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Author
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Topic: Contradictions
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Rich Higgins
unknown comic
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posted August 09, 2003 05:16 PM
All of us have differing opinions concerning coyote behavior and offer contradictory reports to 'prove' our position. One thinks the coyote is the most intelligent animal on the planet. Another considers it "just a mangy ole dawg, how smart can it be?" Some say they are strictly monogamous and mate for life. Another cites double litters with only one male in the pack.
We can't agree about hybridization. Biologists and naturalists report contradictory behavior. John W. Crook reported watching through glasses for most of a day as a dozen male coyotes courted a single bitch. Wyman Meinzer reported watching 3 or 4 males courting a bitch until she made a choice. R.E.Bateman of Mt. says he never saw more than a single pair together during mating season.
It's not our fault. It must be the coyotes fault because
the contradictory reports began as soon as the whiteman encountered the coyote. In 1805 an entry in the Lewis and Clark journals described the coyote as "the burrowing-dog of the prairies" and stated that they lived in burrows and associated in bands of 10 or 12, rarely finding them alone.
English sportsman John Murphy wrote in 1879 "I have seen a small pack of 17 or 18 coyotes rise out of burrows in the ground, apparently at once, and scud about in every direction to escape the dogs." George Ruxton wrote in 1846 that he saw "cayeutes in bands of 3 to 30 along the runs of antelope and deer." About the same time Clavijero wrote that the "Cojote loves the woods and generally ranges alone." In 1833 Rudolph Kurz wrote "isolated prairie wolves are frequently seen on the prairie or in the dense forest but never in gangs except when they smell blood and come together in mob fashion in pursuit of a wounded animal or to devour the carcass of one just slain."
And my favorite, written in the six years after 1812 by Ross Cox an emloyee of the Northwest Fur Company "The prairie wolves generally travel together in numbers, and a solitary one is seldom met with. Two or three of us have often pursued from fifty to one hundred, driving them before us as quickly as our horses could charge."
Anyone have a favorite contradiction?
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WhiteMtnCur
Knows what it's all about
Member # 5
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posted August 09, 2003 06:19 PM
The Voice of the Coyote by J. Frank Dobie, is loaded with contradictions regarding coyote behavior. It's the one reason the book is interesting to read.
[ August 09, 2003, 06:19 PM: Message edited by: WhiteMtnCur ]
Posts: 97 | From: Nevada | Registered: Jan 2003
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Rich Higgins
unknown comic
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posted August 09, 2003 06:40 PM
Yeah Trevor, and some of the quotations in my post came from "Voice". What I am looking for is something from your personal experience.
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varmit hunter
Knows what it's all about
Member # 37
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posted August 09, 2003 07:17 PM
I think the Coyote is what ever he has to be. When ever he has to be it, And to hell with what we have to say are write about it.
Surly the word adaptation was coined. After the Coyote was discovered.
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Make them pay for the wind.
Posts: 932 | From: Orange,TX | Registered: Jan 2003
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Rich Higgins
unknown comic
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posted August 09, 2003 08:26 PM
Ronnie you are dead on. Hope Ryden wrote
"The adaptable coyote is not only capable of bivouacking where he pleases, he seems able to adopt any number of lifestyles. He can hunt either by day or by night, dine on fresh meat or survive off carrion, raid town garbage pits or feast on wild fruits and berries, den in burrows or whelp in conduit pipes, run in packs or operate as a loner." What I was looking for was personal anecdotes by any of you guys illustrating what would be considered behavior contradictory to accepted wisdom.
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted August 09, 2003 09:56 PM
well, everybody has heard of the stories where a guy called a coyote from over a mile away...verified, of course.
And yet, I have witnessed coyotes that appeared to be stone deaf; or were they ignoring my faultless distress cries? Some will say the wind was wrong, but why then, did they stop dead in their tracks frozen by a lip squeak?
Anyway, I have observed coyotes napping or mousing, well within range of my call. In some cases, either they are so distracted or they plain can't hear it. What's up with that?
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Rich Higgins
unknown comic
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posted August 09, 2003 10:28 PM
That's one that puzzles me too, Leonard. Last March, on the last club hunt, we saw a coyote in a plowed field with field hands working on the irrigation system. As they drove from one side to the other the coyote would move to maintain the greatest distance. When they stopped it would lie down in the furrows and disappear. Tyler, Robb and I parked next to a large white storage tank. I crawled down to the end of a ditch, rested my rifle on the edge and watched the coyote for a while. It's attention was on the workers. It was right at 250 yards out. I blew a soft series on an AP6 and the coyote never looked my way. I've had coyotes farther out than that respond to lipsqueaks that weren't nearly as loud. Tyler blew a louder series on an AP3. The coyote got up and started circling downwind across the plowed field. I shot it at 211 paces. No wind, just a breeze. No obstacles between us. I just don't see how it could not hear my series, but it didn't even twitch an ear.
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Bryan J
Cap and Trade Weenie
Member # 106
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posted August 09, 2003 11:12 PM
I may have told this before, but one morning my partner and I drove up a narrow canyon. I am anal about having the keys out of the ignition when the door opens and had the keys out yet when the door opened the chime went off to remind me that my lights were still on. While gathering my gear I leaned over to retrieve my rifle and bumped the horn. We decided to make the stand anyway, after about 4 minutes a coyote approached FROM down-wind and stopped up-wind from our position.
If accepted wisdom is a quiet approach to the calling area, and the coyote generally circles down wind. This might fit what you are looking for.
Posts: 599 | From: Utah | Registered: Feb 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted August 10, 2003 08:45 AM
A coyote can spook from the noise of your ripstop nylon coat, and for sure, he can put it in reverse at the click of a safety. I have witnessed a coyote literally switch directions in midair, crossing my scent.
I probably told this before, but while arguing over a map spread out on the hood of my truck, there suddenly appeared three coyotes up on a berm, intently watching the debate. No fear, whatsoever. Managed to kill one of them, then drove up to it, when one of the others trotted right in front of the truck, like he had the green light in a crosswalk.....and, didn't get him.
It was like; suddenly they had no fear of humans!
Now, there's a question. Would you enjoy hunting coyotes if they were as shy as cattle? ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Wiley E
Knows what it's all about
Member # 108
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posted August 11, 2003 05:22 AM
Rich H.,
Some of those quotes are quite humorous and typical of false, shallow conclusions.
Someone's first encounter with coyotes is during denning season, therefore they must live in dens year round.
Some people encounter coyotes in the forest and not on the plains. Some encounter them in the plains and not in the forest. Most of them end up reaching false conclusions due to their narrow observations.
Someone sees a breeding female surrounded by multiple males due to a freak weather situation which had them camped on a carcass, therefore they must mate with multiple males.
The researchers who study coyotes in unexploited populations assume that coyotes mate for life as if one or the other wouldn't be dead after a year outside of Yellowstone.
One of my favorite contradictions to "common knowledge" (whatever that happens to be) is coyotes coming to the sound of gunfire on the National Grasslands due to the association of dead pr. dogs to eat.
Some researchers understand enough about the adaptabilility of coyotes from one area to another to realize that they are only seeing a snapshot of that place in that time and others take their observations and try to paint the world with it.
The more a person learns about coyotes, the more they will realize how little they actually know about them. Most rules will be broken eventually.
~SH~
[ August 11, 2003, 05:23 AM: Message edited by: Wiley E ]
Posts: 853 | From: Kadoka, S.D | Registered: Feb 2003
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pup
Knows what it's all about
Member # 90
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posted August 11, 2003 06:25 AM
"Any Ol' howl will do."
"They always ..........."
anytime I hear always and coyotes in the same sentence I wonder how long it will take a coyote to make the statement a contradiction.
In my opinion they don't always do anything except adapt.
Who knows? Who will ever know?
later pup
Posts: 213 | From: Oklahoma | Registered: Feb 2003
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Tim Behle
Administrator MacNeal Sector
Member # 209
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posted August 11, 2003 06:58 AM
Scott,
It wasn't uncommon in Indiana during deer season to have coyotes show up a few minutes after shooting a deer.
A buddy shot one on my place one year, we gutted it and drug it a quarter mile down hill to a place we could drive his truck. I waited with the deer while he went for the truck. We loaded it up then walked back for his portable stand. We hadn't been gone but an hour and the gut pile was nothing but bare dirt, licked clean and covered in coyote tracks.
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Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take
an ass kickin'.
Posts: 3160 | From: Five Miles East of Vic, AZ | Registered: Jun 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted August 11, 2003 03:34 PM
And yet, here in the mountain west, they claim that a coyote won't touch a gut pile for at least three days. I never hung around long enough to verify that claim, but on the other hand, I have seen many undisturbed gut piles.
Good hunting. LB
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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