Dec 24, 2010: Coyote on Ice
 

Ladies and Gentlemen... and children of all ages... here for your eating pleasure...
direct from a chilling performance on Lake Michigan...

HOLLY COYOTE!!
http://cellar.org/2010/_coyote1.jpg

http://cellar.org/2010/coyote2.jpg

Why Holly? That's the name the rescuers gave it.
No word if the coyote approved.

link

Damn, those are tough suckers!



He must've missed the ferry.


--------------------------------------------------------
Trying to sneak across the border.

I kept chanting, "Please don't be a dead coyote, please don't be a dead coyote..." and I got my wish.

maybe today will be better than I think.

*fervent wish*

It could have been very sad, but now he's in prison.

Looks like that coyote needs warming up a little. maybe a slow roast at 350....

I would cuddle her sweet little face right off. Poor baby girl. Holly Holy, indeed.

Would I do that to you... :blush:

:lol:

She would do the same to you.

And by "cuddle", I mean gnaw.

Interesting. Usually he just slams into the rock wall where he'd painted a tunnel only moments ago.

:D

Sorry kiddies. I've no love for vermin coyote. They're opportunist killers. Many a family have lost a much loved cat or pooch to these critters. They're survivors, don't need our help other than to let our pets out at night for their dining pleasure.

Mr. Peas: In which millennium B.C. did you move to your neighborhood to predate the arrival of these "vermin coyote(s)?"
A guy moved in across the lane a few years back and thought it was wonderful to achieve a long standing dream of living in the country and keeping his own chickens. He built perches on his front porch and was angered to find the local raccoons liked them, too.
He wanted to borrow a gun or two to deal with them. I offered to help him build a coop, instead.

We too have coyotes in our neighborhood, and raccoons.

And I too find myself worried about a confrontation between our dog and the "wild critters".
Of course they can all carry rabies, and I don't advocate trying to pet them.
I'm even bothered by a currently running commercial showing a woman calling a raccoon
into her bedroom (for some stupid reason) to sell some product.

But I'm quite willing to believe that the diet of coyotes,
either in the true wilds or in our more civilized neighborhoods,
is much more composed of rodents and other wild critters
than of pet cats, puppies, or young children.

If they're around city folk, they very quickly learn to expect "hand outs", from owners who leave their pets outside.

Whether inside a fenced yard (6 ft fence is nothing for them to jump over), on the front porch or rear patio, doesn't matter. The SPCA doesn't get many calls to pick up stray cats or dogs - coyotes get them first.

It makes sense from a predators POV of course. A plump pug inside a 5 ft. high fence is so much easier to catch, than a jackrabbit in the wild. The culverts and flash flood control canals make excellent "highways" for them to travel along at night, avoid cars, and quickly sweep into a suburb.

I applaud the rescue to stop this suffering, but since the coyotes have killed so many pets, and even a few people, I'd have no problem if they stopped "Holly's" suffering more permanently.

Saw two coyotes running through a snowy field on my way home from Baby's house. They appeared to be quite healthy, if I had to guess, I'd say they were right around 75-80 lbs. They cleared a woven wire fence and didn't miss a step. I stopped in the road and watched them til they were out of site.

It was a beautiful scene.

Here's a shot I took of some doggies.. They wanted to visit Mr. Beaver but he wasn't having any of it.

I thought they were actually wolves. But that one on the mound looks sort of coyotish.

http://cellar.org/2010/Wolves.jpg

Definitely 'yotes. Songdogs, some calls 'em.

Holy shit, that's huge for your neck of the woods. PA coyotes came across the heartland and run about 50 lbs. Further north, they came across Canada and interbred with wolves, so they run up to 75 lbs.

Coyotes have been displacing Red Foxes around here, since they like the same habitat. The Coyotes are bigger/tougher, plus the Red Foxes have been decimated by rabies.

Here is an article on last year's Trapper's Association hunt in NEPA-

http://thedailyreview.com/sports/coy...rvest-1.603760

The biggest taken that weekend was 47.25 pounds.

I've often read stories of foxes running off with full-grown cats.
I challenged a woman who posted one-such (very politely) and she responded with major vitriol. The fox was apparently the size of a Labrador, they were common in her part of the country and obviously a townie like me had never seen a fox before.

I backed off after that. Despite thinking she protested too much.

Not saying Grav is deluded, just that I am aware of people's perspectives being skewed, perhaps by distance.

Well this one one didn't run off with a cat, Sundae.
However I did see it make a rapid exit from under a bush in the back garden hotly pursued by next door's moggie!

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/7977/p6200022.jpg

They should have shot it rather than wasting money/resources on a coyote.

I learned something new. I didn't know that was happening. I didn't know it could! :eek: holey moley


Interesting bit of evolution. Thanks for posting that picture.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32976657...ience-science/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coywolf

Hey those northern New England/Canadian nights are cold... and dark... and lonely. :haha:

Coyotes and foxes are like long haired cats, their size and weight are tough to judge, especially at a distance. They're not as big boned and muscular as dogs and wolves.

Interesting links there..

I suspect that wolf males only ever mate with female coyotes. In cases where a wolf runs into a coyote the wolf would normally attack the competition. But, if it's a female in heat, hostilities are suspended.

I'm deluded by the FACT that we have some goddamned big coyotes in my neck of the woods. I know what coyotes look like. I know what little spindly, malnourished coyotes look like. I know what big, husky, well-fed coyotes look like.

We don't got no skinny coyotes.

We got Double Coyote, though.

Fair enough - I was deliberately not saying you were wrong.
I have no idea what is right in your part of the world.

Do you live near Jefferson City, Missouri ?

This link includes small pic of the dead coyote shot by a hunter in Nov 2010

Missouri Dept of Conservation
Published on: Dec. 13, 2010
Posted by Jim Low

Great. Now we have to worry about giant mutant coyotes taking over.

No worry, they don't take a silver bullet. :headshake

This line made a lot of things clear to me:

A small pic of a LARGE coyote...

For a while, and I don't know if they still do it, but the farmers around here pay hunters a bounty for every coyote killed on their property. All you have to do is turn in the tail.

I knew it was common for politicians, but not so much for farmers.



Paying for tail, that is. ;)

WOW. So the stroppy woman I dealt with really might have seen a fox that large. I'd apologise to her in my head if I didn't think she was still wrong...

Although typical of Sky to take a freakishly large fox and the only reported fox attack together to suggest that foxes are on an evolutionary path to displace mankind :rolleyes:

But it still only weighed 26 lbs, I've seen a house cat that heavy.