Question about Coyote territories
 

So I am new to this so forgive me but I live in a house in the middle of a cornfield the closest house is about a mile away from me. A few weeks ago my dog ( 100lb great dane) was out side and I heard some barking and growling And barking coming from the yard so I ran out side yelling at it and I saw one coyote running away into the field and 2 days later the same thing happend. Then the next night I saw it snooping around my yard and I opened the window and took my 30-06 to it. After that it hasn't happened again and there is no coyote tracks like there was before like i cant find any anywhere around the house or in the fields anymore. So my question is is it possible that it was just a single coyote that considers my yard as part of it's territory and saw the dog as an intruder and tried to run it off or did it just see the dog as a big meal. I didn't think that it would go after such a large animal though as food and I thought they hunted in packs but I only saw one. Just wondering and wanted to hear some opinions form some people that have more experience with coyote and their habits.

Seems different parts of the country and they have somewhat different habits. In the South West they tend to pack together in the fall, driest part of the year. Best guess is this years pups are nearly grown and the hunting pack grows. And they may eat anything they can kill. The size of the pack seems to fluctuate with the seasons.

How they sort out their territory is anybodies guess, It may depend on the abundance (or lack of) Rodents and other food sources.

May have been a territorial thing, may have also been a really hungry Yote, may have been curiosity.

One thing I forgot, they have a thing about poop. I've found spots with hundreds of dried scats and two dozen fresh scats. Best guess is it was a territorial marker. The Yote may have been drawn in because of Dog scat, just checking out the neighbors.

A pack is a coyote family dominated by an alpha male and female who form a breeding pair. It can also include this year’s pups and offspring from the previous year, along with individuals from other packs that have been accepted into the family. The size of the pack will depend on the amount of food available to sustain it. If the pack relies on a natural diet, its numbers will tend to be smaller. But if the diet is subsidized by humans, either intentionally or unintentionally, its size could be considerably larger.

Coyote packs have a “home range”—the entire area in which they live—and a “territory about 25sq.miles in the mid west" that they will defend against other coyotes and whose boundaries are marked with urine (like dogs). Coyotes also use scat to mark the most heavily defended core areas (unlike dogs). Our coyote packs appear to defend all the area they regularly use: their territory is the same size as their home range. As with the size of the pack, the size of the territory will depend on the amount of food available. If the pack relies on a natural diet, its territory will be larger than that of a pack whose diet is subsidized by humans.


:D Al

Everything just depends on the part of the Country you're from, then even down to the specific location in which you live. There are a ton of variables when it comes to coyote and their range. For example when I am hunting them in Western Illinois at a friends place, I'll literally call in doubles or triples or nothing. I've never called in a single yote there once. Here in MN on the other hand I'll almost always call in one, with an ocassional 2nd yote, but mostly one at a time. No idea why. Then you start talking about trapping them... Same thing. I've trapped Kentucky when stationed down there and I'd almost always get 1-4 yotes a day off of a big section of land (500+ acres), often times doubles if I've got 2 traps set within 20 feet or so apart at say opposite corners of a trail crossing. Minnesota on the other hand, I'll more or less catch one at a time and almost on a cycle per property per day at times, then sometimes go a week or more. No real rhyme or reason for it.

Then you start talking dogs... I've heard of coyotes luring dogs into the woods by getting the dog to chase the one coyote only to have the rest laying in wait for an ambush. I've never seen it, but I suppose it's possible. Territorial issues is another real possibility. Coyotes don't peg dogs for being a pet, just another K9, so they do get attacked for being in the coyotes territory. I use my dogs a lot when running my trap line because my dogs (especially my German Shepherd) will pee on every single coyote pee spot in the woods. Then the coyote remarks it every time. I use my dogs to actually show me where to place my sets at times when there is no snow because I can't obviously see where a coyote is marking a spot on normal soils..

Sorry for the long reply. I'm on coyote trapping mode right now :)