How do you dispose of coyote carcasses?

[Elmo]

At the very least, maggots are not very picky.

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[Doc]

My guess is that if you checked them out, almost all of them would have exit holes and the lead bullets would be harmlessly stuffed into some nearby tree or in the dirt which is where the material came from in the first place. A coyote isn't a very big animal. and most varmint calibers have no problems making it completely through their relatively small bodies even when bone is hit.

[RSRAINS]

Most of the yotes I have shot the lead went in one side and out the other. Give to a neighbor down the street for the pelts if they are not mangy. If mangy laid where they died.

 

Exactly in on side out the other. 

[ATbuckhunter]

My guess is that if you checked them out, almost all of them would have exit holes and the lead bullets would be harmlessly stuffed into some nearby tree or in the dirt which is where the material came from in the first place. A coyote isn't a very big animal. and most varmint calibers have no problems making it completely through their relatively small bodies even when bone is hit.

The problem with that, is there are still lead fragments inside the animal when the bullet expanded. It may not be much, but it doesn't take a lot to kill an eagle/ raptor.

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[Curmudgeon]

First item: A response from one of my contacts (names were changed to protect the innocent):

 

"Bill, the agency biologist from Maine, thinks that coyote carcasses are a huge problem for scavenging bald eagles in Maine. You may want to send him a quick email and ask him.

Personally, I have had a tough time trapping goldens on beaver, skunk, and coyote carcasses. I suspect in my case, the birds could afford to be picky due to the availability of road kill deer and quite possibly preferred ungulate meat. Often times, it would be 48 hrs before I would even get a corvid to land on a coyote. Cows, moose, deer, elk all worked great. I'm pretty sure Mary caught a golden last winter on a beaver carcass.

 

Those coyotes are definitely full of lead."

 

Second - what I will call the Passed Through Fallacy:

 

When there is an exit hole, a lot of people assume that the carcass is free of lead. Bullet design is really important in this regard. High speed lead bullets fragment. Even if most of the mass remains intact, they shed lead. The amount of lead needed to poison an eagle is microscopic. Here are some photos of jacketed lead bullets shot into ballistic gelatin. I am also including a Xray of a coyote carcass from a AZ brochure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2015 by Curmudgeon

[Trial153]

Steve is good !

[Curmudgeon]

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!

 

Wooly -

 

I'm sure you are right but would urge you to find one that had no lead in it -  a road kill or one shot with a copper bullet.

[The_Real_TCIII]

Some ahole dumps coyote, fox, and deer carcasses next to the driveway of our lease every year

[fasteddie]

Some ahole dumps coyote, fox, and deer carcasses next to the driveway of our lease every year

 

Put a Trail cam out there and maybe catch the guy .

 

[The_Real_TCIII]

I've thought about it but I will have to have some trickery or else the camera will disappear

[BellR]

Use a ladder to mount it way up in a tree looking down. 

Edited August 19, 2015 by BellR

[Fletch]

Wooly -

 

I'm sure you are right but would urge you to find one that had no lead in it -  a road kill or one shot with a copper bullet.

 

Makes sense on the bullet shot ones that there is residue. I will bury any I shoot. But, I would bet more gun shot and not recovered deer are out there than yotes.

 

I would also bet that any fish they eat out of polluted waters would be harmful, like all those eagles that winter on Onondaga lake. Eating some of the most polluted fish in the country.

 

And how does a car hit coyote get lead in it?

[Curmudgeon]

Makes sense on the bullet shot ones that there is residue. I will bury any I shoot. But, I would bet more gun shot and not recovered deer are out there than yotes.

 

I would also bet that any fish they eat out of polluted waters would be harmful, like all those eagles that winter on Onondaga lake. Eating some of the most polluted fish in the country.

 

And how does a car hit coyote get lead in it?

 

Yes, the eagles and osprey eating fish from polluted water have a lot of problems.

 

The road kills shouldn't have any lead in it. That's why I suggested he use one. However, we do find a fair number of euthanized deer that were hit by cars. We reject them for eagle research unless it is a top of the head shot. Then we decapitate them.

 

[Curmudgeon]

Some ahole dumps coyote, fox, and deer carcasses next to the driveway of our lease every year

 

A perennial complaint. The guys who cut up their own deer but don't own a good size chunk of land tend to toss the remains off the road.

 

Edited August 19, 2015 by Curmudgeon

[Curmudgeon]

Just came across this on a lead free coyote hunt - http://ar15hunter.com/california-coyote-hunt-lead-free-223-ammo/

[mike rossi]

 But, I would bet more gun shot and not recovered deer are out there than yotes.

 

 

 

No doubt, but its not just the un-recovered deer, because lead fragments are in gut piles too. Then as already said, people dump the remains after they butcher them. FYI: the smaller fragments actually cause the most harm because more lead is absorbed. 

 

I wanted to abstain from this topic, ok, this is my last lead post..... 

[The_Real_TCIII]

A perennial complaint. The guys who cut up their own deer but don't own a good size chunk of land tend to toss the remains off the road.

this is different, there's a pit next to the drive and they throw lots of Carcasses in there, not just the occasional deer. Skinned coyotes and foxes too. I cut up three or four deer at home and take the time to bag up the remains every year

[Curmudgeon]

Someone just sent me a paper on lead poisoning of eagles that addresses coyote carcasses out west.

 

This is from the abstract: "Of the bald and golden eagles with toxic lead levels, 91% (20/22) and 58% (18/31) respectively, were admitted after the end of the general deer and elk hunting seasons in December. Coyote hunting intensifies with the end of the large game hunting seasons and coyote carcasses left in the field and contaminated with lead bullet fragments become readily available food sources, exposing scavenging bald and golden eagles to high risk of acute lead poisoning."

[Caveman]

And this is why I hunt with copper solids.

[jjb4900]

crows, vultures and seagulls eat dead animals at a much higher rate then Eagles and Hawks...why no concerns about them, are they not dying off as well?....

[beachpeaz]

make soup.

[Curmudgeon]

crows, vultures and seagulls eat dead animals at a much higher rate then Eagles and Hawks...why no concerns about them, are they not dying off as well?....

 

I have no knowledge about gulls but I should look into it. Yes there are concerns about vultures and crows. A recent paper found 100% of vultures tested with chronic lead exposure. Corvids - crows and ravens - are also affected but they process lead differently. Eagles and ravens eating the same diet will have different blood lead levels. The eagles will have much higher levels.