Coyote Carnage

[Whitetail Addict]

I went out behind my house the other day to see how the apples and beechnuts were doing this year, and to do a little scouting.

I hadn't gone more than a few hundred yards, when I came across this at the edge of a field.

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The grass was trampled down in a five foot circle, with a coyote dropping at the edge.

Bob

[DanielB89]

that doesn't look very old if you ask me.  Appears you have some killing to do!

[ChuckC]

Well, unfortunately, they need to eat too.
CHuckC

[Jim Wright]

If the only thing at the scene was the 2 hooves that would be unusual for a coyote as well as most other predator kills.

[stonewall]

Make yu a couple sets in that spot. Get em all.

[59Alaskan]

Looks like a squatch kill to me....
On a more serious note, I have unfortunately found random hooves like that where I hunt.

[Whitetail Addict]

It could be a squatch kill, you never know.    

When I saw the coyote dropping, I assumed it was a coyote. We do have some fisher and bobcats that have moved in over the past several years, and I suppose they could have played a part in cleaning things up too. I Didn't think of them at first. There have been a few eagles around here the past few years too.

Whatever it was, or whatever combination of critters, they didn't leave anything but the two legs.  

Daniel, it was a fresh kill. The meat on the legs hadn't even started to spoil yet.

I killed a buck up north one time, quite a ways from camp. I walked back and got my pack and some garbage bags, boned it out, and hauled the meat and head back to camp.

I usually carry a couple zip lock bags with me for the heart and liver, but didn't have them that day. So I stuck the heart and liver on a dead branch about as high as I could reach before I decided to pack the deer out, and forgot them when I came back.

I went back for them the next morning, and was surprised to find everything gone. Guts, bones, hide, It was all gone, along with the heart and liver. A little looking turned up a couple bear tracks.

We do have a few black bears here in my area now, so I suppose that's a possibility too.

I should know better than to assume anything without more evidence than a coyote dropping, and should have looked things over more closely. We have so many coyotes around here, that I took it for granted that it was coyotes that killed the fawn.

I'd go back and take a closer look, but we've had so much rain since I found it, I doubt there would be any evidence left.

Bob

[Fisher Cat]

Kind of reminds me of an old joke:

Looks like coyote scat, feels like coyote scat, smells like coyote scat, tastes like coyote scat...  Good thing you didn't step in it!

Seriously, the coyote calling card should be evidence enough.  Sure, MAYBE something else killed it, but you have fawns and you have coyotes that know about them.  Whether it's a problem or not is up to you. - John

[Cyclic-Rivers]

a good number of Fawns die every year due to other causes like disease and tractors, then get cleaned up by other animals like vultures, eagles and Coyotes.

Its a easy to assume the coyotes made the kill but they may have just taken advantage of opportunistic kill.

Coyotes are great hunters but if they killed every fawn, you wouldn't have any deer within a couple years.

What you found Bob is both Beautiful and Sad at the same time. Nature at its best..

[Roadkill]

I shot an antelope just at dusk.  Went to retrieve the next morn, and found a bloody spot and a stomach.  Cycle of life.  I punched the tag a d went home

[Traxx]

If the only thing at the scene was the 2 hooves that would be unusual for a coyote as well as most other predator kills.

I was thinking along the same lines.Wouldnt count out,discarded legs dumped by a poacher and the coyote finding it.

[Tom]

Could be any number of possibilities of what killed the fawn but eradication of coyotes has proven to be elusive. Seems the more loss of fawns causes more to be born. Not unusual to see triplets in this area. But on the other hand I will not hesitate taking any coyotes that show up while I'm hunting. Would really like to cross paths with a black phase one.

[Michael Arnette]

They sure make up a huge part of the annual dawn depredation for sure. I've read that in some areas they represent 80% of fawn kills. We all know it happens but it's still a little sad to see it first hand.   :(

[Whitetail Addict]

Well, whatever did it, I should have taken a better look around. I know better than to jump to conclusions.

I was in a hurry to get to the woods on the far end of the field, or I would have.

I don't like coyotes, so I tend to blame them for pretty much everything. I'm not convinced that it wasn't a coyote that hid my shooting glove on me the other day.  

Bob

[Caughtandhobble]

Turn lemons into lemonade, make you a hoof bow rack.  

[Pete McMiller]

Just a little incentive - there was a trail cam placed in the early spring overlooking the entrance to a coyote den in Ontario a couple of years ago.  I don't remember exactly what the number was but it was over 30 fawns brought in before summer.

[Thumper Dunker]

Where's the rest of the bones.?  I'm thinking bear. If it was a pair of coyotes feeding their young the legs would of went with the rest to the den. Coyotes do not cut legs off. A black phase coyote would be cool. I would set up close buy and see what happens. You at least might get a shot at a coyote coming buy to check things out.

[Pine]

Coydogs don't leave much behind either and they are much more aggressive than coyotes .

[SteveB]

Originally posted by Pete McMiller:
Just a little incentive - there was a trail cam placed in the early spring overlooking the entrance to a coyote den in Ontario a couple of years ago.  I don't remember exactly what the number was but it was over 30 fawns brought in before summer.

I've heard this claim at least 100 times in the last few years. The only thing in common is that there has never been even a single picture posted from one of these cams.

[K.S.TRAPPER]

100% agree with Steve! They do kill fawns of all kinds of breeds to feed there family's but the numbers are to high for one pair of coyotes.

And as far as coydogs being more aggressive I'd like to see you prove that too. It's all the same bud, I was in wildlife control for the state for many years lots of study's. I still work for a huge cattle operation year round trapping coyotes and catch them all and get to watch them, shoot them, film them it's all the same sorry. IMHO

   

Tracy