Not a thing eats coyotes you say?

[Bub]

I wanted to put this in the "Random Posts Thread", but figured since this is not something everyone wants to see, the hunting section might be more appropriate than the general discussion. Since I am making a whole new thread for this, instead of just posting a photo, I guess I will write a little as well to make it, I don't know, possibly interesting.

Not recently, but I saw in a few different threads a number of individuals stating that nothing eats coyotes. Not birds, not another coyote, not a thing. I never understood what gave people that idea.

I made some free time yesterday just before sunset to go see about a deer. Five minutes after I came to the field and "took cover", a coyote showed up (in quotes because I just stood next to 1 of the 4 trees at the edge, but with a very convenient branch on it to serve me as a gun rest). It was moving toward the cattle farm just across the road, so I decided to put it down. The dog found its peace about 300 meters (rough visual estimate) away from me. Quite literally, less than a minute after the shot, a magpie appeared out of nowhere, but it was cautious and didn't really pick at it. 3 to 5 minutes later there were at least 6 of them; quite possibly more because they kept coming and going every few seconds.

This is a good place in this story to make another point. Those magpies made so much noise that I was pretty sure that was it for my short outing of the evening. However, in spite of firing the shot and all the loud and unpleasant bird talk, exactly 7 minutes after the dog went down, 3 bucks showed up and walked no more than 20 meters from the coyote with magpies around it. A few minutes later some does came out for their night feed as well. One, it appeared, came close and stared at the dead coyote for a brief moment.

Anyway, I waited at my "hiding spot" until 5 minutes before the end of the legal light and went to retrieve the coyote. Since the gun I shot it with was quite a bit more than a dog can handle and the fir was not impressive at all, I pulled it out to the edge of the field and left it there.

Today, I had a bit less time, but still enough to go to the field and see what deer is around. I happened to walk by the dead dog I left there yesterday and happened to see about 8 ravens taking off its carcass when I got close. They literally skinned that coyote in just under 24 hours.



Saw some more deer today but none I was looking for.

So yes, the birds do eat coyotes. I really have no clue why so many people decided that they do not. In fact, other coyotes eat dead coyotes as well.

And, as a side point, an occasional gunshot or two, as well the sound of death in the immediate area (magpies and ravens), do not necessarily stop deer from coming to feed.

[Sasquatch9000]

Have you ever eaten coyote?

[HunterDave]

I’m not sure where you got the idea that nothing eats coyotes but carcasses don’t last very long in the bush.

[Zuludog]

Steve Rinella eats coyotes.😀

[Bub]

Originally Posted by Sasquatch9000

Have you ever eaten coyote?

No, I have not eaten a coyote.

Originally Posted by HunterDave

I’m not sure where you got the idea that nothing eats coyotes but carcasses don’t last very long in the bush.

I didn't get this idea from anywhere. Quite the opposite, actually, which I thought is pretty evident from my original post above. Many people here, however, do believe that according to quite a few posts I saw previously.

Originally Posted by Zuludog

Steve Rinella eats coyotes.😀

He sure did that one time in that one episode

[Kurt505]

There was this restaurant in Edmonton that served coyote once.....

[bubba300]

I read somewhere that coyote is a golden ealgle's favorite food,I don't think there isn't much a raven,crow or magpie won't eat.Magpie's do a good job on the dog poo in my yard.

[Big Red 250]

I saw a bald eagle eating a coyote once.

[husky7mm]

Yrs ago very often nothing ate a coyote but for the last 15-20 yrs there are a lot more ravens around and they will eat anything these days. Since they stopped using poison to kill wolves, ravens and wolves numbers have compounded. IMO

[58thecat]

Originally Posted by Kurt505

There was this restaurant in Edmonton that served coyote once.....

And toy cup poodles......

[Skoaltender]

Couple years back when checking snares we caught another yote chewing on his friend in the snare. Stomach was spilled all over the place and the back legs were down the the bone. I don’t think is abnormal for a desperate coyote to eat it’s own.

[last minute]

Originally Posted by Big Red 250

I saw a bald eagle eating a coyote once.

yeap x2

[tool]

I've seen domestic cats eat coyotes, and talking to guys who keep a lot of fur they tell me this is a common problem for them.

[Bushrat]

If it has meat on it and coyotes have meat on them something will eat it. Wolves will kill and eat coyotes every chance they get. Coyotes will eat coyotes if there's not much food around, they will kill their young or each other. Wolves will do the same. Every scavenger out there will eat dead coyotes. I've seen chickadees and whisky jacks picking at dead coyotes

[Strix]

Just this last summer I flushed a Turkey Vulture off of a road killed coyote. Of course vultures are known to eat anything.

[Snm]

Every living thing is consumed in some manner.

[58thecat]

Originally Posted by Snm

Every living thing is consumed in some manner.

and made into poop.....

[Yycadm]

I’ve shot an awful lot of coyotes over 45 years, Alberta and southern Saskatchewan (mostly on family farms). The first few times I dressed one out for the fur, everyone out there thought I was crazy. SOP had always been shoot it, drag to the edge of the field and dump it.
One of my uncles had a real problem with them 20 years or so ago, and all the family members with guns had a go at getting the numbers down over a few months.
We collectively took more than 80 dogs on his land that spring, and piled them in one corner of the closest quarter to the yard because of easy access. By harvest time, there was nothing but bones...spread over half that quarter. No question looking at bones that coyote, wolves, birds of course, and quite likely a bear or two, had fed for a good while on the carcasses

[marlin1]

only thing I have seen left untouched for a week on the prairie was a crow I shot

[bezzola]

Can you legally leave the fur behind if it’s in bad shape.

[hayseed]

I have shot yotes off of yotes I'd shot before ...

More than once.

[deercamp]

Lol literally have never heard that statement. Scavengers are not fussy. On a side note our barnyard cats hate magpies, must taste some kind of terrible because they are only thing that they will not even sniff. Crows , ravens , pigeons all a pile of feathers by morning. Magpies never touched.

[Don_Parsons]

The Brazilian Elmino Sutoo was just about eaten by a tribe in Central America.

So humans have been known to eat humans to.

The Animal kingdom and human trades are kind of similar in some ways a person would think.

[Hawkeye]

I have seen gophers eat dead gophers!
Was sitting in my office one day when this raptor (some kind of hawk, I think) swooped in on this pigeon and ate most of it in a few minutes......quite amazing!

[yoteblaster]

I shot a very mangy coyote one day and shot another one the next day which was eating his dead mangy buddy

[FinnDawg]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye

I have seen gophers eat dead gophers!
Was sitting in my office one day when this raptor (some kind of hawk, I think) swooped in on this pigeon and ate most of it in a few minutes......quite amazing!

You can literally shoot a gopher on a mound and seconds later have another gopher eating it.

[slopeshunter]

Originally Posted by Zuludog

Steve Rinella eats coyotes.😀

Exactly what I was thinking as reading the story. If I recall, he only tried it once.

[West O'5]

Wolves eat coyotes...just sayn.
Also I’ve seen some unexpected (non)reactions to gunfire from deer on a few occasions where they almost seem oblivious to it and carry on as normal.
Case in point,most memorable time,a bit embarrassing,but years ago I missed a good mature 5x5 buck broadside at 100y.He walked 10ft closer on the narrow survey line and turned broadside the other direction nibbling on browse....and I missed again.
Thennnnn....he walked 10 ft closer still,turned broadside browsing again....and I missed again.3rd miss he perked his head up and swiveled his ears around a bit....then he just turned and slowly walked away back the way he came and just stepped off the line and vanished like he never heard a thing.

3 rounds of .303Brit less then 100y over 10-15 second time span,and he casually walked away like nothing happened.

FWIW,the rifle was a rusty ol $75 iron sight 1905 Ross that I carried as a work truck beater behind the seat for a few years....turns out the round top portion of the front post had gotten broken off beating around in the truck no doubt,and it was shooting almost 2ft High at 100y.....I “almost” wrapped it around a birch tree when that buck walked away,it would have made my top 2-3(?) bucks of all time for sure,big mature old 5x5.

I did however shoot several deer with the ol’Ross both prior to and after that day,it was minute of pie plate accurate at 200yards normally.

[H380]

Yup birds eat coyotes , raven , magpie and especially eagles .. ask any snare guy how he likes eagles on his line ..

[Prairiekid]

Originally Posted by bezzola

Can you legally leave the fur behind if it’s in bad shape.

Pretty sure if it's private land you're not legally obligated to do anything with the fur. Crown land I believe you have to make a reasonable effort at using the fur.