Jump to content
BC Boards

Coyote Behavior: Marking, etc..


Recommended Posts

Ya'll of course are familiar with The Daily Coyote?

 

We have lots of coyotes in Vancouver proper. My most interesting experience was with The Coyote Who Wanted To Be Adopted By RDM. This was back in the day when I only had the one dog, Briggs. For several days running, a coyote met us at the park where we play Kong-on-a-Rope (this was even pre-Chuck-It! How primitive!!). I was nervous initially because Briggs was very dog aggressive and I thought he would fight with her (and lose very badly). However, he never minded her at all and didn't seem concerned by her presence.

 

The weirdest thing about this encounter, was that she played fetch with me. It blew my mind. I threw the Kong one afternoon and she went racing after it along with Briggs, and got it first. I was like "oh great, there goes my Kong" but I guess she had watched the routine enough times - she just brought it to me, dropped it within a couple of feet of me, and backed off and went into a hopeful crouch, just like a dog. Every day for several days running, she and Briggs took turns playing fetch with the Kong. I never was allowed to touch her, but she seemed pretty agreeable.

 

One evening when the game was over she tried to follow us home and crossed the road and came along for about a block. I very briefly contemplated the look I would get from my partner when he found out I was branching out into Coyote Rescue, but realized that bringing a coyote home to my apartment probably fell into the Bad Idea category, especially for the cats. So I stomped my feet at her and yelled at her, and threw a rock at her. She bolted and I never did see her again :rolleyes:

 

This was back in the days before digital cameras were ubiquitous, so I never got a chance to photo document our playtime, for which I will ever be sad. Any coyote encounter since has been coyote-sees-dogs, coyote-bolts. But it was quite an experience!

 

RDM

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That story made me very sad, too... It sets you up wondering, too, doesn't it? Like... there are humans who long to go out in the woods and live a wild life, and who don't quite fit into human society. Maybe there are coyotes who would be better suited to live a kong-fetching suburban life. One wonders if the other coyotes used to say, "Olive, you can't play FETCH! Real coyotes don't play FETCH!" And the poor little nipper just wanted to go hang with the Border Collies.

 

Mary

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is a pic of Minnie, taken a few days after an unfortunate encounter with a coyote. We were hiking on our trail and she took off after something. Moments later she came racing back to me on three legs with the coyote right on her (non-existent) tail. Her hind leg, dangling, was dislocated from the hip socket. Had her distance from me been any further, she'd have been a goner for sure. The coyote sauntered off once it saw me and Kit. It chased her to within 30 feet of us.

 

Minnieconvalescent03.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It happened on Memorial Day 2003. She made a complete recovery from her injuries due, I'm told, to having gotten vet care within a critical timeframe. The vet was able to pop the leg back into the socket where it stayed immobilized with the binding for a few weeks. After that she was on a regime of restricted activity and brought back very gradually. Luckily the bite wound that is visible in the photo was fairly superficial.

 

I knew from the deep tone of her bark when she ran off (she ducked under a barbed wire fence that runs alongside the trail) that she wasn't pursuing a rabbit, and while I was frantically calling her to come back, I heard her yelp. There's nothing like the sight of your 25lb dog being chased by a coyote, while running on three legs, to kick in your adrenaline.

 

I carried her back to the trailhead where my car was parked, (which luckily wasn't too distant) while Kit kept jumping up at us to see what was going on. I think she was probably still loaded up on adenaline and probably a bit shocky because she was very docile. But once I got her home and I tried to assess the extent of the damage, she laid into me like a wild animal, and nailed me on my thumb. So I threw a towel over her head and carried her to my car where she stayed while I waited an agonizingly interminable time for the vet to answer the emergency page.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...