Coyotes eating coyotes ?

doggin coyotes

doggin coyotes

Well-known member
The question is,

Will a coyote or coyotes eat a dead coyote that they happen to find?

Up until this year I would of said NO and argued the point. Some things I've seen this year/winter have certainly made me rethink my thinking on the subject.

I'd be very interested to know what you guys think and more importantly, WHY do you think it?
 
I was sitting in the deer stand about 2 years ago and out camy a yote. I watched him for a few and noticed he had something in his mouth. I had been sitting in the stand for several hrs and it was about time to go so I decided to shoot him. Shot him at 140 yards went over to drag him off and found that he was carrying the hind leg from another coyote. It was not a fresh kill the animal had been dead for while. So I would assume they eat anything dead no matter what it is. Either that or he had a new leg to play fetch with.
 
I believe they will. When I went to New Mexico To the ranch that my Father-in-law was running I did a lot of calling. I would make a pile of carcasses of coyotes that I have shot. About 5 or 6 from that days hunt. I would then sit overlooking them the next day and would harvest some more coyotes that were eating on them. So from my experience I would say that the answer to your question would be yes.


John
 
I found a fresh/dead coyote that looked like it had been tore up pretty bad by running dogs or whatever. For a week, there was quite a bit of other coyote tracks going to and from it and it appeared they were eating all they could cuz it was bare bones from one weekend to the next.
 
They most certainly do eat other coyotes. I have watched them eat dead coyotes especally if the coyote has been shot. Also the coyote will eat a coyote that has died in a trap. Recently I watched a coyote roll in and on top of another dead coyote just to get that stink all over his body.
 
I suppose it could happen, but i've never seen it. If i did i would proably take some pic's for proof that it actually does happen.. I have two spots where i dump the carcasses and other coyotes will come up and mill around the area some and then move off.. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
Doggin',

I think they do, but they don't eat ALL coyotes.

I've had some coyotes get eaten & other lay right there with nothing touching it til it's just a skeleton.

I don't know what makes the difference, but something does.
I also think it's coyotes that eat the ones that are consumed because there's tracks & scat around the area where they were eaten.

Just my observations.

Barry
 
I skin all my coyotes in the field and very seldom will I find the carcass upon return. Eagles, ravens, magpies and coyotes clean them up.
 
Quote:
I skin all my coyotes in the field and very seldom will I find the carcass upon return. Eagles, ravens, magpies and coyotes clean them up.



This is true. I have a friend that is a fur buyer, I sometimes take his carcasses and set them up in prepicked areas and shoot coyotes off of them. Sometimes there will be 30 carcasses in a pile and I will be able to kill 3 or 4 sometimes more off the pile in a year. I set them up to where I can sneek into the pile and get a shot if they are feeding or set up and call them back in. They will eat each other.




Lucas
 
Quote:
Can't help the mange problem. Don't know if it is a significant cause of spreading the problem, but logic says it can't help.



This has crossed my mind also. I'm not sure how long the mange mites can survive after the host coyote is dead. I think I've read that it is not very long. Like only a few hours? Anybody know?

I'd carry a 5 gallon can of gas around with me to give those dead mangy coyotes a good flaming send off, but with my luck a coyote roasting would quickly turn into a big prairie fire. I don't really need that headache.

Logic does seem to suggest that a LIVE mangey coyote cruising around on its little piece of the rock would be way more likely of coming into contact with other coyotes and possibly passing the mites on to them, than a DEAD one that doesn't do much cruising. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif

From what I've seen this winter and from what some of you guys have said in this thread, I do think I've changed my mind about coyotes eating coyotes.

I now think they will and do. *Sometimes*. How they pick and choose which ones they eat and which ones they don't is still a mystery to me. I know for a fact they don't or won't eat every dead coyote they may come across. It's one of those things that make me go, Hmmmmm.
 
It's pretty simple really. If they're hungry enough, yes, they will eat their own kind.

Quote:
According to my avatar, they do.



Those are wolves.
 
I killed one last year in deer season, my brother in law that was with me skinned it out. We left for lunch right after he skinned it at around 12:00, by the time we got back around 2:00 the carcass had been picked completely clean. It looked like you had scraped every bit of the meat off with a knife almost. I didn't actually see them do it, but I don't think crows or buzzards would have cleaned it up that quick.
 
I threw a skinned coyote back behind my house last weekend. Either a fox or coyote was eatting it. They dragged it around and ate a bunch of it. Its been real cold and get got tons of snow so I think everything is doing what ever nessesary to live.
 
i snared a coyote..by the time i got to it other yotes had ate the whole back end of it. the only thing left was the shoulders up. i also seen a simalar thing on a trapping movie i watched
 
they will ABSOLUTELY eat another coyote. They are predators and to them meat is meat and survival is survival. There is no prejudice to what keeps them "surviving" and the in their instincts the ends justifies the means. My buddy keeps all his carcasses (coyote, possum, fox, coon, etc) and puts them all out at the same time. There is no discretion on what gets eaten.
 


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