15 replies to this topic

[Carol Christensen]

 CoyoteWinter2.jpg   122.88KB   2 downloads

 

I was in the right place at the right time and got a photo of something I had never seen before.  This coyote was just casually trotting across the ice on frozen Washoe Lake.  The lake is in Washoe Lakes SP near my home. 

[Jean and Fred Dively]

We used to live on Lake Erie.  Every winter we would see coyotes going along the ice where it had pushed up just off shore.  They for were looking  and finding dead fish in those areas.  Once in the fall we had several loons land in front of the house.  The water froze that night and one of them got trapped in a pool that wasn't large enough to take off from.  Because their feet and legs are so far back on their bodies they don't get a lot of traction on take off so they need a longer area of open water.  All night long the rest of the loons looked out for the trapped one and we head them talking to it through the night.  In the morning the ice melted and they all left.

Fred

[Hot Toddy]

That is an amazing picture Carol. Thank you for taking the time to share it with us. You should enter it in a wildlife photography contest just to see how you do. It truly captures wildlife at its finest. I just love it!

 

Toddy

[Meadowlark]

I like coyotes, especially when they sing. Unfortunately, there are jerks in my neighborhood who shoot them. Why? well, because.  Because it's moving, I suppose.

This is a nice catch, Carol. Thanks!

[West Texan]

Living waaay out in the country here in West Texas, I hear the coyotes calling nearly every night. What is cool is listening to the pups calling out. It is the adults teaching them to hunt. I get to see them every now and then, when I sit on the back patio late at night. Very seldom do you see one roaming during the daytime.
Nice picture. 👍🏻

[Jerrybob]

Beautiful picture Carol....very nice.  We have coyotes all around us....they are important members of the predator family and are very interesting animals. In summer.....when most of our windows are open at night.....their cries can be deafening echoing against the hills after making a kill. Some evenings when we sit outside by the campfire....we will hear a coyote sing....I can make a pretty good coyote call and have kept a conversation going for several minutes....my wife doesn't like it as much as I do...but the grandkids get a kick out of it. Some experts say the coyote is one of the most vocal mammals. Thanks for sharing.      

[clover]

Coyotes have been pretty thick in almost everywhere I've lived in rural USA starting in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Idaho and all over Texas. Our current home in at the top of the Hill Country of Texas, where they are not as "thick as thieves". Traditionally the hill country and areas further west have been commercial sheep & goat raising operations. Those folks have been very effective at keeping the coyote population near zero. The coyotes have been creeping into pockets of "refuge" on land that folks don't see the threat they can be to livestock (small ruminants).  

 

Where we live they are pretty hard on domestic cats, small dogs and chickens. Almost everyone around here keeps chickens, letting them free range during the day then penned at night. Often coyotes get hunted if they have tried to access these chickens. 

 

I do like to listen to them "sing" at night. Our property backs up to the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant. They have a large piece of property  (10,000) that the coyotes have had has a refuge with plenty to eat on the property. They serenade us often, I think it's because on either sides of us our neighbors have sizable chicken flocks.   

[Meadowlark]

People who shoot coyotes as a means of controlling the population do not understand the dynamics of coyote 'culture'. They're not wolves. Wolves live in familial packs and the alpha pair do not allow the subordinates to breed. Thus, a wolf pack in an area stays relatively stable at n number of wolves.

 

Coyotes are not pack animals. The family breaks up in the fall. One time we were in Yellowstone National park and watched as a female coyote kept chasing her young daughter away.  The youngster kept coming back, showing as submissive a posture as you'll ever see, and mum would attack her, driving her away. The youngster literally cut between those of us watching, I was as close to her as I am to this keyboard. She sat behind us and cried and cried, wondering 'what? was it something I said?"

 

The point being, when a coyote is shot, it is removed from the population, but if it is one of the dominant, adult pair of coyotes,  so to speak, all that the shooter has accomplished is broken up the status quo. Meaning, now, instead of one breeding pair of coyotes, you have, potentially, six, if there were six pups in the family and they all find mates. Sort of like cutting a flatworm into pieces...from one flatworm you get six.

[Jerrybob]

Predators.....like coyotes....are part of a good habitat. It's really a balance thing.....predators are not bad.....they are part of ole mother nature....they're there for a reason. Kill all the predators in an area and more deer die from starvation...parasites....accidents....etc....  Urbanization is a much bigger threat to our wildlife populations than coyotes....wolfs and other predators.  I just saw a newsclip the other day of a lady who was complaining that there were too many bears around her new condo complex....she said she felt unsafe. She was demanding Fish and Wildlife do something.  I wish I could have asked her how she thought the bear felt?  The bear's family has lived there for hundreds of years....she just moved in.  Shoot all the brave horses and how will we ride?    

[Meadowlark]

Exactly, Jerrybob, exactly. I remember seeing a thing on the tube a few years ago, some man was complaining about the grizzly bears in Montana being a threat to his family. "They need to stay out in the wilderness, where they don't hurt anybody." This from a man who was standing in front of a brand new,  great big house in a 'planned community' that had been carved out of the wilderness..

The bears were there first.

[Carol Christensen]

I'm glad to see that others appreciate the predators too.  Jerry, you're right, it's all about maintaining a balance.  The predators are at the top of the food chain and without them doing their job, overpopulation of prey would result in starvation and even extinction.  There was a very interesting program on Nature (PBS) not long ago (see below) that showed what happens when the predators disappear (with unexpected results).  The studies were by 3 different scientists looking at; 1) the sea otter in the aleutian islands, 2) african herd animals and 3) fish that were isolated in a stream.  Without the predators, the entire systems changed, both the animal populations and the plants.  The diversity was greatly reduced and some plants and animals just disappeared.

 

PS: The Serengeti Rules the full episode.  This is one of the best Nature shows I've ever seen.

Edited by Carol Christensen, 13 February 2020 - 10:04 AM.

[Carol Christensen]

Meadowlark,

 

Your msg really hit home with me.  We hear a lot of complaints around our area.  If it's not the bear, it's the wild horses or even the eagles that people don't want to be bothered by.  A few years ago, we got a new neighbor across the street who was very afraid of the coyotes.  One day he came over and told us the coyotes had been "fighting in our yard" during the night.  Well, I checked out the whole acre and didn't find one sign of a fight or anything else.  Occasionally we see a lone coyote on the street but they are just traveling through looking for an opportunity to snatch something small.  When we hear them, they are hunting down by the lake at the Wildlife Management Area where there are nesting waterfowl, etc.  Anyway, this neighbor was convinced there were packs of vicious coyotes coming in at night and was so scared, he sold the house and moved somewhere "more civilized".  He was nice otherwise but I was happy to see him go.

[Jerrybob]

I have taught hunter education for many years....I teach wildlife conservation as part of the course...in fact....it is a major part of the course.  One of the key points.....a good habitat supports only a certain number of animals....all animals require food, water, cover and space and these components all have to be properly arranged. When we build homes....shops...etc in a good habitat....animal numbers decline.  There are other resons for animal decline as well.....weather....predators....accidents...starvation....humans....parasites....etc.....  As I mentioned....urbanization is probably the biggest issue for our animal populations.....as more people take more land for whatever reason.....good habitat for the animals declines. I would hate to be a polar bear in the Artic Circle or a black bear in King Co. these days.....man has really screwed up their habitats.      

[West Texan]

We have a pair of friendly neighborhood critters. My neighbor has a two story house with a flower box on one of the upstairs windows. This box became a nesting box for a pair of Great Horned Owls. The hen lays her eggs and raises her young there every year. Every so often, you can hear them calling out in the nighttime. One thing that people have learned around here, is that you dont leave small dogs, cats, rabbits, or other small animals outside around here.

[Carol Christensen]

We have GHO's too, they don't nest here but do hunt.  That's why our cat has an outside enclosure it can access through a cat door in the window screen.  The enclosure floor has heavy screening covered by dirt to keep anything from digging in from the bottom.