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Author
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Topic: Territorial question
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brad h
Knows what it's all about
Member # 57
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posted May 03, 2004 02:25 AM
I'd like to fire up the video camera this summer and tape the pups and some parent reactions.
My question is this, how close to a den does an intruding, "howling" coyote need to be to get a physical response from the parents?
I've deducted that coyotes can judge distance audibaly. The sounds are probably heard every time someone calls. I've seen coyotes come in to rodent distress sounds from almost a mile away in Dec and Jan here, but how much further were they?
So will they come as far, in defense, in denning season? I'm also wondering how far they wander from the den at night. I see tracks in quite a few areas, but I suppose the non breeders also have to be taken into account.
The population is low now and hills facing south and east run for miles everywhere around here making den locating tough. At this time of year dens should be sought out and claimed by the soon to be parent coyotes I would think.
Any thoughts or ideas on this subject?
Brad
Posts: 346 | From: Glendive MT | Registered: Jan 2003
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Tim Behle
Administrator MacNeal Sector
Member # 209
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posted May 03, 2004 08:03 AM
If you can get with in 1/2 - 3/4 of a mile, you should have no problem getting a reaction.
If you know of an area that coyotes have denned in the past, that same general area will be good to find other coyote dens. I like to set up on a hillside and glass far a few hours after sunrise. The later in the morning it is, the straighter the line the coyotes are making for the den. Watch them for a few mornings coming from different directions and you should be able to tell with in a few yards of where the den is with out ever getting close enough to spook them.
Some coyotes seem to go to great lengths to hide their dens. Others put them right out in the open. I found one three years ago, about a mile from my house that was in the middle of a piece of flat barren ground. Not so much a blade of grass with in a hundred yards of the den. I was following the tracks of a parent in to find where he kept disappearing when suddenly two pups popped up out of the ground 300 yards in front of me. I would have never guessed they would have picked such an open location.
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Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take
an ass kickin'.
Posts: 3160 | From: Five Miles East of Vic, AZ | Registered: Jun 2003
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Greenside
seems to know what he is talking about
Member # 10
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posted May 03, 2004 01:54 PM
If I set up on a den for the purpose of killing coyotes, I'd a least try to get within 400 yards and preferably closer. From my experience, I'd say that once you get past the one half mile range, the harder it's going to be to call one from the den. If the question is how far away to safely howl for locating purposes with out getting a physical response, I'd probably try to stay a mile or so away from the slopes you expect the den to be located.
Dennis
[ May 03, 2004, 01:56 PM: Message edited by: Greenside ]
Posts: 719 | From: IA | Registered: Jan 2003
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brad h
Knows what it's all about
Member # 57
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posted September 07, 2004 09:31 PM
Tim and Dennis
Didn't mean to bring this one back, but I didn't get a chance to thank you guys for the replies. I spent hours scouting and storming the hills. Locating at any hour of the night was vague and sparatic at best, when two years ago it seemed they couldn't resist answering back.
The only evidence I did find was one day at work. I ran off to test a few calls. It was the first part of June I think. I drove a few miles off to an area where I'd called in one before. Not trying to be sneaky or anything, just climbed a hill that looked good, with my work truck below and to my right in plain view, dressed in full color clothing.
I messed around with a distress call I'd just finished, then put the air to a small howler to see what it could do. That's when I had a coyote come running down the hill just 200 yds away from me barking and howling to beat hell. I had never seen a live, "pissed," coyote untill then.
It didn't seem to matter what I did once that coyote had the mindset I was another coyote, he was mad, I was a coyote, and he was going to go to work on me. Of course no gun, no camera, I was just out testing calls. Once he hit the bottom of his hill, and cut the area between the hills in half, howling and barking the whole way. I started eyeballing that drivers door, and estimating how long it would take me to get there.
He stopped at the bottom of my hill, about 30 yds away, and decided to find out what I was before he came any closer. He actually had to go back to get down wind due to the structure of the hills, and how the wind directed through it. Luckily he winded me and ran off to relocate I'd imagine.
I just thought it was interesting how he reacted given the fact that it was visually obvious I wasn't a coyote. The reaction was almost exclusively on sound. Even given the state of mind he was in, his eyes seemed to be completely cut off or disregarded. This is probably normal territorial behavior, nonethless, an experience I won't forget.
Brad
Posts: 346 | From: Glendive MT | Registered: Jan 2003
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