Coyote digestion periods,.. a full coyote will eat next when????

P

Pack_Wolf

New member
I killed a 42 pound male last year that I took to the vet school for weighing, as I had shot a big hole in his hide and wasn't going to save it. The teaching Doc wanted to atopsy it, so I said yahoo. It had two large strips of rawhide in his stomach( dog Bone??) and a 4-5 " ball of red meat. I had no idea that this stomach could hold that much. It obviously was spending some time around a fresh dead animal or feeding from scraps given to domestic dogs. This yote wasn't living on mice at that time.
He was stuffed full, and still came to my call.
Some of us report yotes laying in the sun and not coming to calls, so what are we dealing with with a fully fed yote vs hungry ones?
How long would it take for a well fed yote to be interested in the call enough to come? Digesting time could put them into a estivation period. I wonder how often they have to eat?

I think I want to hunt hungry yotes.
I guess I'm rambling,..sorry

Pack
 
It is a good question and I wont pretend to know the answer. I bet Yellowhammer could help us with this one. I will speculate that one of the factors would be weather, specifically how cold is it in your area. I would imagine in very cold climates a Coyote would have to "re-fuel" much more often in order to have calories to burn to help stay warm. I say this because It seems that Coyotes are much more active and on the prowl the colder it gets. Another weather factor might be that the Coyote(s) sense an impending storm. Its no secret that animals have another sense altogether where they can feel climactic changes. A Coyote that knows it might be layed up for a while due to a rather nasty storm might be more inclined to gorge themselves if they know food might be slim pickins for a while and they will be inactive. Another thing that comes to mind would be, how much competition do they have for food? How plentiful is their primary food source and how hard do they have to work to eat? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif Obviously a pregnant or nursing female would also have to feed more often. Just some thoughts I had on the subject. Good post. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
Wyosongdog makes good points. I also think that the hunting pressure in your area might make a differnce. If the dog had never been called or shot at he might be more willing to come to a call on a full tummy than an educated dog. Just a thought.
 
Beats the heck outta me! But, I have read about coyotes gorging on carcasses until they stumble off a few yards to puke, then coming back and doing it all over again.

And... Quite a few years ago, I checked stomach content on almost every coyote I killed for a couple of years (about 80 coyotes). I just wanted to see what they were eating, in the places and at the times I was calling and killing them. One thing I decided after looking inside all those coyotes stomachs, was that a lot of the coyotes I call, aren't coming to the call because they are hungry!

- DAA
 
I've read in a number of places, including PM, that coyotes may not respond to calls because of hunger at all. In fact, some experts speculate that they're responding out of curiosity or territorial defense mode related to another coyote eating a rabbit in "their" area. The call may not be triggering a feeding response, but "angering" the other coyote enough that he/she comes to chase the interloper away. Thoughts?
 
Quote:
...some experts speculate that they're responding out of curiosity or territorial defense mode related to another coyote eating a rabbit in "their" area. The call may not be triggering a feeding response, but "angering" the other coyote enough that he/she comes to chase the interloper away. Thoughts?




I'm sure that at times any and all of the above is true. Just depends, on a lot of variables, like age/sex of the coyote, time of year, abundance of resources etc.

Personally, I think a LOT of coyotes that come to my calls, are mostly just excited by the prospect of killing something. Not hungry, not territorial, not angry not anything except horny for blood.

- DAA
 
Maybe, when you are not sure, where or when you next meal will show itself. You eat when the opportunity presents comes up?
 
Many times, eating is an excessive compulsive act of acting out territorial urges, or they are like us Southerners and like comfort foods.
 
I think that till Yellow Hammer checks in we may have enough collective experience to venture some guesses.
The variables are many, and I do think curiosity and willingness to catch something may indeed be a reason for any yote well fed or hungry to come to a call. The fact that they don't need to eat, may account for some of those we don't ever see and know that the areas we call should hold some.
Opportunistic feeding may be just a trait all animals exibit.I still wonder how long they can go until they need to eat.
I found a coyote watching a draw today about 400 yds away. I pulled in to hunt, him and he moved off and went in a parallel move at the coyote trot for over a mile in 8" of snow. That took a lot of energy. I drove slowly and he stayed 500 yds off in an open field and watched me as I paralleled him on a county road. Not only will he be tired, but hungry to boot.
I capped another one today. News at 11:00.

Pack
 


Write your reply...
Back
Top