By John Jeanneney, Full Cry, February 2011
No, this article is not about what you think. The canines I’m writing about are coyotes, not dogs, and the humans are the unwilling cooperators. The coyotes have been the winners in this game because we humans haven’t been as quick as coyotes to learn that changing circumstances require changing tactics. As hunters we should be cooperating with our tracking dogs instead of cooperating with and feeding the coyotes.
Sixty-one years ago, when beginning to deer hunt, I learned from the old timers that the best way to deal with a deer that you had shot and couldn’t find was to wait until the next morning to track him down. This would give the deer time to “stiffen up” so he wouldn’t run away easily if he were still alive. Rigor mortis (stiffness after death) got confused in this theory with the very different physical condition of a live deer.
What amazes me is that many of today’s hunters are so loyal to tradition that they go on repeating that same old myth. They say, “I hit a big buck yesterday afternoon just before dark, so I left him till morning. Now I can’t find him. No blood after 100 yards. I need your dog.” A few hours later we’re standing midst a grey ring of pulled deer hair, gazing at what’s left of a deer carcass. “How could the coyotes eat so much in one night? Oh, well! At least I have the horns.”
When I started tracking wounded deer in New York State 35 years ago, coyotes were a rarity. They began to be a problem for hunters only in the late 80s. Wildlife biologists tell us that the coyote migration into my own New York State and New England came in over the Great Lakes from the upper Midwest. This trek probably took place over several generations, and DNA analysis shows that considerable cross breeding with Canadian grey wolves took place. The result was a strain of northeastern coyotes somewhat larger than their western ancestors, but highly adaptable to their new habitat. The newcomers relied less on rabbits and mice than their forbears while deer played a larger role in their diet; fawns were easy pickings in the spring, while young or weakened adult deer could be taken in deep snow time.
But from the coyote’s point of view, or nose, the real feast time comes during deer season. For the immigrant coyotes it has been wonderful to discover that hunters leave more than gut piles. The hunters kindly leave whole deer in the woods overnight, and don’t try to interfere with coyote festivities until the next day.
The new generations of “super coyotes” do more than stumble occasionally into a wounded or dead deer lying in the woods. Now, when they cross the scent line of a wounded deer they know how to follow it with all the skill of a good tracking dog. Today I find that more than half of the deer left over night are damaged or devoured by morning. This depends on the area, and the incidence of damage is highest in semi-suburban areas where there has been no trapping or predator hunting.
My tracking friends in the Midwest report that even their “pure blood” coyotes are doing more damage than usual. We need some serious statistical studies on the activities of coyotes during deer season to make more hunters, especially bowhunters, realize that we have to improve our tactics for finding wounded deer that need to be tracked.
When tracking at night we hear the coyotes singing close around us. Perhaps, as they see our lights and figure out what we are searching for. Frequently when we track in the morning we find tufts of deer hair that have been yanked out by harassing coyotes. They do not always succeed in pulling down their prey.
We have tracked up to a lost deer at night, just as coyotes were breaking in. They retreated, but they were not happy. As the deer was dragged out of the woods, they followed just out of sight yapping their discontent.
This season we had two experiences with daytime coyote competition. One buck, a ten pointer, had been bowshot at 8 AM. He had left a blood trail that the hunters were able to follow for about 200 yards. Then they area searched but could not find the deer. We were called in at about 2 PM and were able to find the deer in about 30 minutes from the hit site. The deer had gone only about 200 yards farther beyond the point of loss, but it had changed direction and gone down a steep drop off. Already the coyotes had been at work, starting on the rear end. Fortunately 95% of the deer was still intact. The arrow had passed through a lobe of the liver and the stomach.
The daytime doe was found lying in a brook, and the coyotes had started on a front shoulder rather than the loins and hind quarters. I’m sure that they will be smarter next time.
Daytime venison damage from coyotes is still unusual, and in daylight the time-honored tactic of waiting through the morning and afternoon on shots behind the diaphragm is still valid. Deer can usually be tracked in late afternoon and into the night even if coyotes are numerous. A good eye-tracker can accomplish amazing things, and he does not have to rely solely upon blood traces. The big problem is that blood tracking takes time, and the coyotes do not wait, especially after dark. No longer can we rely on the old tradition of “tracking him up tomorrow morning.” It is even very risky to track slowly by flashlight for “as long as it takes”, which may mean until 2 AM. If a deer can’t be found during daylight or very early in the evening, the hunter may find that he has cooperated with the coyotes despite his best intentions.
Fortunately the use of tracking dogs is the new development in much of the country that may save us from an unwilling role in coyote-human cooperation. Tracking wounded deer has always been legal in certain parts of the South and in most of Texas, but now the practice is expanding. In much of the North the use of leashed tracking dogs has already been legalized or is in process.
It is being recognized that the tracking dog’s nose, like that of the coyote, works incomparably faster than the human tracker’s eye. Guided by a good dog a hunter has a much better chance of getting to his game before the coyotes. Hunters are amazed to see my dog begin from the hit site and in ten minutes follow a trail for a distance that has taken them hours of eye-tracking. And the dog continues with equal ease beyond their point of loss.
In the bowhunting tradition up North, eye-tracking has been considered to be an essential part of hunting. Turning this task over to a specialist with a dog when the blood sign dwindles away has seemed for some to diminish the whole experience of hunting. But now our frequent experience of tracking up to a grey ring of deer hair and bones picked clean is leading quite a few deer hunting traditionalists to reconsider their old ideas. Sometimes to preserve the best of our heritage, we have to change with the times.
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| In Ohio Dave Bell and Rex Marshall were called in too late to save the venison. |
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| In New York Pete Martin and Lisa found this buck after the coyotes had done their work. |
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