Last weekend, I set up the game camera, and I dumped out a few cans of sardines and spread the oil out in front of it.
This is what I got when I collected the SD card this evening.
An eastern coyote!
If you zoom in you can see it has a wolfy head, and it’s pretty robust. It’s been living high on the hog on dimwitted cottontails this summer.
Look at how wolfy that head is!
Eastern coyotes have come into this part of the East from Canada, where they have received a bit of Canis lupus lycaon genes, and they are a bit more likely to pack up and hunt deer than their Western counterparts.
If you are wondering how big it is, I do have a photo of Miley in about the same place, which was also taken from the game cam. Miley is bigger than it is.
But it’s not a small coyote.
I think the coyote is in about the same spot as Miley, but it could be a bit closer to the camera than she is. Miley is 23 inches at the shoulder and 75ish pounds. Domestic dogs are usually much more heavily built than coyotes are–even those that have a bit of wolf in them.
I was trying to get more photos of raccoons, but I think I’ll settle for a coyote.
Good catch.
We have coyotes in the middle of the city in Providence, RI. They are beautiful animals, but they do dine on pet cats and dogs, when given a chance. Has anybody done a study of how many wild animals are now living in urban areas? We regularly see raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, possums, skunks, and the occasional deer and porcupine. Even deeper woods birds like the Orioles are now nesting in our condo complex. There is still some woodlands on the East Side of Providence, which is otherwise very densely populated by humans. I’m sending my new book “Humans, Dogs, and Civilization” to the editor tomorrow.
We have all the same, and porcupines are becoming more and more common in West Virginia, along with their main predator, the fisher.
Fisher? Wow! a sight of that animal will make my day (or night). They say, “no matter how fast a squirrel is up on a tree, a Martin will be faster and will hunt it and no matter how fast a Martin is up on a tree, a Fisher will be faster and hunt it.”
Reportedly, black bears, pumas and fishers have made to our nearby Caledon hills.
Beautiful shot and gret share!
K2 and I used to encounter coyotes in our neighbourhood ravine trails throughout late fall, winter and early spring during our late evening and early morning walks. Initially, looking at one, I had thought it was someone’s GSD on the lose.
I meant ‘great share’.
I was waked up early this morning by the coyotes conversing nearby. Often heard but seldom seen. They stay well fed on road-killed deer, possums, raccoons, etc. This is in southeast Michigan, not far from the city of Ann Arbor. Wild turkeys and sandhill cranes are frequent visitors to the farm fields (my Goldens are in awe of the big birds!).
Actually eastern Michigan, western NY and southern Ontario are all seeing a comeback of may animals.
To my very untutored eye, having never seen a coyote in my life (living in Oz) to me it looks like a very big fox, of which there are plenty around here.