buckstalker1187, Don't get all mad at me! Yes coyotes kill rabbits, yes coyotes kill deer and if they can get a hold of a squirrel they will eat that too. I never said that they didn't kill what you saw. It's the trail of distruction that I have a problem with. I do not need to see any coyote kills, I have seen many. It's a fact coyotes kill things to eat, they also eat things that that they don't have to kill. Coyotes go hungry more days than they are full. My whole point is coyotes are not as bad as people make them out to be. Also, Inever said a group of coyotes couldnt take down an adult deer, I said its rare. Coyotes will kill or eat what is easy.
In my experience, coyotes are a factor on fawns and adult deer in dire situations (starvation, deep crust-topped snow, wounded, etc..)
A few things to note though.
Finding a deer torn apart from coyotes does not confirm a coyote kill. The deer may have died for various reasons and where found by the yotes, or the yotes finished the job. Certainly happens during hunting seasons and on roadkills. I am not saying its impossible for deer to be killed by yotes, but a carcas w/ yote prints around it is not proof that a yote killed the deer.
Also, Deer are not 100%defenceless to coyotes. Ionce saw areal angry doerun off a coyote mother and three pups that found her fawn. Granted that was not in winter conditions.
True