Hunter Man Kills 104-Pound 'Unusually Large' Coyote
 

That's a big dog.

Wow - I've seen/shot a few coyotes in my time - closest to anything that big I ever saw was around 35-40 lbs. That one may be a hybrid - sure would've made my Australian Shepherds nervous.

I sent the link to a friend who is a coyote guru - Wyman Meinzer. I'll post what he has to say about it.

Richard :munchin

When they have terminal mange and a couple days to dry out in the sun, they call 'em chupacabras.

I wonder how good of a job they did on the DNA testing. The red wolf, as well as domestic dogs, can hybridize with the coyote.

The hunter did the right thing by contacting MDC even though it could have caused him a lot of grief.

You sure you ain't from Texas? All that went down not too far from here...I could never believe they tried to pass those animals off as anything other than a dog or coyote.

Yep, I was born and raised north o' Big D where the jackrabbits were as big as chupacabras back in the day.

Another explanation in seeing such a large animal is in investigating it's access to larger protein sources, (ie., other dogs, cats, garbage cans, Mcdonalds, Burger King, etc.). Larger human population of the midwest and west coast have produced larger predator.

Coyotes under most normal conditions eat mice, rabbits, other small animals, in short, not alot of enriched protiens with extra tasty fat.

We shot one in Nevada while chukar hunting that went 60-70 pounds...

NE Ft Worth area, with a HARD cool spell over the last few days!! We had a rather large Pack of 'yotes just on the other side of my fence several times!! They start off "Barking" like dogs trying to lure the Domestics out. After a while they start doing a "Pack Sing"!!

When I get them close enough to my fence, I launch a few "Bird Bombs" out amongst them!!!:D THEY GO NUTS...........and you can hear them running into the fence and the trees out there trying to get away!! They usually stay away for a month or so after that!!!:D:munchin

Later
Martin

I agree. Spring of this year we saw a 50-60 pound coyote in the Anza-Borrego desert. He pranced past our camp site, our dog watching, as if he owned the place (I suppose he did)...not at all wary like most. I figure he was well fed by the snow-birds. It's his nature and ours. Unfortunately, he will probably be the one that suffers.

Pat

Having grown up in NorCal where we actually used to shoot such varmints, this story reminds me of this old bit of wisdom.

The Sierra Club and the California Department of Fish and Game were presenting an alternative to the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley ranchers for controlling the coyote population. It seems that after years of the ranchers using the tried and true method of shooting or trapping them, the Sierra Club from over in the San Francisco Bay area had come up with a "more humane" solution to this issue and wanted the ranchers to adopt it.

What they were proposing was for the animals to be captured alive. The males would then be castrated and let loose again.

The ranchers looked at each other in amazement for a couple of minutes...until finally...an old rancher in the back of the conference room stood up, tipped his hat back and said, "Son, I don't think you understand our problem here . . . these here coyotes we're talkin' about ain't f**kin' our sheep . . . they're eatin' 'em!"

Thats some funny shit right there

Question for all to ponder
 

Q: Why are there no bears in Africa?

A: Bears are Omnivores. They can do well eating either berries, herbs, friut or meat, small to large games. Bears can out dig the best badger, skunk or hog. In north America, they can take down large game - they hunt elk, deer, moose, mountain lion, and feed seasonally on fatty fish. They can run in burst of speed equal to a horse, damn near a quarter mile.

(Note to self: do not try to out run a bear uphill or down - on horse back or otherwise. Better to dismount, take careful aim, do not miss).

But I digress...

CA. OR, WA, NV, CO, WY, ID, UT, MT, AK, Russia - big food source, big bears.

In Africa, they could not compete with lions, hyenas and such as carnivores, nor could they compete with elephants, hippos, giraffes as herbivores. They lost on both accounts. Bears must be the dominate consumer of energy in either herb or meat. They never do well in second place. When you see bears, you are in wild places, unless of course, they are in your dumpster, which brings us to coyotes. When you have wolves around, coyotes populations stay manageable. In Wyoming, we lose maybe 1 piece of livestock to a wolf, we lose 10-12 by coyote. We like wolves.

The eastern coyote is noticeably larger than the western coyote because of it's interbreeding with wolves.

http://blogs.wvgazette.com/johnmccoy...stern-coyotes/