Pure Predator

... was just hanging around the house tonite when the wife said, for fathers day why dont you go see if you can call up a coyote or two... with out hesitation I jumped off the couch and ran for the hills...

Stand one... nothing...
I moved about a half mile into the wind and, wasnt thirty seconds into the stand with one of my new calls when, a cocker spaniel sized pup almost ran me over, if I would have seen him coming I could have caught him... The look on his face was price less... Just like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar.. I sat there for a second and realized I had to be by the den, so I took the foxpro and played some pup distress under, my mouth calling... kinda like the pup had grabbed somthing and was having a hell of a time with it... about five minutes into that... the Female, I presumed showed up with another pup in tow... They popped out about twenty yards, I was packing the shotgun, but I didnt have the heart... Just real cool to see them react... The second pup seemed alot bigger than the first,

Why do you think that was.....

Howler, Jrb, I dont have a lot of pup experience, do coyotes have runts just like dogs...?

Ps... I wont tell you how I wiffed a shot, on stand three, when I couldnt get my shotgun out of the barbwire fence fast enough...LOL...

Mike
Pure Predator Calls
www.purepredatorcalls.com

yodeldog3

i think they do Mike I've seen pups smaller then their siblings, more than once.

Jrbhunter

Sounds like you've got plenty of coyotes out there!

I believe all K-9's can produce runts, but in the wild a runt is usually the first to die... weather that's at 3 weeks of age or 5 months, life is harder on them iftheir small stature makes them unable tocompete for food. Weather it be mother's milk or meat from a carcass, at some point that weakness in a fight could starve them.

In the West, coyotes are documented to den within close proximity of each other. They also may share dens, and I've even read where one male may empregnate two females who raise their young together.

In the East, this is unheard of... territorialism is a major factor in coyote behavior East of the Mississippi River and the whole "lets just get along" theory doesn't apply so well. Dens within territorial ranges are unacceptable and will quickly result in murdered pups and brutal fights between adults. With the liberal and socialists behavior seen in coyotes of the West, I wouldn't be surprised if the first pup you saw was from an entirely seperate family group. But anything is possible.


PS: The maternal instincts of a coyote run on a fairly limited schedule. If 6 pups were weened and eating solid food, while 1 still required nursing and cleaning, I don't think it would be uncommon for the female to kill that pup and move on. Adult females have beendocumented killing their own offspring at 6-8 months of age if they show signs of weakness (like stuck in a trap, or wounded). She perceieves her job as a mother to birth them and get them on solid food... after that, they are another mouth to compete with in a harsh world. I believe family values are very shallow in the coyote world.

Pure Predator

Thanks JRB, and Yodel, I figured as much, just was looking for some rock solid info...

And Jason, lots of coyotes out here... Im going to start in Hard on them in Late Sept... Like I said your invited...

Mike
Pure Predator Calls
www.purepredatorcalls.com