lives by, every day, eat or be eaten and in not very kind ways.
There is a reason there has been no more sheepherding here for decades now.
Too many coyotes made it impossible to keep them safe.
Before, when sheep were here in larger numbers, they were kept under control, but not so much later, as civilization encroached and gave coyotes more resources and people not interested in controlling their numbers.
I had a feeling this is why the ranchers said what they said, re: the calving.
We shot a couple while we were out there. It’s a little more urgent when the coyote is chasing the hunting dogs (3 of them) with every tooth in his head showing.
No time to be soft and fluffy about it, “live and let live”. If they’re chasing three dogs (who were running ‘from the coyote’ because we recalled them to us), they’re dead.
Edit: Also, those coyotes out there are WAY bigger than the ones we have in Northwest Indiana. Probably double the size, with a much different coat.
My family raised goats growing up. Watched a rabbit scamper under the fence and the coyote stop (it had clearly hit the electric fence before). The fence was built with predators in mind–10 strand high tensile starting just 6" off the ground.
I don’t think the average coyote would go after a horse so I didn’t build our current fence to such standards. I haven’t lost any sleep at night over it despite hearing their activity nearby.
Not judging anyone who shoots one actively going after a pet or livestock as that’s a totally different story, but killing any that you see isn’t really an answer. There has to be a way to live with nature–give and take.
Because Coyotes will kill newborn calves if they get the chance. A former neighbor lost several calves to coyotes one year. He would share the feeling.
@Bluey I remember he said something about the coyotes attacking the cow as well as she gave birth. It would give me nightmares as well.
Britain has the right idea. Kill off all the apex predators. No more hassle. Didn’t need wildlife or a functional ecosystem anyway. Just lots of sheep. Also, get rid of the humans who are in the way of more sheep. They can be laborers, sailors, or just get their butts to North America. Who cares?!
Oh I know why, really. Just found it funny - no mention of “fence them out” or “get a LGD” or any of the mentions here.
Just “shoot them.”
Are the children carrying their lunches with them? Maybe they should start buying their lunches inside the school?
I don’t know. I used to sit on a rock in my yard, having coffee in the morning, when the turkeys waddled by, crossing the street in front of me to hit the hay field beyond. Behind them, they coyots would trot along, parting their number around me on my rock, looking at me as they went by, following the flock. I didn’t have livestock of my own for them to ponder, and they had naught but passing interest in what was sitting on the rock as they went by. I used to laugh at the suburban women in my town wringing their hands about losing their cats, and getting another one, and thinking I ought to get a bumper sticker “Proud Suburban mom, supporting the coyote population, one cat at a time”.
Man, seriously? A kid can’t pack a lunch for school because the city won’t take care of an out-of-control coyote problem?
I’m alright with live-and-let-live to an extent, but that’s pushing it.
We have been a wildlife preserve since 1957, no one has hunted or disturbed our wildlife in their prime raising habitat, our canyons.
The game wardens some years ago reported that studies had shown, with normal coyote numbers, if you leave them be, just scare them away from human dwellings, they learn to stay away.
Coyotes defend their territory from other coyotes, pairs part of the year to raise their young, packs in the winters to preserve resources.
If you kill some around your area, others will take over their territory and, being new to it, will not know to stay away from human territory, so you again have a problem.
Best let them be, keep all wildlife scared away so they don’t become a human problem, which then becomes a wildlife control problem that ends up badly for wildlife.
Of course, in those here rare years where coyote numbers explode, all bets are off how that will play, predator pressure will affect prey and humans and their livestock and pets.
Then predator control is an adequate response, quicker and more humane than to wait until disease and starving brings numbers back to a manageable level we can co-exist with.
Re: Coyotes attacking when cows are birthing. When my broodmare was due to deliver, I would sleep outside for the days on either side of her delivery.
That poor farmer - that must have been awful. But not unexpected…
Re: Coyotes and turkeys. We were hauling out on a back road and to one side was a band of gobblers in full display. They had formed a horseshoe shape around a coyote and were ushering him away. They meant business.
I have seen even the gentlest barn dogs take an exaggerated interest in a horse who was just put down. Seems like coyotes (or as is the case in my area, coydogs) would act similarly.
If you really were “all right” with live-and-let-live, you wouldn’t be so quick to judge and criticize someone’s post instead of taking a moment to think about the reason it was posted, and consider that it was thoughtful and meant to be helpful.
Since no one in clanter’s neighborhood is able to shoot the coyotes, and AC is unwilling to help, it seemed obvious to me that the coyotes were watching the schoolchildren walking to school because the children are carrying food that the coyotes can smell. So, since none of the grownups are able – or willing – to get rid of the coyotes, maybe they could get rid of the bagged lunches and buy their children school lunches and then maybe – just maybe – the coyotes might lose interest in their children.
But you go right ahead and jump to judge and attack, because – ya know – you may possibly not be as canny as a coyote.
Who urinated in your breakfast sustenance?
If kids have to buy lunches at school to avoid being scoped out by coyotes, I think it’s time to throw down some poison and deal with the collateral damage.
That’s different than a barn cat disappearing every once in awhile, ya know.
Coyotes are very curious. I’ve had them stop and stare at me while out walking or just driving by. They’ll even come toward me a few steps if I whistle at them. Most likely they are just curious about the kids.
I did have a rather unnerving experience with a pair of coyotes several years ago. I had some first calf heifers in a small pasture adjacent to our corrals. I was checking on them early one morning and noticed one of the older cows was calving out in the main pasture. The heifers were fine so I decided to walk out to check on the cow. I had my dog, Katie, a catahoula mix with me. As I walked toward the cow I noticed a pair of coyotes lurking in the fence line. The cow had finished calving and was cleaning her calf. Coyotes began to approach the cow and Katie challenged them. Coyotes do this weird posturing behavior where they arch their backs, open their mouths widely and sort of hop sideways at you. So that’s how coyote came towards me. I picked up a branch and Katie came back to me. About that time the cow and calf began to rejoin the main herd and the herd, led by the bull, started coming to the cow. The coyotes left. Over the years we lost very few calves to coyotes, most were weak or sickly to begin with.
Your dismal lack of thoughtfulness in any sense of the word is far more offensive than coyote piss in my Post Toasties. If I didn’t feel so sorry for you I would be laughing out loud at your disgusting display.
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