After reading a few dissertations on coyote howling, I agree that males don't always howl in a lower pitch than females. This was documented using highly advanced sound equipment and captive coyotes within the study. However, this sport of predator hunting is highly commercialized. For this reason, many have keyed catchy phrases to create memory cues with the general predator hunting public. The "female invitation howl" is one of these. I posted in the previous thread on the female invitation howl and made no reference to any scientific information because I felt the poster asking the question wanted knowledge from us in actual hunting experience. I also felt he wanted a simple explanation of how to use the type of howl that's been dubbed the female invitation howl.
After reading peer reviewed journal articles on the subject and listening to and watching coyotes howl both in the field and on video, I believe that the scientists writing the articles have come to a valid conclusion. Coyote howls vary based on emotional intensity and don't necessarily communicate one specific meaning like a word in the English language. The emotion is communicated through the intensity of the howl. This is why the female invitation sounds a lot like a challenge howl and why the challege howl has also been called the threat bark/howl among other things. People are trying to name the different intensities of emotion in howling. Bill Austin says right in his instructional tape that oftentimes a more demanding howl is required to bring coyotes all the way to the gun than the lonesome howl or the interrogation howl. This is why combination calling works so well. You get a coyote to come and investigate a howl and after a few minutes it's basically right on top of the dying rabbit. Why wouldn't it come investigate if it only has to go a short distance?
The female whimper was also mentioned above. Just because Randy Anderson calls it the female whimper doesn't mean males don't do it or pups don't do it. It's a submissive, sometimes playful sound. Bill Martz (don't start a new discussion about him, PLEASE) calls it the coyote submissive sound. I'm not trying to knock Randy Anderson at all. He's constantly saying that coyotes will surprise you, and they're tough to figure out. He's definately an open minded guy.
The main point of all of this is that hunters, all of them not being the Ph.D type (I'm definately not this type), don't always seek to name a sound with a scientifically correct name. It was likely named the female invitation howl due to he fact that it works best during the breeding season. Since it is thought that the male generally approaches the female (the opposite of turkeys) it is likely that the female coyotes make the sound more often than males. That said, I've killed just as many female using the sound as I have males.
The "female invitation howl" is concrete and easier for most to wrap their heads around than "a coyote howl of medium intensity." What in the H-E-double hockey sticks does that mean?
I don't claim to be a coyote expert as I certainly don't have the years of hunting experience that others here have. However, as hunters, most of us don't have the resources available that the Ph.D students did when collectiing data, so I have to give them a lot of credit. Also, remember the sections in these papers that explain statistical significance and sample size. For these reasons I don't accept what they say as gospel. I simply use it as information to help me draw my own conclusions.
I'm all for intelligent discussion, but I think it's disrespectful for someone to call out the pioneers of our sport and say their explanations for certain howls weren't sufficient. After all, they were trying to explain it to hunters, NOT scientists. Why not just start a thread with a scientific explaination that gives others a chance to understand rather than call what someone else has said, "a crock of excretement,"? Maybe there was a logical reason for them to word it the way they did even though they new the explanation wasn't 100% scientifically correct.
