Tons of Coyotes... NEVER hear a howl.... WHY?

DOD

DOD

New member
I posted this question in another post but thought I would start a new one so it gets seen by more folks and hopefully get an explaination (or several). We hunt an area that has tons of coyotes. New tracks seen on every outting, etc. The area also has a healthy Snowshoe hare population. We have never heard a coyote howl in response to our howls, nor have we seen one come in to them. We have had them come in to rabbit distress calls though.

Can anyone give a reason for the lack of howling?
 
DOD....I was curious about this topic also...I recently had the pleasure of talking to Sly on the phone when I ordered my calls...and we talked about this particular subject, he told me that our northeast coyotes are not as vocal as those out west....he suggested that I do my howling, then quiet right down, and stay longer on stand...he said they may not howl or bark, but if they are in the area most of the time will try and work thier way up wind of you and make the silent approach....I also would like to hear what everyone else has to say on the suject!
 
It is sort of comforting knowing this isn't happening just to me, if that makes any sense. It's seems odd they do it in some areas but not in others, unless food availability, etc plays a role. Like I said, this area has a very good population of snowshoes, so maybe if food isn't a problem, territorial defense, etc may not be as pronounced. There are alos Red Foxes in the area, using the same travel paths as the coyotes which seems odd from what others say also.
 
The only thing I could think of and put together was that maybe howling is much more of a territorial thing between coyotes than we realize...out west the population is much higher and more dense than it is here, and maybe here in the eastern dogs dont have to compete for territory as the dogs out west do..so when howling in new england is heard by a northeastern dog he may not have as much experience in the area of defense of territory as a western dog would in that same situation...Sly also said that the dogs around here will come silent to a call so they can try and get a look at whats makin all the noise before an outright confrontation. However...in the situation of mating season when you would think they would be most vocal I have not heard much noise out of them....except for one that busted us a couple weekends ago and stood about 500 yards out and started in with the "alarm barks"........that ended that stand but quick!
 
Population density and human pressure both play a role. Humna pressure is the biggest factor in the amount of howling done and what time of night.They are comunicating with each other at soem time during the night.

Weather dictates to some deggree of when they howl as well. Calm nights are best. Jimmie
 
Here is a short quote from the
"first double" thread.------- ...Ken let out two howls on his cronk howler to start the stand and in they came...two young males looking for love I shot the first one square in the chest at 100 yards and then got the second to stop at about 150-165 yards maybe....(end quote)

The above little success story took place in New York I think. They don't howl as much back east, but they will still come. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I dunno how thick the woods are back East, but out here in the Northwest the woods can eat up sound like that Japanese kid eats hot dogs. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I once took my howler, and an FRS radio, and walked down the road away from camp, howling every few hundred feet, and having my brother at camp radio whether or not he could hear it.
I didn't make it 800yds, before it was no longer audible in camp, once I climbed up to a high bare spot above the road I could barely be heard again through the trees between us.

It could be that the coyotes are much less vocal, but it could also be that they are harder to hear too.

I have the advantage or being able to drive to the open sagebrush "west" in just a few hours... And I can tell you howling there, and here are completely different in terms of response (both physical and howled response).

I think the woods coyote needs to be less vocal... there is plenty of food to go around, so territorial howling is going to be unecessary, mating howls may or may not be needed as they will scent mark their areas anyways, and they too have probably found trying to "yell" to get ahold of one another isn't very effective for them either in the thick trees.
Then there is security... I can tell you I don't much like the idea of howling sometimes, knowing in my woods a lion could be within yards (or in yours a wolf), and I could never see it.
And I am sure the coyote knows as well as we do, these larger predators would kill them as competition... he ain't gonna sing his song 'til he knows who's who, and where they are.

I imagine the coyotes around here thinking "stupid fool... doesn't he knows Tom has been hanging around all day!?!" lol

Krusty
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Thanks for the responses guys, it helps alot.

We do our calling during the day. Night hunting is allowed in NH, but when the Legislature is in sesson, they have unimportant items to deal with instead of giving written permission and the filing clearks are too busy filing the unnecessasary crap the Legislature is dealing with to file the forms required, so it just isn't worth it. (Actually takes written landowner permission, then must be filed with state and local CO, and heaven help you if you don't have a copy on you if stopped, but you get the point)
 
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