Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

[windypants]

I got this yearling female at 942 yards yesterday morning. That's the ninth yearling, almost all females I've taken in the last two weeks. I had the coyotes pretty well thinned out in our valley, except for the denning pairs, which I have been leaving alone. This isn't sheep country and calving season is over, so they aren't bothering the ranchers now. What puzzles me is the influx of yearling females from somewhere. It wouldn't surprise me if it was males, as other wildlife disperses its yearling males to new areas in the spring. Any insight?

 

[Straight Shooter]

What load?

 

[APDDSN0864]

@windypants ,
First, congratulations on a great shot!

My guess is the timing. Yearling females will be surrogates for bred females, helping with the care of the pups.
This time of year, the pups are out of the den and starting to roam with the parents and don't need the care they have needed.
Thus, the yearling females will start to roam, looking for their own territory.
The yearling males will have already been long gone.

Ed

 

[DSheetz]

Coyotes of both sexes disperse. Last year when I went out for some coyote control for a friend, I had a 6 to one ratio of males, in past years I have seen it be the other way around. Some areas that are occupied by denning pairs the yearling and a few older females are allowed in, but most males aren't well tolerated, it's a male thing. Look at the heards of livestock and other hearding animals females are allowed near the other females young but males aren't tolerated near them. I have found a few times that a yearling male was helping with raising the new pups, but most often it's been females. At times I have found two males running together in an area that didn't have a denning pair in it. The availability of food is another determining factor in them allowing others in a denning area. You must have a good crop of prey animals in your area this year. So then you have a smaller territory that the denning pair need to hunt in to feed the new crop of pups or a smaller number of pups to be fed. Have you seen any diseases in your coyotes, what has your number of coyotes looked like last year if you had higher numbers of coyote or a lower amount of prey your birth rate may be lower thus, they don't have the larger numbers of kids to feed and range in a smaller area. One winter we had a relatively open winter here with milder temperatures and little snow, but South Dakota had a harsher winter cold temps. for weeks on end and deep snow cover. I started killing smaller finer furred coyotes of the sand hills type, when you looked at their feet the pads showed that they were worn, and they had been traveling long distances, coming down the Cheyenne river drainage from South Dakota to the area around Bill Wyoming several hundred miles. What are the surrounding areas like did they have a hard winter? Do they have good prey bases to support the coyote population? Are the wildfires and smoke moving them from their areas? Was there a high number of females in other areas as compared to the number of males so last year's young females didn't find mates. They may have traveled miles to get to your area.

 

[DSheetz]

In my area the coyotes will be getting out and traveling some with the adults in mid-June, sage brush camping. They pup a little later here than in other areas I think it is due to the altitude and being farther north so that our warmer weather is later arriving. The young of the year start to go out on their own for short excursions in late August and September. The coyote dispersal here is in October and early November, with the red fox being a month or so earlier. Here the coyotes generally don't run in larger packs as a rule, except for the time when the parents are teaching them to hunt, at that time sadly I have seen them kill up to 20 or 30 lambs in a night just killing to learn how to, kind of the way domestic dogs will do, chasing and killing for the excitement of the chase and kill.

 

[APDDSN0864]

They may have traveled miles to get to your area.

Contrary to popular belief…

Ed

 

[DSheetz]

In the 60's the USDA aphis Wildlife Services did a study on coyote dispersal in Montana. They tagged a few litters of pups, yes, it is an older study, but it has some good info in it, one male was caught several years later that was only a few miles from where it was tagged another coyote was caught in Kansas.

 

[DSheetz]

Yup I am a coyote nerd!!!! and proud to be one lol

 

[APDDSN0864]

I'm merely a coyote geek, hoping to get to nerd status one day.

Actually trying to get a double nerd status in coyotes and feral swine.

Ed

 

[windypants]

I haven't been to other areas recently, but everywhere I hunted last winter and spring had a really good prey base. Pretty easy living for the coyotes. And I didn't see any sign of disease this year. Some mange last year. I haven't seen pups out of the dens yet, but haven't looked close with the spotting scope. I'll do that soon. I sure don't know of anything unusual in surrounding areas to move them in here. Just maybe somewhat of a vacuum in coyote density from the ones I have killed. I hadn't been seeing much of the surviving locals—they are very wary of me. Then all of a sudden I'm overrun with coyotes again. Lots of action for me and my long range rig! Coyotes are a fascinating and challenging critter!

 

[windypants]

What load?

Wheeler 30-28 Nosler/Berger 230 HT. Deadly accurate at any distance I can get a good range on.

 

[Straight Shooter]

^^^^^Wow!!

 

[DSheetz]

I can think of a lot of things to be that are worse then being a coyote geek or coyote nerd. There are some very fine long-range rifles out there these days. Since 2001 we have made great strides in the long-range shooting art. Bullets, rifle set up, stocks, range finders, optics and scopes all have been improved on in recent times. More information has been shared by others on the finer points of long-range shooting and the equipment. It is as interesting a field as is the coyote and fits right in with the pursuit of predators.