Discussion, coyote pups

So I set up a job yesterday. By my read based on lay of land and reported sightings I figured to be within a hundred yards or so of a den. Figure mated pair and pups. No pups reported seen just multiple sightings of a single adult.

Location, a 6 acre church lot front half cleared and paved. Subdivision backyards line three sides. I figure this wooded three acres is a den site so I didn't go poking around just set the woodline on obvious trails.

This AM I have a pair, male and female. By tooth wear older than 2, female looked oldest. Female appeared to have nursed but was dry. In poor shape, scabby with mange and poorly fleshed. Male in good shape with good fur for a southern summer yote. He was a fighter not wanting the noose.

Working theory, possibly no pups based on condition of female and no pups seen.

Discuss

Tomorrow will tell.

possibility of the female being an interloper? Or that the pups have recently been weaned?

Anything is possible. As always I can only assume based on observation and past experience.

I'm used to scrawny pulled down females this time of year but this one was worse than most.

With the poor condition of the female, might be barren grandma, and a younger one has the pups.

I suppose you could always do a necropsy and see if theres fresh scars in the uterus

Could be.

Her uterine horns will tell you if she had pups, and how many she had.

Lots of good info comes from taking a peek.

This is what it will look like a couple weeks after whelping. I see this I know I’m looking for young pups holding tight to the hole, or not even out of the hole.




This is an “older” litter. I see this I’m dealing with older, weaned pups or close to it, possibly not relating to a hole anymore. Brush camping, moving every few days, split up and potentially spread out over a half mile.

So Boone Liane, am I "reading" the pictures right and top one with knife had 6 or 7and second pic 5?

Yes sir.

7, 5, and four by my count.

Maybe the male was killed - hit on road? - and she was alone and in poor shape from mange / parvo or both? and could not feed the pups she had. Sometimes they eat them if they are not right. Sometimes the pups get parvo if they aren't eating right. All could have had it and all but she died then she could have called for her mate and a new guy showed up - full of fight. Tough to say he might have been telling you he just met this gal and she sold him down the river - if you spoke coyote.

So what's the conclusion?

No conclusion but no new catches, sightings or tracks since.

Here’s what I think, very very limited knowledge here so take it for what it’s worth. I think they either move on or we run them off.
Got a property we caught a female. Tracks showed the second and third day afterwards with no interest in the set, then disappeared. No tracks the last week and a half.
Another property we had tracks and even pics before setting. We made sets and no tracks or pics in a week and a half.
Where’d they all go?
One place is recently fenced with NO entry or exit points we can find along the perimeter. They just holed up? Got 5 cameras out near all four corners and one in the middle…and nothing but deer and turkeys. Been catching coons and possums fairly regularly, but no bigger predators.

Wanna Be I haven’t messed with dens for years but when I did , it seemed like when you found a den you had better deal with it that day. I think if you get close enough to positively identify the den she will move the pups that evening. I don’t think any routine activities ( mowing ,cultivating or other farming activity) will have much of an affect. These activities were already taking place when she picked that den site , but a crew coming in to build a fence IMO would be enough for her to move pups immediately. In years past I’ve had farmers tell me they saw a coyote go into a hole while farming , on Saturday morning when I had time to deal with it she would still be there. On other occasions while out walking or fishing or....... I would come across a den with a coyote close by and never find them come Saturday.

Can’t say for sure the fence crew ran your coyotes off , but it would be my best guys.

^ This.

If I fart around within a quarter of a mile of an active den and don’t kill the adults than and there, they’re moved.

Might only move them a few hundred yards, but they’re moved.

And in some country, a few hundred yards may as well be a few hundred miles when the whole operation revolves around getting that litter.

Pups here are pretty good sized and weaned, moms are haring over, pups very mobile can be 1/2 mile apart now. Scott