HUGE Coyote!

[sillysally]

On New Years eve day we took Sally hiking out by my mom's house. She lives in an area that is wooded and part of a dunes preserve. The trails we were on were horse trails that I rode growing up--saw lots of smaller critters, birds, and zillions of deer over the years but that was it.

As we were going along I saw something loping through the woods in front of us. I thought it was a smallish deer at first glance but the realized it was a HUGE coyote! It was definitely a coyote, not a dog of any kind--we were close enough to see that. I don't think it was stalking Sally or anything like that--I think that we had just surprised it. Amazingly Sally, who is reactive to dogs and has a high prey drive didn't even notice the darn thing (she was on a flexi anyway, so it's not like she could have chased it)--she was too busy watching me be so excited to see one up close--lol.

It was definitely bigger than Sally, who is 55 lbs, and bigger than Jack, who is a little over 65 lbs and fairly leggy for a lab of his size. It was cool, but a little freaky at the same time. I pretty confident that if one went after Sally on a walk she would be able to fight back well enough for us to get the thing off of her, but still....

 

[AdrianneIsabel]

I love coyotes Very cool sighting!

 

[Renee750il]

There is never "one coyote."

Too many dog owners -- and dogs -- didn't find that out until too late.

 

[Red.Apricot]

The coyotes near us like to have one coyote come down and flirt at the dog until it chases them, then it races up into a box canyon and the rest of them jump it. One of my parent's neighbors almost lost his dane that way.

 

[Renee750il]

Exactly, Red. I've seen them try that with Bimmer out at the farm. It kept me on edge all the time and I tried to make sure the dogs were never out without me at dusk or at night and never out one at a time.

Bimmer, fortunately, has always been slicker than the coyotes. He'd act like he was going, then howl and the Filas would melt out of the grass and come charging up to stand by him. THEN you'd see the other coyotes, lol . . . hauling ass out as fast as they could go They aren't stupid. They know if they get injured they're done for, and they knew that an encounter with a Fila was going to end up costing way too much. You have to figure anything bred to hunt jaguars isn't going to be put off by coyotes. All the same, I didn't want them following -- and they never did.

 

[Linds]

There is never "one coyote."

Too many dog owners -- and dogs -- didn't find that out until too late.

No Renee, don't you know that they are solitary animals that you should only guard your small animals like Poms against.

.....that was the news report broadcast for the Chicago area and what the Forest Preserve tell everyone. Even though I have three or four in my backyard nightly casing out my 70-90 pound dogs.

 

[Dekka]

Are there wolves in that area? It would be interesting to know if it was a freakishly big coyote or a wolf coyote cross. The crosses here are MUCH larger than the typical coyote.

 

[AdrianneIsabel]

Well, coyotes are one of the most adaptable creatures in existence. What we have here on the strip is different than what I often hiked with in Henderson, with more natural desert, for years.

Coyotes are opportunistic hunters, they're not going to work a huge dog if they don't think they have a good chance. They also can be solitary but mostly like to live in packs.

We hiked for years with a pack of 4 of them, it was fascinating watching the pups grow and part ways and start their own gang. They never once bothered my dogs, a wheaten, a rat terrier, and two pit bulls. They would humorously cry victory if we walked away and quickly retreat if we walked towards them. I will say they did eye my yorkies and chihuahuas with a bit too much fascination for me to ever let them stray too far.

In the city they're mostly dumpster divers and rodent eaters. We have normal sizes here too, about a medium size collie, and they rarely coydog out from what research has shown. Other parts of the country are very different depending on how the coyotes have needed to adapt.

 

[Romy]

The coyotes near us like to have one coyote come down and flirt at the dog until it chases them, then it races up into a box canyon and the rest of them jump it. One of my parent's neighbors almost lost his dane that way.

The coyotes at our old house tried that. Bait coyote found out the hard way that a borzoi runs must faster than him... They didn't come around for three months after that.

 

[Red.Apricot]

I like coyotes, too. They're really pretty, and super interesting.

On our Christmas walk this year, the coyote that my mom sees nearly daily was out, and I got a picture of him/her. He/she lives on the hill next to the wash where my mom runs.

I just don't let the dogs off-leash in that area, since Zobby's got a history of bolting (and is a 22lb dog) and I'm not sure what Elsie's response to seeing one would be.

 

[Linds]

Around here they are just getting bold to the point of being very dangerous. We've had them mid day in grade school playgrounds hanging around and I've had them in my yard (as suburb as you can get) at 1 in the afternoon.

And they don't leave when you come out, they come closer and I can NOT believe how much they think about taking on Kaylee or Hannah. I have to go out with them whenever they are let out because I can't trust them not to get eaten.

At night they stand outside my window and will not leave.

Just too many of them with no places for them to go and getting bold (and big). And I just don't trust them not to go after me or the dogs when I'm out and run into them. They are so not wary anymore.

 

[Renee750il]

Around here they are just getting bold to the point of being very dangerous. We've had them mid day in grade school playgrounds hanging around and I've had them in my yard (as suburb as you can get) at 1 in the afternoon.

And they don't leave when you come out, they come closer and I can NOT believe how much they think about taking on Kaylee or Hannah. I have to go out with them whenever they are let out because I can't trust them not to get eaten.

At night they stand outside my window and will not leave.

Just too many of them with no places for them to go and getting bold (and big). And I just don't trust them not to go after me or the dogs when I'm out and run into them. They are so not wary anymore.

This is exactly what we have here, Linds.

My house is literally in the middle of town -- two blocks from the hospitals -- and I have seen a pair of bitches trot right down my street in the early evening. They were with a big Chow mix dog, one of them obviously pregnant. The dog tried hanging around when Kharma was in heat once . . . she went after him (I had her on leash, of course) and the look of pure terror on his face was priceless, lol. I never saw him or the two coyote bitches around my house again, although I caught glimpses of them a couple of neighborhoods over. AC couldn't understand why they couldn't catch the two "German Shepherds."

 

[Pops2]

sally
coyotes are built like greyhounds so even if it was"bigger" than jack, it probably wasn't any heavier than sally.
in the desert southwest they are still typically 25-30# w/35# being huge. in the wetter more productive rest of the country 30-40# is the norm. even in the northeast where they get "huge" anything over 45# is abnormally big.
now if you happen to live in a certain part of NC, you may have seen a red wolf. while they do get bigger than coyotes, they are actually less aggressive.

 

[SarahHound]

Yikes, I'm really glad we don't have them here, I'd probably be scared to go out!

 

[AdrianneIsabel]

Just because I enjoyed them so much and comparison...

The left two were young

Arnold chasing them in his hayday, he gives up much too easily now but it's proof he used to have some spunk.

This one was actually trying what you speak of (I assume), the chase and ambush, I recalled Arnold before the thicket and later saw a couple others in there.

The difference from the coyotes by my moms house (first photos) and these from Lake Mead is interesting. Shorter, thicker, smaller. Just goes to show how a short 30 minute drive can change a coyote.

Oh and one of their dens (the first set, I never stalked the Lake coyotes, there are too many to keep track of out there)

The fence line is a private airfield and the coyotes came back and forth across it but I rarely let my dogs on the other side (there were plenty of spaces). I figured the coyotes respected us so we should do our best for them... with some chasing fun here and there.

 

[AdrianneIsabel]

We see them often walking in the parks by our bitework with the dogs. I don't consider that a threat really. They're just passing through and if I follow them they speed up, looking over their shoulders like WTF, and panic.

But, like I said, Las Vegas still has plenty of real, natural wild areas so its very possible our coyotes are less interested in us because they still have plenty of easy game. Our rabbits are like pigeons for other cities (oh yeah, we have those by the zillion too) every morning I must have 7 in my no grass front yard, you'd think they'd care that I have 4 dogs.

 

[Dekka]

our coyotes look like the first ones you posted. The short thick ones are interesting, I have never seen ones like that.

Ours are big though as big as the OP said, even with out the wolf added.

Northeastern coyotes are the largest coyotes in North America
Average weight for an adult female: 40 to 55 pounds
Average weight for an adult male: 40 to 80 pounds

But they also cross with wolves which is a big problem around here.

 

[AdrianneIsabel]

Yeah, I can imagine wolf crosses would be an issue. I know in California coydogs become a much bigger issue than the coyotes themselves.

Are the wolves there introduced or natural?

 

[Laurelin]

We caught a pretty good size one on our game camera last week. They're around here pretty often and I've seen some BIG ones hit by cars. They're not nearly as thin and leggy as the first ones that Adrianne posted.

They attacked my neighbor's golden a few years ago. I also knew a person with two pit bulls that were attacked and hurt pretty badly (coyote died though).

 

[AdrianneIsabel]

Oh and I found these too... (sorry if they bother anyone?)
Arnold found this guy dead. I have no idea how he died, he'd been gone for a while before we found him.

For size again, Arnold was about 70 then and maybe 20 inches?