When we came in from milking last night Becky, who was cooking dinner for us, showed me this picture on my camera. It is a bit blurry because she was in a hurry, but that thing up on the hill is an Eastern Coyote. I thought it was a deer, it is so huge. It had been harrying Liz's pregnant show cow, Blitz, but Blitz ran it off. Guess we will have to start shutting springers in the barn yard or get out the 243 or maybe both.
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15 comments:
Wow! That's kinda scary. It does look like a deer in the picture. Hopefully you'll be able to show the trophy picture (kill shot) in a few days.
Scott.
you are the second blog that i read that has mentioned coyote problems. i pray they don't arrive on our farm. be careful!
That is one HUGE coyote! I say send him to his happy hunting grounds and the other side of bar.
I wish I could shoot to kill... there would be plenty of our own coyotes that would join yours.
yeh, send him packing!...don't need that aggrivation around these parts!
Our farmers have been having a time with black vultures the last couple of years. They kill the newborn calves every chance they get. We are official "herd watchers" for a neighbor(we can see their herd and they can't).
They are very common here. I can hear them any night yappin and calling. They cause a lot of damage to the watermelon crop in the county. Who'da thunk coyotes like watermelon?
Seems like the shooting is the only way you will be rid of it, and if there is one there are more growing up.
Scott, I am not letting the old dogs out before daylight even though I am up and they would like to go out...
KK, they seem to have a den right up on the edge of the property, but usually they leave the cows pretty much alone. Must be extra hungry or something. I am grateful for some of the tough old cows that will go right after them
Sara, I couldn't believe how big it was. Some of them took down a pony a couple miles from here about three years ago. Wonder if this is some of that bunch...
Anon, we have so many due to calve. We have lost calves before too...
WhimsybyMari, I dread the day they show up here. So far they haven't made it this far north and I thank God for it. The turkey vultures will harass calves, but they don't generally kill them like the blacks do. Our cows like to calve just behind the hill in the picture. If (or when) the blacks show up, we will have to make them stay down here where we can watch them.
FC, we have quite a few too...I think this one is one of a bunch that has quite a lot of plain old dog in the DNA. About three or four years ago there was a bitch around with a pack of huge pups and some of them were long haired and black and some just looked like coyotes. They did a lot of damage to large animals near here...no water melon although I guess they like sweet corn too.
Earl, I am afraid you are right. That one looks like it is either sick or has pups. Lots of mange and rabies around and there is a den just over the hill from the picture.
i've heard of what sounds like a pack of young pups howling at night. it gets our dog barking like a madman...they don't that far off either...scarry!...and yeh they all grow up..and then....:(
This area is covered in coyotes. Fortunately they appear to be getting plenty to eat from their natural habitat as they have never bothered the shepherds around here for the past 20 years. The biggest fear here are the dogs that are not leashed that get into a pack. I've sold sheep to people who have had whole flocks decimated by a pack of domestic dogs. That coyote is HUGE btw.
He looks huge!!! I would be very careful with the dogs, too.
*sigh* tree hugging hippy that i am, i hate to see them killed. can't we all just get along?
i read or heard, or picked up somewhere along the line that llamas make really good watch-critters 'cause they'll run off coyotes. i think donkeys may too. ever think of expanding the herd to include one or the other?
Anon, yeah, we are down to three or four cats because they eat them all. A farm kind of needs a few barn cats, but...
WR, you are lucky indeed that they don't bother. Our main vulnerability is when the cows are calving. They can't fight back then....poor things...
WW, I worry about Mike. He doesn't go out of the yard, but they will come into the yard. Found a mallard duck wing right next to the front porch last week!
Ericka, I understand how you feel about them and we don't shoot them willy nilly. They have their place in the scheme of things.
If they stay at the back of the place eating woodchucks and rabbits they are quite welcome. Since coyotes came to the area (in my lifetime btw, they are not at all native, wolves having been wiped out leaving a handy niche for them...and they are nearly the size and appetite of wolves unlike western coyotes) farmers have a lot less machinery damage caused by running into the dirt mounds left by woodchucks.
So we are actually thankful to coyotes for their appetite for wild rodents.
However, when they show in the calving pasture things are different. Cows and healthy calves are quite capable of defending themselves from them. However, while birth is going on cows choose a lonesome spot away from others and they are very vulnerable. (They would slip away from any other animals we put out with them too.)
We have lost calves and cows in very tragic fashion due to coyotes.
And really, it does them no favor at all to let them coexist close to buildings and people. As long as they are hunted they maintain a healthy fear....stay invisible....stay away from dog diseases...eat wild food instead of free lunch in the farm field and cats off porches down in the village...where they would end up a hunted nuisance anyhow.
We could calve the cows indoors but they are much better off having babies outdoors in good weather on clean grass in a place of their choosing. So if that coyote shows up again, somebody is going to take a pop at it. More than likely it will be scared more than injured as they are hard to hit, smart and tough. Then maybe it will look for natural food and leave our babies alone.
MAN! THAT THING IS HUGE!!!! We have mountain lions that walk across our ditch banks and have killed sheep and calves, but I have NEVER in my life seen a coyote THAT BIG!
The ones who live in/on our land are smaller, about the size of a Lab or German Shepherd, but NOT A DEER!
Like you we have lost cows and calves to coyotes. Sneaky devils. They like to wait until the calf is coming out, in the throws of labor and bam, lunch!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Linda, I am grateful when someone understands the things that happen with them. I couldn't believe how big this one was either...perhaps part dog...
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