We are doing this coyote study Here In my area In WI so far 70 coyotes have been collared. As far as I know only one collared coyote has been re captured by trapping. Some have ended up as road kills and some have been shot but only that one was re captured by trapping.
Most of the coyotes are still within 5 or 6 miles from where they were caught. Some never left the area at all and are still on the same ground where they were caught.
WE started trapping In early Sept so some of the coyotes were young of the year. One coyote did travel about 60 some miles till It got to the WI river. It was gone for some time then made It's way back to where It was caught.
We are trapping right along side a major 4 lane Hi way and very seldom do any of the coyotes travel across that road. The GPS collars send a signal every 3 hours and It's pretty neat to see how they move around In their home range. Two of my coyotes were killed along that road while eating on road kills. The collars are only good for about a year so there are lots of coyotes running around with non operating collars.
I haven't been In touch with the study supervisor for some time. He would normally send me Emails with the GPS maps showing the movement of individual coyotes. I will have to check in with him this week and see what's going on.

A coyote doesn't know a trap from a horse shoe but It may be "SET" shy but not "TRAP" shy. Maybe even lure or bait shy so I think It's very important to have change up systems.

An adult coyote that has witnessed one of It's family members getting caught In a trap may try and keep It's young from working a set but for the most part I can't see an adult pair keeping tabs on their young during trapping season. That may happen In a ADC situation but In Nov and Dec not so much.

Last 2 paragraphs were spot on beav. Toadly agree.

Who on here that has caught a good number of coyotes actually believes they can tell if a caught coyote is an alpha? If its more aggressive to the trapper upon approach? If its larger and growls or barks? How do we know?

Simply, we do not know. To say or think we are smart enough to "target" the alpha, if one even exists in any given coyote family unit is a stretch. Makes some coyote trappers feel better to talk about it but the truth is none of us know what's out there or what we've got caught as any coyote's demeanor can be as individualistic as many other critters, including people.

Can we used that observed aggressive behavior that we observe from a trapped coyote to our advantage? I try to by moving my trap to edge of catch circle with the obviously aggressive ones....thinking if they are that aggressive to me then they are likely aggressive to other coyotes too. But is this a true characteristic? Who knows.....?
No one does for sure.

Well put Swamp Wolf, spot on.. Interesting Beav , please keep us posted, thanks

I look at this as two different things.

There are two kinds of trapping that I do - fur trapping and ADC work. During the fur season I don't care if I get who ever is in charge and how would I ever know which one that is if I am traveling over a long distance?

If I have a complaint I want the whole bunch of them. If you check the sign and do your homework you can tell if you have the alphas or not. The key is knowing your territory and the animals in it.

I would like to see those movements Beav. That sounds interesting.