Chasing the Coywolf to protect my Velociraptor.

This morning, as I hobbled back from the barn on my crutches, Julia at my side, I started calling for Tucker. Tucker does his rounds of the farm calmly each day, and I have to say, he doesn't strictly stick to the property line, but does go for a patrol of the creek north and sometimes south of our house. I think that is where the raccoon carcass arrived from this week as a lawn ornament. Thankfully, Huz took care of that.
So, I crutched and called. But, as I reached the brick patio, Tucker started calling back. His big "alarm bark" got our attention quickly. Julia turned her head sideways, ears pricked high, to tell where he was, then she was off like a shot. I was too! Well, I crutched quickly. Around the house, and there he was, in the back field, facing off about 20 feet from a critter that looked about his size. Maybe bigger. But this critter blended pretty well into the colors of the tilled field. When Julia came flying at the pair. The equation changed, and the perceived intruder loped off a bit. That was when I could instantly tell it was a coyote. They have a peculiar gate. Julia and Tucker came to my calls, and the coyote turned at the edge of the field and watched us. Now, that edge of the field is quite a distance, and still, I could see him there. Big. I have seen some big coyotes before, and then, regular size ones. But this guy seemed like a COUS (for you Princess Bride fans out there). That would be, "Coyotes Of Unusual Size".

I may, in the past, have written about the technique I employ for discouraging these guys from visiting my barn. I don't want to feed coyotes with my chickens, lambs, ducks or even my Velociraptors (geese) . So, I chase the coyote. On foot (on crutch?), I run directly at them, screaming loudly and wheeling my arms around in big circles. They usually run off a ways and then stop and turn around to see if I'm still in pursuit. I don't slow down, just charge right at them. This is crazy behavior. They are smart enough to recognize an unhinged animal, and don't stick around to see what happens next. But, after reading about my foe, I may have to reconsider my tactics.

 

So, a study outlined in the Royal Society Biology Letters, done by a couple of curators of mammals at the New York State Museum measured 196 skulls and took samples of 686 coyotes (dead ones).  The DNA evaluation revealed that the biggest specimens in the study were combinations of coyotes and wolves. It seems that the interbreeding began north of the Great Lakes, and then the population came down through western New York and Pennsylvania. The coywolves are indeed, large. And appear to be filling the void left when wolves were eradicated in these areas. And although I did not find the actual Letter, it seems that the DNA was 85-90% coyote, and then a smattering of wolf.

December 14,2010 a hunter kills a coyote in Jefferson City Mo. that weighs in at 104 lbs. Alarmed that he had mistakenly killed a wolf- protected species, he contacted the Missouri Department of Conservation which had the animal's DNA tested, and indeed, it was coyote.

March 23, 2010- A guy in Ohio spotted a coyote in a field about 200 yards from a school. He shot it. When he retrieved the body, he thought he had a really large coyote.  But state game protector, Brian Bury confirmed the animal was a wolf.  I will note, here that the article did not mention DNA testing, so I'm not sure how the confirmation was made, and if indeed it was genetically, all wolf. Still, I might think twice about chasing a wolf.

Discussion on Predator Talk  in 2010 by several folks revealed  word of mouth kills at 70 lbs, but most were in the 40-50 lb range for the biggest coyotes. One reply was by a guy who hunts down livestock predators for farmers. He got a coyote that had been killing calves by shooting it off the back of a cow. The coyote was 48 lbs.

America's New Wolf by Gene Letourneau was penned back in 1984. I have not read it. Amazon did not have any reviews by anyone who had either. But, a Facebook search revealed that Mr. Letourneau was (is?) a writer for "the Guy Gannet newspapers in Maine since 1929" I'm not sure if that means that Letourneau had been writing for these newspapers for 55 years when he wrote the book, or that the newspapers had been being written for 55 years. In any case, his book is about the Eastern Coyote, that had been recognized in Maine since the 1940s, and in 1984 had been moving through Pennsylvania. The Eastern coyote is a huge critter, and has wolf DNA. Maybe by 2013 Gene's Eastern Coyote is in my back field.