coyote response to dead animals

[scott kimball]

i was just wondering what experience some of you guys have had when it come to the dead animal that has been doctored (shots medicated Etc..) some of you guy's say it will rot completely without being touched.


my question; do you think that coyotes will keep a eye on the condition of the dead animal as if it was something they had killed initially by revisiting it several time until it becomes part of mother earth or will they ignore it all together ?

do you find it Wise to set within the proximity of the dead animal?

[trappnman]

a couple observations from what I see here-

1) coyotes will eat the heck out of live gophers in the trap, but the ones I kill and toss, lay there forever untouched. I see this happen almost daily

2) in winter, they are often unaware of a dead deer, being close by it for weeks without touching it- then its gone in a few days.

3) I hardly ever, see where the eat a dead dairy cow or calf. In any season. They like to be around them, but I almost never see signs of eating.

but- this is a good prey area- and I imagine the dead deer laying around are tremendous, and they eat each as needed.

[bubcat]

I Don't have anything to do with "doctored" critters so nothing to add there.

do you find it Wise to set within the proximity of the dead animal?

Not really.

It's too easy to catch a big bird, and the more you set up and catch right on a carcass, the warier the rest of em get about visiting it seems to me. 6 traps on a deer carcass can turn the bait pile from someplace they want to be... to a "last resort"

I'll do better up to 1/4 mile away from the carcass, than I will crowding the plate....

I think I'm better off letting the carcass be what brings em into the area to start with, but not particularly a point of eminent danger to them.... Flat sets, urine posts, and dirt holes along their way work better far as I can see, and let the carcass stand alone as the draw, and not the trap.

It can get so adding a fresh carcass to a pile will "scare" them more than lick their lips, and that's not a great thing, because it can take longer and longer and longer for survivors to return....

And when they do return, it's on full alert, spooky, and it's too easy for a set to get busted.

[bobwendt]

when I set a carcase dump I set it up bigtime, 6 -8 traps right off the bat and the first few nights really lay them low. quick as I start seeing meat disappearing and sets being ignored I snaret he last few, then leave and come back in 30 days after a whole new gagle have moved inand just do it again. I`ve blind set them also and had a lot of fun and satisfaction on a last smarty or two. I set right on the carcase, I don`t mean 5 feet away, but 10-50 feet on the approach tracks. I think on a year `round dump, like a farm carcase dump, it`s probably different than a one time dead moose or seasonal gut piles. the farm dump they are dumb so to speak as they were raised up in the area and probably ma tracked the pups in one of their first times up and about.

[ohiyotee]

Here , my observations would mimic Steve's, i will relate that if you have a deer that "hot'" they will eat on it> scenario ----- You shoot with bow, gets to dark to track, look for it in the morning, coyotes found it first. Injured road kill tear him to pieces , dead one untouched..... They seam to never really eat on dead or roted meat.

I always have the attitude that a Ohio yote is never "hungry"

[primetime]

From what I've seen Coyotes like fresh meat, even to the point of killing it themselves. Live gophers, Yes - Dead gophers, No. (Like Steve said.) Ohiyotee also nailed it, Fresh Roadkill still alive Coyotes will rip it apart and eat most of it in a few nights. Roadkill that is dead - they seem to leave alone. Bow kill deer, if you let it sit a night, MANY times will be eaten by Coyotes. You'd think the coyotes are starving. Take all the scraps out and put them in a known Coyote area and they will sit untouched for a very long time. Cows, Calfs, not until it's very Cold and/or a lot of snow. Fresh Calf, afterbirth they will hit right away.

My carcass dump they could careless for the most part, tracks around the area, but very little feeding from coyotes.

I think they really would rather kill there own food or have a warm meal. I watched a video and the guy stated that he doesn't think a coyote typically wants to eat what you put down the hole. They want to get it out so they can roll in it. I would have to agree.

[livefreeordie]

The same experience, with one exception, one farmer I know and have trapped his land, had a dump, hardly ever touched except maybe in the dead of winter, but put a pig in there, and they would leave everything else except the pig, it would be gone in no time.
Also, while hunting moose up in Maine, the first night of the season, the coyotes would be out en mass fighting and snarling over the gut piles.

[trappincoyotes39]

Carcass piles I don't think is as much for food but a social place. The GPS study showed a pair of coyotes would go to an old cow carcass spend the night in that area and then return by day. They wouldn't go there all the time but I believe the guy doing the study said, they would go there a couple times a week. I think more as a boundary area, one to howl and mark as a territory line. They would spend about the same general time and always return in the morning. It will be nice when he gets more data figured out as this is one of the best studies in awhile. Those GPS collars monitored them every few minutes and also had temp senors to know when they where down in the dens as well.

I also agree on hog, I had a guy give me a pile of lard/hog fat from a butchered hog, I used it as chum in a good snare location, many of those snared coyotes had white grease on there mouths!!! This was processed fat and they sought it out. I have about zero hogs in this country, just a few that all end up in someone's freezer.

[trappnman]

with the disease with hogs, carcass piles have disappeared. But I agree, the last pile I had they mauled those baby pigs nightly, feeding and playing with them. Only a few bones left, but its still a good location.

[bobwendt]

I can show you picks of 800 lb steers totally consumed from inside out overenight at feedlot dead piles. no need for the dead wagon as the coyotes take care of it. of course that is 20-25 coyotes a night to eat that much, lol, and not enough hair between the whole lot of them to make a pair of ear muffs. the cowboys say they look good, well yaaaa, from a 1/2 mile off. and all those black ones, nah, they are purple and bald.

[scott kimball]

primetime i think you might have someting there with the comment of.
"typically coyotes dont want what is down the hole to eat it but more to rub in it."BUT , with the coyote being there when i get there and the free purfume in the hole most of my coytotes smell like a yote and not bait.this is just what i see.

[mostinterestingmanintheworld]

I doubt you could show me a dead animal in coyote country that wasn't already trapped hard that I couldn't catch a coyote in the vicinity.

What Bubcat said was pretty much how I see it.

Joel

[monstertom]

Here in western Colo. desert country lots of prairie dogs,rabbits ,gamebirds most road kill deer or field dead cattle go to the birds, coyotes aren't cold or hungry very often. Now go to central Colo/Wyo area deep snow cold temps a dead cow might last a week road kill only a day or two. Yeah theres alot of rabbits but 4' of snow and wind make a carcass that much better.

[coyotewhisperer]

The hospital pens for the sick cattle are right near the office of the feedlot I work at. Come late Oct many times when i get to work there will be 2 or 3 coyotes feeding on a dead calf in the sick pen. Many times the young of the year won't even run till you get within 10 ft of them. I'm already seeing some deads completley gone before morning. Thats a good sign if they aren't manged out.

Jeff

[coyotewhisperer]

But to answer your question for me its best to make sets on adjoining properties as they come to the feedlot not set the feedlot itself.

[scott kimball]

i am kind of wondering if it has any thing to do with the size of a family unit as to weather a coyote feeds off a dead animal or not (a small unit means ample food a large unit , food is scarce) i agree that the weather conditions can affect if they will work a dead animal or not.

[Steve Gappa]

I think a coyote in a trap has little interest in playing with bait...

want them to smell like the bait? try burying a skunk with the tail up, as per the old books.

Worked well, caught a coyote that night..... released the fault with setting the trap at the carcass....

[ohiyotee]

Don't miss understand me , even though they don't eat at the dumps they are great locations here also.

[bobwendt]

reading the thread over, I missed the original question. scott, I`ve never seen the fact that a carcase was highly medicated with antibiotics, wormers, steroids or anything have any effect on if it was ate or not. at the feedlots all are highly medicated except the surprise heifers dieing while calving. you know, impossible! no bull with in 20 miles! windy day I reckon.

[trappnman]

I wouldn't think a cattleman would have much trouble not only knowing what heifers are bred, but what day they will have them. After a week in MT last Feb during the height of calving, even I could tell when they were going to pop.