|
Author
|
Topic: How much effort?
|
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
|
posted May 01, 2004 09:09 AM
Along the lines of the "hungry coyote" topic, I'm wondering a couple things.
Question:
A coyote wakes up hungry, and begins to hunt. How long will it take him before he catches a jackrabbit? How many does he eat in a week? Aside from other things.
The coyotes I have watched, they tend to FLUSH rabbits, as does a human with a gun. From what I have observed, (limited) they don't try too hard, if they don't catch it right away.
In other words, they seem to give up, and are not inclined to chase a rabbit for hundreds of yards, as would a beagle, for instance.
Question:
I'm also wondering about the percentage of kills? Do they succeed, one out of three attempts, or what?
Anybody out there shed some light on this? Personal observations, successes, failures, etc?
Good hunting. LB
--------------------
EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32368 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Weedwacker
Knows what it's all about
Member # 329
|
posted May 01, 2004 06:51 PM
In college I had a graduate level fish ecology course. There was no real structure to the course. The two profs would hand out a couple journal articles every week. We took them home and read them and came back the next week and sat around philosophizing about them.
I would walk away from class still deep in thought about the discussions for several hours. I realized that Grossly excessive thought about the way the world works seems to always takes you to the same philosophical realm that the ancient greek philosophers dealt in. Even if you just start by talking about a stupid rainbow darter. How does it all work?
Anyway, one of the profs. was big into "optimality theory." As I remember this basically says that a given organisms behavior generally moves toward that which is most optimal to it's survival and reproduction within its ecological niche.
In one paper he handed out, some researcers had set up an interconnected set of fish tanks. Each was set up with sediment in the bottom and stocked with a specific density of small aquatic worms. They then used vectors or some such mathematical tool to predict the amount of time small fish released into the tanks would spend in each tank, based on the regime of tank times that would provide the maximum energetic gain to the fish.
That is, how can the fish maximize calories of worm eaten per calorie of energy spent hunting the worms.
Incredibly their predictions were right on. Mind you, the fish are not using vectors and running calculations. The math is simply pre-programed into their little brains through the DNA and they follow it like little robots.
I'm sure it works for coyotes too. He's not going to burn 90 calories to nab a 80 calorie rabbit. His brain already knows that past a certain yardage his average mathematical benefit to be gained from that pursuit has dropped below zilch.
That's the trouble with science. It takes an otherwise romantic notion like a coyote pursuing a jack rabbit and reduces it to raw numbers ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
[ May 01, 2004, 06:53 PM: Message edited by: Weedwacker ]
--------------------
Weedwacker
http://pub119.ezboard.com/bindianapredatorcentral
Posts: 34 | From: Angola, IN USA | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Rich Higgins
unknown comic
|
posted May 02, 2004 09:44 AM
In the Southwest the answer to the question "how many rabbits does a coyote chase and catch" is simple.
As many as it wants to.
It expends as much energy in the chase as it wants to because energy conservation is not a survival requisite in the land of the ubiquitous mesquite, year round ground squirrels and ground roosting doves. I see green mounds of mesquite scat all twelve months of the year. It is a staple and it makes the southwest coyote more independant than those in other geographic areas. Especially in the winter. Protein demands can be met during pup rearing with small rodents and birds.
With that in mind, I watched a coyote chase a jack in the Wickenburg area a few years ago. When we first saw them they were both exhausted, both looked spent, and neither was moving very fast. We saw them a few times over the next half hour before they disappeared.
On the other hand, the manager of the Sun City Country Club told me that the golf course is over-run with cottontails and jacks and that they welcomed the coyotes when they first moved onto the links because they assmed the coyotes would reduce the rabbit numbers. He said the coyotes ignore the rabbits and concentrate on the doves, which allow the coyote to walk within a few feet of them before making a quick dash and snatching them up before they get out of the shade under the bushes and airborne. He said the bushes are littered with dove feathers and they rarely see coyotes chase rabbits other than during what he thought was entertainment, play. Is that energy conservation or laziness?
At a meeting concerning problem urban coyotes in the city of Scottsdale, one lady described a coyote chasing a cat over her five foot block wall, across her yard, up onto her barbeque, onto the roof of her house where it disappeared on the other side. That sounds like a major energy expenditure. It also sounds like it would be very cool to see. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
To get back to your question about success ratios and the coyotes tenacity in the chase, an answer would require a prediction, coyotes are predictably unpredictable, and I would think that it would vary with the coyotes personal circumstances influenced by the ecology of the area at that particular time.
BTW, does anyone besides Weedwhacker think that a romantic notion involves a coyote chasing a jackrabbit? ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
IP: Logged
|
|
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
|
posted May 02, 2004 12:59 PM
Great responses, but I'm still left with a lack of information. I know (think) they don't have jacks in Indiana, and I know they eat other things besides jackrabbits in Arizona.
I want a guess, how many do they eat, and how many get away? Does it require two hours to catch a jack, or fifteen minutes?
The golf course manager. What he sees during daylight hours doesn't begin to cover the whole story.
------------------------------------------------
edit: To illustrate. Nancy and I flew with a friend, one summer evening, out to the Riverside Airport and had a nice dinner at the second story restaruant, overlooking the whole field. After dark, the coyotes materialized and were ghosting all over the runways, nabbing jackrabbits, that didn't seem to have much of a chance. Until it was completely dark, you would never know there were either rabbits or coyotes, anywhere around.
-------------------------------------------------
The Arizona coyote is fortunate, that's for sure. You do not see mesquite scat in most of Nevada, the diet is mostly small game, and most of that is........jackrabbits with a few voles as garnish.
Rich, your observation over yonder, in Wickenburg, reminds me of the old joke about; "How hot was it?"
"So hot that I saw a coyote chasing a rabbit, and they were both walking"
Good hunting. LB
PS, is one rabbit a day, a decent average, or not? I once saw a coyote pull apart a jack and swallow the three or four pieces almost whole. Took less than two minutes!
[ May 02, 2004, 01:07 PM: Message edited by: Leonard ]
--------------------
EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32368 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
MJM
Knows what it's all about
Member # 270
|
posted May 03, 2004 09:18 AM
I don't have any idea about numbers. But a coyote can be increadably efficient when it comes to catching jackrabbits.
I was glassing for javelina and a couple coyotes appeared accross the valley from Larry and I. We watched these two animals work the ground like a military patrol. After a very few minutes a jack flushed. It ran from one coyote but the other cut him off after only a few yards and it was over. The other coyote paid no attention to the coyote eating the jack and continued on with the hunt as if nothing happened. No fights no squabbles no sharing either.
[ May 03, 2004, 09:19 AM: Message edited by: MJM ]
Posts: 97 | From: Tucson, Az | Registered: Jan 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Weedwacker
Knows what it's all about
Member # 329
|
posted May 03, 2004 02:04 PM
OK, maybe this can be calculated from the available literature. There's a ton of studies that count prey animals in coyote scat. They then give total observed scats, number of each prey, and percentages of each prey.
I think were in business here if you do the following:
1.follow coyote for 24 hours and count total squats(defications). (or locate a study where a grad student has already done that for you)
2. Find scat study from area where there's alotta jacks in the Scat.
3. Insert data in the following formulas.
Sq X(#jacks in scats/#scats)= Jacks eaten per day
Where: Sq= mean squats per day
Multiply by seven to get Jacks per week, etc.
Good Luck! ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
--------------------
Weedwacker
http://pub119.ezboard.com/bindianapredatorcentral
Posts: 34 | From: Angola, IN USA | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged
|
|
Terry Hunter
Knows what it's all about
Member # 58
|
posted May 04, 2004 05:43 PM
In my state coyotes loose the cottontail about 75% of the time.When mousing they have a 90% kill rate.
Posts: 132 | From: N. Middle Tennessee | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Locohead
World Famous Smoke Dancer
Member # 15
|
posted May 06, 2004 05:56 PM
lol
--------------------
I love my critters and chick!!!! :)
Posts: 2219 | From: CO | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
NASA
Knows what it's all about
Member # 177
|
posted May 07, 2004 11:06 AM
Thanks Whacker. Now we can say we know "jack squat!"
Posts: 1168 | From: Typical White Person | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
varmit hunter
Knows what it's all about
Member # 37
|
posted May 07, 2004 01:05 PM
The one thing I can say about this subject, And be sure of. Is they don't spend near the energy catching something to eat, As I do trying to kill them
Ronnie
--------------------
Make them pay for the wind.
Posts: 932 | From: Orange,TX | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
