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Coyotes on the Rio Grande |
By: Bob Zaiglin
2/28/2009 |
5.00 out of 5 with 1 vote |
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As Pecos belted out his best imitation of an injured rabbit, I laid on my side prepared for action. Not five minutes later, a coyote exploded from the thorny brush only steps from us. With the crosshairs on the predator’s shoulder, I fired. The coyote levitated from the ground upon impact and vanished into a sea of brush.
 The sound of an injured rabbit indicates a free meal to a coyote.
Assuming I had little chance of getting another shot from our position, I relaxed while Pecos bellowed out that undeniable sound of a defenseless, injured and, more importantly, vulnerable rabbit “lunch for a coyote”. Within a couple of minutes, another dog appeared, trotting towards us, pausing a scant 40 yards from our position, and dropped to the hard pan at the light rapport of my 17 mm. Amazing, I thought, and before I could relish the shot, another appeared and met the same fate.
 Pecos displaying the result of our first calling session of the day.
Three coyotes were down, and Pecos hadn’t been calling for more than 10 minutes. I was ready to move, but not Pecos, as he continued calling ... and a fourth coyote appeared, running full tilt down the middle of the sendero we were on, straight to us until seeing one of its motionless counterparts, but it was too late. In less than 15 minutes of calling, we had four coyotes on the ground.
The coyote, sometimes called the Rio lobo (river wolf) along the Rio Grande, has often been referred to as a symbol for the vanishing West. The fact is, the West is vanishing more quickly than the coyote. The ultimate survivor, coyotes can achieve a speed of 40 mph for eight to twelve minutes. If hazed, it can continue running for 12 to 14 hours. Their sense of smell is superb, hearing is second only to deer, and the bottom line is the coyote is stealth as a cat and will consume just about anything.
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Coyotes are opportunistic, thus food choice is dependent on availability. In 1941, a wildlife researcher named Sperry analyzed 8,339 stomachs from the western United States and discovered that rabbits, rodents, and carrion comprised approximately 76% of the food consumed. Up to 4% included insects and vegetable matter. The remaining 20% of the coyotes’ diet was composed of domestic livestock, poultry, game animals, and wild birds.
 A bipod mounted to the 17mm we used proved extremely effective.
It is this 20% of the diet that irritates man. Additional studies conducted by the Texas Parks and Wildlife revealed deer hair in 57% of the coyote scats examined during the summer period.
In another Texas Parks and Wildlife study, a total of 40 fawns were captured soon after birth and equipped with small radio transmitters. During the first two years of this study, only five of the radio-equipped fawns survived. Predators were determined responsible for 21 (60%) of the deaths. However, the first two years in which this study was conducted were accompanied by severe drought. Following adequate rainfall, the third and fourth years of this study, conducted under ideal range conditions, indicated an 80% fawn survival with little loss to predators.
These studies demonstrate the fact that during ideal range conditions perpetrated by rainfall, few fawns are killed by predators because other items such as fruit, rodents, etc. are easy to obtain and readily available. Appropriate precipitation also increases vegetative growth, affording fawns ideal places to evade predators.
 I display a few of the coyotes that
responded to our predator calls along the Rio Grande.
We may have not been on a mission to enhance the deer population on this particular winter day, but we had fun luring in one of the ultimate predators along the Rio Grande. By dark, we had collected 22 coyotes and called in over 30 canids, including two bobcats, a feat we may never enjoy again. The deer herd may not be in better shape than it was before our hunt, but one thing for sure, our collection of memorable hunts increased, and it had little to do with deer, at an affordable cost—free!! |
Community Feedback
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nybowhunter
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5 Stars
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Re: Coyotes on the Rio Grande
"What do you do with them after the kill? I've never hunted them and am curious. I'm sure if you leave them, you will attract more coyotes, right?"
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