Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
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Straight Shooter
Well-Known Member
Wow, you don't see it that green in Wyoming very often.
No, you don't see it this green here very often. We had more snow this winter than in 30 years. And we have been getting more rain than normal. My Grandmother told me that after the end of the dustbowl era it rained every afternoon the whole month of June till the 60's and that before the dustbowl that her cousins grew corn here without irrigation, but that during the dustbowl they burnt the thorns off of the cactus with weed burners, so the cows could eat it. She managed to keep a milk cow and two or three head of beef cows alive as well as a few chickens then raised a garden to feed the family at that time. The government paid the ranchers three dollars each for their cattle then hired people to butcher and can them at the State Fair Grounds in Douglas Wyoming for a dollar a day. And people wondered why there weren't any antelope, elk or deer here in the 40's and 50's, they got ate or died of starvation!
That is some very interesting history. Most people don't know what tough times are. It was pretty tough back then for a whole lot of reasons. I also think that's why they appreciated everything so much what they did have. What you earn means something.
windypants
Well-Known Member
Ive always enjoyed your stories, Dave. And now we get pictures, too. I love it!
3+" of rain here in the last two days and it's supposed to just keep raining through tomorrow night. It's good to see it wet! I just got in from a walk and the water is running through the grass on the hillside.
3+" of rain here in the last two days and it's supposed to just keep raining through tomorrow night. It's good to see it wet! I just got in from a walk and the water is running through the grass on the hillside.
windypants
Well-Known Member
I've noticed that people that lived through that era had a deep-seated dislike for any predator—they were in direct competition for food!
Thank You guys I'm still learning new things and enjoying doing so. I hope the rains come slow enough that they mostly soak in I sure would like for some of it to make it up into Canada as well. My Grandparents did till they got older than the coyote became a symbol of living free my Grandmother especially though of them as a symbol of early life in Wyoming but she didn't think much of the way they killed her fawn friends. She told me that so many things were endangered especially if they messed with her things lol.
I was just visiting with Gene , he took over for me when I retired, He and his old dog Jack, Jack is a 16-year-old Jack Russell, are training a new dog, Zip they got a pair two days ago she showed 5 pups. They found three of the pups this morning bitten through the top of the head and two still alive in the den hole. He told me that Zip found the three about 30 feet from the den and the only tracks that they found were an old male coyote's tracks. Gene told me that out north of here they had about 50 percent antelope and deer killed by the winter, there are no rabbits or much else for food to feed the predators and that a lot of the coyotes didn't have any pups or even pair up this year but are killing a lot of lambs. He is having a hard time getting the killers nailed down as they don't go back to the same places to lay up, they aren't talking or coming to any calls. I have seen this before no food base, so they don't mate, their numbers are lower, so they then are more cautious, without pups to tie them down to a den they are just roaming around their areas, and going in to kill at random with not any rime nor reason to find a pattern and get them figured out. It's going to be a hard year to be doing control work a lot of long days head scratching, tracking and setting up for sniping them.
I know you said they won't mate but obviously the mating season would be somewhere around 2 months before whelping so just wondering if they sense trouble before it gets there if you follow my train of thought here.
They are a lot like livestock. If they are in poor health or undernourished, they don't cycle. If they do get bred and then get sick, run a high fever or get a real low body temp. or undernourished, they will abort the pups. Yes, they usually welp in about 62 days from breeding. Sometimes even when they do have pups, but the pups die at a young age, from illness or chilling from getting wet in a spring storm the female will not show they have nursed pups and be dry but if you open her and look at her uterus it will still show how many pups she had.
The world is an amazing place, and the animals do a lot of amazing things just to keep the species alive. It's mostly just built into them, so it happens without any thought or intentions on their part but it's interesting for us to put it together so that in the future we can sort of predict what will happen with each situation we see occurring and set up for it in advance.
I wish Humans were the same!
