Small Game, Predator and TrappingFrom shooting squirrels in your backyard to calling coyotes in Arizona. This forum now contains trapping information..
I've lived on a farm all of my life and have never seen a coyote kill a calf and was wondering if it does actually happen. I've heard neighbors claim that coyotes have killed their calves, but I'd say what really happened was they don't check them very often and had one die naturally and coyotes did what was natural for a scavenger and ate it. I've heard of them killing sheep and that seems like it could easily happen, but a cow just isn't going to let a coyote near its calf.
I actually have a experience that hopefully will answer that question. Back several months ago when I was at my girlfriend's house (now ex), for a few nights - She lived pretty close to a farm where there were several cows and calves. The owners weren't there for several days at a time so not sure whom was suppose to watch. There was one particular calve that my then-gf liked. I woke up in middle of night to sounds of cows freaking out. I didn't think much of it so went back to sleep. I took her kids to school so she could sleep in and noticed what was left of the calf in middle of the field; I was curious on to what happened to it and I noticed drag marks as well as several coyote tracks (appeared to be anyway).
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Proud Daddy of Mini Red Hawk
Master of the Poof-B-Gone Pen
If the cow stays with the calf there usually isn't a problem ,but occasionallycoyoteswill kill newborn calves when they are left alone . Cattle have a habit of hiding their young calves out when they are first born .
Certainly not ALL coyotes are calf killers, BUT it seems that those that learn to do it, keep doing it until they pay the ultimate price for it.
I know a farmer in KS. that would never let coyote hunters on his property until he had an incident where he caught the coyotes in the act of killing a calf. It happened at night, and he heard the cow raising cain out in his pasture, so he went to check on it and found that the coyotes hadn't killed the calf yet, but had already started on it, stripped its tail and had bite marks on the hind quarters, and the cow was so worked up that she wouldn't hardly let the farmer near the calf. BUT the farmer took the calf to the house to doctor it and keep it in the house over night and planned on taking the calf back to the cow in the morning. Well, when he went out the next morning, he found the cow dead and partially eaten.
Not one coyote does such a thing, but a pack of them can handle full grown cows, deer, etc. He called my cousin that very day and when we hunted his home section and three adjoining sectionswe caught 7 coyotes with the grey hounds. Didn't catch all that we saw, BUT he never lost another calf that winter and we get to hunt his land every winter now.
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A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.
I figured that they could and you guys have given me proof of that. I'm not against killing coyotes I just wondered if the bad image they have gotten was true. That story of one killing a cow really shocked me, but I'd say she gave birth that night and was probably really drained from it? I'm going to have to work on my coyote calling I think I may have lost a dog to them.
Yotes will work on domestic dogs real fast! They will play with them and lure a single dog away from home then gang up on them...enless you have some good working pairs of hounds.My brother had two Blue heelers that would play along with a coyote,one would hang back then sneak up at the right time and they were some fighting suckers,if no yotes to mess with they would sit around and fight one another for fun!
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If it weren't for hunting I wouldn't work! Gotta pay for my vices somehow don't I?
05 Diamond Victory(thanks Greg)
Do coyotes really kill calves?
