Black Coyote

[Glanceblamm]

Saw one last week while on a late scouting trip for the coming deer season. A doe actually busted it as she winded it napping in a patch of multiflower rose. I thought she winded me at first but at the second high pitched wheeze I saw her high and to the right.
Knew I was on the cross to downwind side and had been motionless for some time.

The deer retreated the way it had come, then the yote broke out of the side of the cover where I was able to see it. A couple seconds latter and it had disappeared into a small wash only to become partly visible again on the trail ahead of me.

Almost without realizing it, I found myself down on one knee holding the .45 Vaquero in a two hand grip with the hammer back and the sights lined. :shock:
I dont rightly remember drawing it , but it was in a soft nylon holster worn crossdraw on my left side.
That yote only had to clear a small mound and turn left to be in full view but chose to go right and quickly disappeared from sight.

Strange how you program yourself what to do, or what not to do even before you start. Would I have shot this yote? Yes, in a heartbeat.
How about during the coming deer season? Not on your life. Would be a huge amount of scent to smear around the stand area.

That Black Coyote:
Used to be considered quite a prize with top dollar being paid. This is only the second one that I have seen in alot of years.
Talked to a buyer once who claimed that the black came from breeding with domestic dogs and were now worthless as they found the hair would slip latter on. Could be true for all I know but it looked like a Yote to me.

[rockbilly]

I'd have to agree with the buyer.  I've been around them most of my life, and have seen many variations of color from light gray to tan, to red and brown.  I even seen a white one (almost) while hunting in north East New Mexico.  In Georgia, several years, I seen several mixed dog/yota running in a National Forest North of Macon, some of them were even spotted.  I was told by a game warren that hunters had imported to yota to replace the declining fox population.  They had crossed with wild dogs.  The mixture made quite a vicious and cunning animal that would attack a man.  Due to some of the dog breeds in the cross, they were rather large animals.

[Glanceblamm]

Biologist have suggested two diff kinds around here. The coy-dog which is mixed with wild dogs (the ones around when the indians were) as being a smaller, meaner animal that will raid your trap line and go as far as to eat a Fox right out of the trap.

The Eastern Coyote, a larger animal was said to be a mix between the yote and the Red Wolf which occured around 1900 during the time the wolf
left our area.
I can certainly agree with this due to coloration.

I agree that they do breed with domestic as I know one farmer who used a hammer handle to beat at least two yotes away from his (in-heat) Collie. :shock:

More feedback indicates that the yotes are adept at lureing the loud mouthed farm dog out just far enough to teach it a lesson, or even kill it.
This also seems to be true as we have had missing and or torn up dogs.

This gets way too big for this quick post but in the end I am always interested in hearing all reports of incidents & behavior of the yote

[Sourdough]

The Feds turned a bunch of Red Wolves loose in the Land Between The Lakes in Tennessee, I believe in the 70s.  That's the area between the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers at the Tennesee and Kentucky borders.  The Cayotes and the Red Wolves have been crossing eversince.  The locals call them Coywolves.  Johnney Stewart even has a tape of the Coywolf made from that area.  

Since the animal you were discussing is in the mid west, where it is common to cross breed between cayotes and dogs, I feel this animal may have some dog in his family tree.

[Steelbanger]

Back in October my son saw three coyotes running together on the farm we hunt. Two of these were black. On the opening day of deer season, my friend shot a mostly black coyote, probably one of the two seen by my son. Although it looked like a coyote, I assumed there was some domestic dog in its lineage.

[MarlinMan]

A few years back,an aquaintance of mine took a very nice 9 pt. whitetail here in Pa. As he was waiting in his stand before getting down to fallow-up on his buck,a very large solid black coyote came into range and he arrowed that too!
He had a banner day for sure.And has both the buck and the coyote mounted.

[jrdudas]

I lived in Tucson, Arizona for many years and we frequently spotted coyote on our property.  They seem to be solitary animals unless they are hunting, when they sometimes hunt in packs.  We would occassionally find the remains of what we came to call a "coyote kill".  Only thing left from the preyed upon animal was feathers or small bits of skin and bone.  

I now live in SE Ohio and in the last couple of years coyote spottings are on the increase.  Last Summer I found evidence of a "coyote kill" on our property.  We have two dogs that are contained in an enclosure at night and sometimes they get spooked by something.  Might be deer spooking them, but I have seen them spot deer in the daylight and pay little attention to them.  Last Fall a black bear was caught about 10 miles from here.  It was found to be tagged and when the authorities investigated the tag they determined that it had wandered into the area from Pennsylvania.  In recent months there have been sightings of a large cat; some of the sightings were by law enforcement folks.  Who knows,

John