When they aren't snacking on bigger prey, they will eat snakes, insects, fruit and grass." "They are typically thought to be only meat eaters, but they are actually omnivores - they eat meat and vegetation. They prefer eating meat, but they're not opposed to eating plants.
But make no mistake about it! Any homeowner can find coyotes on their property, even if you have no pets. This is bad news for anyone with backyard chickens, or any other pet that goes outdoors, dogs included. Typically they're in search of food or water. There are ways to deter them from frequenting your yard.Īs with any other animal, it starts with recognizing and understanding why they're coming to your area in the first place. If you see a coyote, there's no reason to panic. Unfortunately, it's becoming more and more common, even in suburban areas and cities. Whether you raise livestock or not, it can be worrisome to spot a coyote on your property. The understep and overstep trots are rarely seen outside of some form of group interactions.With the decline of their biggest competitor, the wolf, along with the loss of habitat, the coyote population is spreading throughout the United States.
Trotting coyotes leave tracks that are very narrow and straight.ĭirect register trot: When a coyote is patrolling or hunting inside its territory, the direct register trot is its usual gait. As a result, coyotes spend more time trotting than in any other gait. When trotting, the legs move forward in diagonal, alternating pairs, which typically results in two feet being off the ground at any one time. Trotting is faster than walking, but it requires little effort, covers more ground in a shorter time, and is maintainable for long stretches at a time. When you find any sign of an unwounded, walking coyote, that animal is a resident inside their territory.If you are tracking a wounded coyote, suddenly switching to a walking gait is a good sign the coyote is fatiguing.Knowing what day it rained or when the wind would have been blowing strong enough to move debris into it will help you determine the track’s age. These slivers and the edges of the track will dry out faster than the print itself.Īs time progresses, the track’s sharpness will dull, and its edges will round as gravity takes hold.Įventually, debris will fall into the print, the rain will collect in it, and heavier rain will wash it away. If none have yet to fall, the print is exceptionally fresh.Īs that track ages, the first changes occur in the color of the cracks and fragments displaced by the coyote’s paws. Gravity will soon pull these materials down into the track. If a coyote fled minutes before you arrived and left tracks in the mud, here’s what you’ll find.Īlong the outside of the print, there will be fissured walls and bits of soil. With mud, knowledge of recent weather still plays a critical role, but now we can add gravity to the list of things that aid you to track. Thankfully, there is one surefire way to tell if a track was made by a dog or by a coyote: Can you draw an X between the negative spaces?įresh tracks in mud. New coyote hunters often find a set of prints and find themselves wondering if a dog or a coyote made them.
COYOTE SCAT HOW TO
How to tell dog prints from coyote paw prints. As a professional, he submitted this photo and suggested new predator hunters learn from real sign and not artist’s renderings. Oh, were you hoping I would use one of those black and white drawings to show you what a coyote’s paw print looks like? Well, Edgar Lone-Wolf Kinsey kills a lot of coyotes. As with wolves, foxes, and bobcats, the rear paws are slightly smaller that the front ones. Coyote paw prints.Ĭoyote paw prints are approximately 2 1/8 – 3 1/16 inches long by 1 5/8 – 2.5 inches wide.
What you will need to be able to do is tell coyote scat (poop) and tracks (paw prints) from those of other animals and determine the freshness (age) of that sign. What you will be looking for is fresh sign (scat and tracks). Once you find a place that meets that description, it’s time to scout it out. Scouting using coyote scat and coyote paw prints.Įvery coyote hunter knows, “You have to be where the coyotes are, to call them in.” Scouting means finding a suitable habitat, then discovering undeniable proof they currently inhabit that land.Ĭoyotes can live anywhere, but they prefer open fields and meadows overflowing with rabbits, insects, and fruits. Supercharge your coyote hunting abilities by learning how to identify and age coyote scat and coyote paw prints.