This may be a dumb question but I was wondering if any of you guys have ever noticed coyotes in the fall during trapping season running the same areas they do in late winter? Does the snow change how and where they travel or where your seeing them run in the snow is usually how they are traveling the landscape when there is no snow? For example; I always see coyotes cruising frozen ponds and creeks in late winter, are they usually checking out near water that often or do they only go investigate now that it’s frozen? When u see coyote tracks in the snow going down a field a certain way, is that usually how they work that field in the fall with no snow on the ground? Do you guys use the post season/ late winter to scout things like that and use the information when you are setting up your line in the next year? Thanks!

I find in my area that coyotes usually follow the same areas every winter. When we get snow I usually know where to look for sign right away. I have what I call trails where I can hang snares every season. I am following coyote tracks all the time in the snow trying to tell the difference between hunting tracks and traveling tracks. Some country is easier to trail up coyotes just by the way the land lays. In farm land it also depends on what type of crops are in the field. There are a lot of deciding factors to where and why coyotes travel a area. Not all areas are the same every season. I am just lucky to be trapping the same area I started trapping 40 years ago. Good luck and keep good notes.

Depth of snow is the biggest reason for change in travel habits. Running frozen creeks and snowmobile trails.

They usually tell me that the coyotes walked right on by

Coyote tracks in the snow tell me where they're going and where they've been....what'd I win.

In the fall they may be under the persimmon trees eating fruit or in the seed patches hunting birds etc,; by winter those fruits are gone and the birds went south, so canines will be onto other lands. They may still run past the fruit tree, if it is on a travel route.

Snow tells you one thing- it shows plainly where they were yesterday.

Up here in the winter alot of coyotes move into the deer's wintering yards.

That it snowed and a coyote went by.

In the west they travel the ridges that are wind blown from point A to B then pile into the heavy cover to hunt and get caught in snares.

A friend of mine who runs coyotes with hounds said coyote hunting has been terrible. We had a couple days of warm weather. Then it froze and the coyotes can run on the crust of the snow without breaking through. They don't leave any tracks making it harder for the hounds to track them.

Coyotes here change patterns with crop rotation ,But if you find tracks they will probably be back

So the consensus seems to be that scouting and hiking around studying tracks in the snow can’t teach you much about what they are doing and where they might be traveling in the fall, thanks for the input guys!

Well I don't got a map for you but I can tell you that tracks are a lot easier to see in the snow than they are on bare ground, I can also tell you that coyotes are territorial and creatures of habit. If you find tracks and scat in the snow, that is where you will find tracks and scat in the mud.

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