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How do you dispose of coyote carcasses?


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Many of you know I am a raptor enthusiast who promotes the use of non-lead ammunition to help protect eagles and other raptors.

 

A few years ago I discovered a large group of ravens feeding on dumped coyote carcasses. Presumably the yotes were killed with lead ammo. Ravens and other corvids do not metabolize lead the same way raptors do. It takes more lead in their gut to get to similar lead levels as eagles. In other words, the same blood levels will kill or impair a corvid but it takes a larger dose to get there. There are a lot of wintering eagles in some areas of the state - including mine. There were no eagles observed feeding at this site but there may have been.

 

I know some people dump their carcasses in DOT deer pits. I have seen them when acquiring bait for eagle research.

 

I am curious about how you dispose of your carcasses, and whether you have ever put a camera on them to see what scavenges them.

 

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Coyote meat must be pretty bad tasting.  Those are about the only carcasses nothing touches at my place, not even the crows.   I just throw them out on a field in the fall and winter after removing the hides and plow them under in the spring, usually the meat is just de-hydrated by then, but still covering the bones.   I would assume that most of the lead gets into the ground without passing thru another "carrier".  By contrast, deer, raccoon, squirrel, muskrat, rabbit, goose, duck, and woodchuck carcasses deposited on the same field are usually picked clean to the bone, often in just a day or two.  Crows and coyotes picking at those carcasses provide some excellent long-range target practice.

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Wow, hard to believe someone would actually try it.   That is the only meat I know of that a crow won't even touch.  I wonder what those fellas blood alcohol content was as they were forcing it down?   It don't look like they were enjoying it very much.  

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Over the years me and my hunting buddies have shot several coyotes, because they are a problem, where we hunt. We leave them lay. NOTHING has ever touched a single one of them….EVER. Guarantee that this Rinella guy will never have a freezer full of good old coyote steaks.

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LOL guys , yeah it isnt that good with out some good bbq sauce like they say ,, over cooked duck lol

yeah some asian countries eat dog ,,, i think here its just getting past the thought i'm eating a dog lol

 

never tried it my self , found that video while searching on eating yotes ,, 

 

 

Edited by JimMac
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It is interesting that a couple of people have not seen any scavenging of coyote carcasses. I did see a large group of ravens over a pile for several days. While I did not witness feeding, I have to assume they did. It would be like seeing deer in a alfalfa field and not seeing them eat. You have to assume they did. 

 

We averaged over 10 road-killed deer consumed at each of our research sites last winter. That said, 2 sites ended last winter with the single deer put out as bait intact. So, there is a chance that you are not seeing any scavenging of carcasses by chance, or because of your location. We put bait where we expect avian scavengers to be moving.

 

This has me curious. Do scavengers avoid feeding on the remains of predators, esp predators that may feed on them. I tried a couple of google searches but I could not express the question in such a way that I got any meaningful answers. I am going to email a couple of experts to see what they say.

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I've only killed one coyote in my entire life.

Not because I haven't had the opportunity to kill more... I just don't see any sense killing something I have no use for.

 

The one I did kill, I tossed under a stand of hemlocks and didn't check on it until the following spring.

Just a skeleton left by then as one would expect.

I have no idea what eats them, as I'm sure many others here don't have the time or patience to sit over a coyote carcass as well so who knows.

 

If someone wants to drop off a yote for me, I'll bet I could get proof that vultures would chow down on them when dropped in the right spot.

They ain't too picky!

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