Hiawatha

I am a college education student taking a middle years science methods course and am required to prepare a science experiment of some type for a science fair. I was interested in buying 4 or 5 color, types of stuffed animals and placing them on fishing line and moving them in the field while giving a distress call. I would capture all of this on video and determine which colors, styles of stuffed toys seemed to work the best at drawing coyotes in. My friend, who i yote hunt with, claims he has seen guys use stuffed toys b4 to bring in yotes but i am a bit skeptical. Will this experiment fly or am i wasting my time and go to something else. I wanted something really unique, hunting related, and to have the most redneck display of anyone. I have till the end of the month to get this completed so i need to get crackin if this will work. We are experiencing a real cold snap at the moment -30-40 but as soon as it warms up a bit i am sure the yotes will be starving for sometineg. Any feedback on the idea or suggestions are welcome. I know it is a weird idea for a science experiement but thats kind of my point.

gumbyhead

I have heard of it working well....but never tried it myself

Tyrus21

Ok, if you've ever walked by a toy store you've probably seen the little creatures attached to the battery operated ball that rolls around in a basket. Well me and a buddy invested into one of those and spent a couple dollars worth of quarters in one of those crane games and got a little white stuffed lion. It was the size of a rabbit. I took my knife and made a cut on the stuffed toy's belly and removed the cotton from the body (not the head) then we turned on the ball and placed it in the cavity and safety pinned it closed. We took a couple of brown markers and painted it leaving a white tail (of course) and wouldn't you know it the animal shakes back and forth with little to no sound from the battery operated ball. The coyotes love it and there's no strings attached. I've even gotten a nice bobcat from it. Good luck with the project.

davs2601

that sounds like a great idea. Im going to have to try that

Howler

I don't think your experiment will work well and here's why. Coyotes are all individuals, much like snakes for instance, and in that means that each will respond differently to the same situation. You'd have to find several coyotes that were the same in dominance, the same in hunger, the same in attitude, etc. Let's say you were using a black bunny and you had a coyote that hadn't eatin in two days and was the dominant male in his core area, and he comes to your calls and sees your "decoy", do you think he will respond the same as a coyote that sees the same black bunny but is female that is not in her core area and has had a good meal with-in the last 24 hours?
Some coyotes shy away from even the littliest decoys? Why would that be? Yet some coyotes charge any decoy they see!
SO, IMO, you're wasting your time! Also, coyotes don't see color as we humans do! Another little clitch!

pdp440

randy anderson uses decoys with good luck i think it will work i just came back from a yote derby and they had some seminars at night and they had the state wildlife biolagest and he was talking about how much yotes will eat he said they are glutins when they were removing yotes from an area they were calling with rabbit destress call and when they skined them out they would have two or three lb of meat in there bellys and they still came in

North Texan

Why not compare success rates of different types of decoys? Like a stuffed animal, a feather and string (which is what I use), a rigor rabbit or some other commercially available decoy, and a live cat.

I'll donate the cat.[8D]

Hiawatha

Sorry guys dropped the project not enough time went with another idea. I will try this out however next time i am at home to see how well it really works. I got enuff cats of my own back on the farm NT lol.

Howler

I never said that "decoys" in general wouldn't work, but having the same decoy in different colors and trying to determine which color worked better was not going to work.
Although I have no use for a decoy, kill lots of coyotes without one, they have become popular, although I still think it is another "thing" that's simply not needed to killed predators! Such as scent blocker, scent bomb, just a waste of money!

RemingtonDoesItAgain

From my experience i belive coyotes dont persay distinguish color but movement. you say its really cold so i expect there si snow. white decoys will be less effective. I have used many decoys, and ones that contrast against the background color work the best. i know deer can see the color of blue jeans becasuse of the UV reflection. Perhaps blue would work for coyotes. you should try to use different motion with colrs to see which works best with motion. you will need to call in the coyotes so i suggest you purchase or borrow if able a call. Primos makes great calls for reasonable prices. the HotDog (red and black witha long chamber) is a great way to use the coyote vocalizations to call them in since their breeding season is right now in my area or soon elsewhere. for another call, the DoubleWhammy by primos is great becasue it gives you great rabbit/miouse sounds and coyote sounds as well. calling them will not be easy as you seem like you havent done this before much.put keep at it and i ensure you will get some results.