Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted March 07, 2010 09:34 AM
Got to see the kind of teamwork this morning that really makes you hate coyotes. And, at the same time, respect the hell out of them.
We were out working this nuisance complaint and, just after sunrise, Kevin and I were on the only spot we could call this 70-acre pasture from which unfortunately put us upwind of where I thought the coyotes might be laid up. My suspicions were right as they sounded off while we were hiking in, south and west of us. We put the caller to the west of us and south of the hedgerow where we were set up.
Started out with some young female howls followed immediately by a pair of older female howls, then went right into a series of puppy squeals. Within about three minutes, I see a coyote threading its way to the east from the southwest at about 500 yards. Whispered to Kevin that we had one coming in and we both got our rifles up and looked at what turned out to be a mangy as hell smaller coyote. He quartered toward us and disappeared into the ravine at about 400 yards. It was about then that Kevin spotted one flanking on my side but just out of sight from me due to the roll of the hill in front of me. I was watching straight south, expecting mangy to appear at 300 over the next hill and well into the red zone when a larger coyote appeared at about 450, straight south of me, straight downwind going up the face of the distant hill and away. He slipped through the half-mile line fence and stopped just as I flipped the caller to pup distress, turned, came back through the fence and very anxiously stood there looking our way bouncing up and down on his front feet. He kept looking down into the ravine between us and I knew we had others nearby. Then, he charged down the hillside and out of sight only to appear moments later pushing mangy and another smaller coyote to the west southwest ahead of him and away from us. If either of them so much as slowed down to look back our way, he nipped them on the hindquarter and encouraged them along.
All three coyotes ran southwest and crossed through the fence before turning to the southeast. Moments later, here they came, back west and down into the timber where we first heard them from. They were very worked up by now and at about 650 yards as I ran the caller on coyote distress and voice-overed additional ki-yis. In between me and the caller, I could hear one of them - the male I presume - challenge barking me, so I switched over to a challenge bark on my Higgy Howler while the caller ran pup distress. For the next several minutes, two of the three paced aggressively back and forth way out there, appearing to really really want to approach but refused to come in while at least one of them talked smack at me. I shut everything down, gave them five minutes to settle back, and Kevin and I hit the bottom of the ravine and advanced about 300 yards closer. We never did get them to reappear while calling in close to them, but the experience did show us another better vantage point to set up on next round and gave Kevin his first time to see the caller interacting with the coyotes. He enjoyed it immensely.
These coyotes circled toward the road to still get the advantage of the wind on us. That big male knew where we were and he pretty much saved those two youngsters' lives today. Kevin had never seen one coyote do anything to help another, but what he saw was pretty revealing to him. It also reinforced the point I made to him when we first talked about who needed to die first and why, when I told him the alpha male going down would make the rest of the family group more vulnerable.
You just gotta love those bastards. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Makes a guy wonder if the big male would of started performing CPR on one of those smaller coyotes if you would have wounded it. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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