How good is a coyote's hearing?

Not a whole lot to ad to this. But, I spoke of this before.

A woman I went to school with raised Grey wolves, wolf hybrids & a few coyotes. Another woman a friend of her's also raised [just] wolves.

These two women, who were friends lived close to 9 miles apart, as the crow flys. [Wolf woman], the lady I know. Told me her wolve's & coyotes would communicate over this land space to the other woman's wolves. They did this frequently. BTW, she never did send me any of her canine pics.
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Coyotes; I spot/stalk them, have for many yrs. I've stalked them on light wind days, virtually no wind & high wind days. Ground cover over these times, have been bare soft soil[harvested cropland], soft muddy fields, soft[fluff] snow & hardpack[crusty] snow/ice cover.

A coyote miss's very little in it's surroundings, even in high winds & hills. Don't be fooled, just because they don't/won't look your way, as you make noise's with your calls or caller or walking in. Some are just "indifferent" et will not give you or your call noise, the time of day. Who knows "why"? I sure as heck don't.

I've been busted so many times over the yrs, stalking coyotes. I'm a very experienced & quiet stalker. Useing wind speed & direction, terrain & structure to help "mute" my noise, as I stalk in. Not to mention crawling, or tip-toeing for many yards. Regardess, of all my efforts, their hearing ability, is very impressive. Et many were staring @ me from afar.

Last Winter, I stalked a large gray nomad coyote. That laid in almost the same exact spot over a wks time. This coyote busted me as I slowly/quietly made my way closer. Ground cover was a bare harvested "frozen bean field.

Coyote busted me from a 1/4 mile & abit farther away. As I made my way closer in a hard quartering wind. Coyote heard, my foot snap a cut bean stubble. Three out of the 4x stalking in. The coyote was boring a hole in me as I crawled over the last high hill-top, all times but the last stalk. I grazed his shoulder that day, on a long shot.

Early on I stalked Red Fox with my Dad & his two friends, as a youth. We stalked them useing Grayhounds[which RARELY barked]on all kinds of ground conditions. Red Fox hearing is also quite impressive, but NOT near that of a coyote. Not to mention on average a Red, tends to "sleep heavier" than a coyote.

Whether in high winds or very little wind. A coyote will have the back of it's ears towards the prevailing winds. Which leave's the front cone of the ears, to pick up the slightest sound from afar. Especially up & down wind. If a hunter stalks enough coyotes, you'll understand what I'm talking about. They miss very little.
 
I think some sleep a little harder than others. I had previously spotted this pair of dogs and went out to call them. I knew where they were, so I setup about 750 yards from where I had seen them. There was a 12 mph wind blowing from them towards me. There was a highway 125 yards on the other side of them.I could hear the traffic going by faint but yet tell the larger trucks from cars. Actually I was exactly one half mile from the highway. I had my caller 50 yards out from the half mile line, and remember the yotes were 125 on this side of highway. So I think I'm close that they were 750 yards from my call. Now this is not my first rodeo, I have actually shot a coyote at 622 yards and heard the yelp from him when it hit him. So setting up to call 750 yards should be childs' play, Well, I called 30 min. using several different sounds, some I know work good in high wind and could not get a comer. So, I just knew they were still out there so I picked up and moved 200 yards closer walking down a draw so I could not be seen and setup again. I called 4 quick intervals and within 2 minutes had a pair running right at my speaker. I can't explain how 200 yards could make a difference, unless them being down in a draw the sound traveled right over them, combined they may have been zoned in to all the passing vehicles. One think about calling it's a different story every time.
 
WOW! Six years and 10 months between replies!

Coyotes have great hearing but sometimes the terrain, hills, rock formations, thick cover, breeze and wind can keep the coyotes from hearing a sound that they would normally hear easily.

Many times I have driven my vehicle to within 200 yards and less of a coyote and the coyote did not hear my vehicle or the tire noise from my vehicle.
 
I feel sure the stage of alert the coyote is in makes a big difference in what he hears. If he is bedded, that might be his lowest alert level, but he still can hear very well then. If something alerts him slightly, that might be the second alert level. He hears very well then. If he is sure he heard something, and has those ears up, he can hear things so far it is unbelievable. The coyote's hearing is much better than a domestic dog's hearing, and we all know how good they can hear.
 
Many of the coyotes I call in are at half volume on my Shockwave--In the open country I hunt you can see 2 to 5 miles line of sight--I do like high volume and never leave a stand without trying it--some years ago I called in derbyacresbob from over 2 miles--We just laughed about it.
 
I'd be willing to bet that they heard you, but were just indifferent. Once I saw a coyote cross the road in front of me. Instead of jumping out and flinging lead I just kept driving like I didn't even see it.... I knew that the road would curve around and put me just over a mile in front of it. I hid the truck, quickly got set up, and just before starting to call it slowly walked over a hill moving perpendicular to my position. There was about a 15 mph head wind at the time. I ranged it at 890 yards and started calling. Not even a look in my direction. I really belted it out too, thinking that it couldn't hear me. Nothing. Finally for whatever reason, I put the calls away and started lip squeaking. Immediately it stopped and locked on to me. I lip squeaked again and charged in at full throttle all the way in to 50-yards....

On another occasion I was antelope hunting (trophy hunting), and thought for the heck of it I would walk over a ridge top with my spotting scope, sit down, and glass antelope while I also predator called. It was a huge expanse that was looking over a valley floor that was 1000+ feet lower in elevation than where I was seated. After a quick calling sequence I started looking at/for antelope. I spotted multiple herds, the furthest of which was over a 1 1/2 miles away. I couldn't even see the herd without a spotting scope. While watching them, suddenly they all turned and started looking straight away. I looked to see what they were watching and noticed a faint dust trail waaaay out there, a mile or more past the herd. Eventually I could see a small dot moving my way. This was at 40x magnification... It was a coyote !!! It came in on a string to about 500 yards, then made a big circle to get to where it could climb up the ridge above me get to my downwind. I spoiled that plan for it
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There was also a lot of wind that day blowing right towards me... I believe they hear a lot more than we think, but sometimes choose to ignore certain things


Originally Posted By: venaticOn the PM hunt this year we stalked to within about 500yds of two coyotes hunting in a field and setup a FX5 in a small tree about 5ft off the ground. The wind was blowing from them to us at about 30mph(guessing) and they could not hear the caller at all they never even glanced in our direction. The caller was so loud it was hurting my ears because I was sitting right beside it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
I've had them hear me from 400 or 500 yards. But I had a guy tell me that a coyote can hear a mouse squeak at 400 yards. It's dang good whatever is. Lol
 
Lovett Williams once told me that he believed a turkey's hearing was roughly equivalent to that of a small child's (before we experience a lifetime of damaging noise and medicines). I think that's about right for a turkey. I believe a coyote's hearing is a little better than that, given they have the advantage of those ears to funnel sound whereas a turkey does not, and I think they process sound differently than we do. We frequently hear things we don't listen to. A coyote always listens.

No matter how good an animal's auditory mechanism is, atmospheric conditions will always come into play. Increased relative humidity will increase their ability, wind will diminish it. Sometimes I think the wind messes their hearing up more than ours.
 
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