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Author
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Topic: coyote eating habits
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Butch-1
PAKMAN
Member # 953
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posted November 28, 2008 12:59 PM
Does anyone have any good information about coyote eating habits? How much they need each day? How many times they feed in a day?
I see Higgins quotes alot of coyote studies on here. Are there any studies that give some insight to this.
I know there could be a lot of variables to this.
Posts: 6 | From: MN | Registered: Sep 2006
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted November 29, 2008 08:26 AM
Butch, I'm no expert on this but it would seem to me that the variables would make any 'facts' suspect. I always get a kick out of reading some study that makes some hard statement such as ".....a coyotes diet consists of 83% cottontail rabbit". Bear in mind that a 'study' is a snapshot in a time and a place. Mayhap two months before the study the coyotes were eating grasshoppers and two months after the study they were on a dead pile. Generally, coyotes will go for the food source that takes the least energy to obtain.
As far as how often & how much, again; variables up the wazoo. Northern winters, growing pups, adults, Southern climates, quality of food source, ect. ect. ad nauseum.
At the very least, take everything (including this) that you read with a grain of salt until you figure out if it applys to the coyotes in your area at that time of year. I have little doubt that somewhere, someone could do a study on coyotes that have learned to raid the dumpster behind the local McDonald's and show that a coyote's diet is 76% french fries.
Best bet; Get a small notebook and record your own observations.
"November, <freezing, insects & reptiles....gone. Scats showing Juniper berries." After a while, you should start to see patterns.
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 8235 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted November 29, 2008 10:17 AM
That's kind of a hard question you got there, Butch. Let's try the reverse and compile a list of what they won't eat.
Right, just about everything, although I'm not sure about dirt? Just about any roadkill will be eaten without re$ervation, although some claim they aren't cannibals? I would dispute that notion.
Now, if I misunderstand the question and you desire to know the dinner hour and when they generally take breakfast, that could also be complicated. When (what time of day) do they usually like to hunt? When are they out hunting? I think after dark is more common, but that has nothing to do with when are they more likely to be called.
In my limited observation of coyote eating habits , they seem short and to the point. Mice are swallowed whole, larger prey are torn into chunks and choked down as quickly as possible, more like an alligator, than a yellow lab eating his kibble from a bowl.
Basically, I am not sure what you want to know, how can we help you?
Good hunting. LB
[ November 29, 2008, 10:19 AM: Message edited by: Leonard ]
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32368 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Rich Higgins
unknown comic
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posted November 29, 2008 10:19 AM
Hey Butch, Kokopelli is spot on.
Everything about the coyote is varied, adaptable and complex. One size just doesn't fit all. We've taken coyotes that have lived near active deadpiles for some time and they would have a 3/4 inch layer of fat covering their hindquarters and back. They obviously ate more than they needed and more than the smal stunted coyotes that we have taken in remote barren areas that had zero fat on them.
You can do a search on stomach content surveys and learn what coyote diet consists of in different areas at different times of the year.
The 114 breeding pairs of coyotes at Logan are fed daily 700 grams of dry dogfood and a large handful of mink feed. That's over two pounds of food for relatively sedentary, confined animals.
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted November 29, 2008 03:28 PM
quote:
although some claim they aren't cannibals?
I wondered that for some time as well, and heard those who said they aren't, until I saw this.
Two nights before this picture was taken, I shot this mangy coyote about fifty yards from a creek where it first appeared and responded while I was calling under moonlight. I didn't call there the next day, but the following day, I went there for 'cats and noticed that the carcass wasn't on the field any longer. Upon investigation, I found coyote tracks approaching the site where the coyote dropped, and drag marks going toward the creek. I followed them and this is what I found when I looked over the creek bank. The head and one shoulder, surrounded by lots of tracks. The rest of it had been eaten and the only tracks around it were coyotes.
Directly to the question, the colder it gets, the more they need to eat. Whether they do is a matter of personal skill. Beyond that, it appears that they eat everything, including each other.
[ November 29, 2008, 03:30 PM: Message edited by: Cdog911 ]
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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