After 35 years of working in law enforcement, I can’t help but draw parallels between my hunting for four-legged predators and the two-legged variety. One of those parallels is the importance of observation and watching for details for a “hunt” to end successfully. Like the frosty January morning when a friend and I crept to the edge of a small pasture at first light. We were looking for coyotes visiting the boneyard a local rancher keeps at the edge of it. A large manure pile blocked our initial view, but there was a coyote standing on our side of the pile, so it was an easy decision to give this one a dirt nap. We recovered it and peeked around the edge of the mound looking for more. No surprise, because after our shot the pasture was empty.
“There were two bedded down on that hillside,” I said, pointing to a spot about 100 yards from us. “When we shot this one, they spooked and ran southwest. We’ll try there next.”
“And how do you figure that?” my friend asked. “There’s no snow, the ground is frozen so there’s no tracks, and I know you didn’t see them.”
I’m no coyote whisperer, but I’ve been chasing song dogs long enough to see something my less experienced friend missed. A morning frost had left a light coating of ice crystals on all the grass in the field, and on the side of the hill were two round spots devoid of frost. Yes, it was subtle, but the evidence was clear. As were the two lines of disturbed frost heading southwest. When I pointed this out to my friend he agreed. “I’ve seen that with deer,” he said. “But I never thought about it applying to coyotes.”
I’m sure I’ve missed hundreds of subtle signs like what I’ve related in this story, but I’m also sure I overlook fewer now than I did early in my predator hunting career. Back then all I was looking for regularly was coyote tracks. Many decades of experience later, I now keep an eye out for a much broader assortment of coyote sign.
Bedding Sign
Included in that assortment are their bedding spots which, much like deer, are places they migrate to and hang out there during daylight hours. Those frost-free areas I spotted in the previous story weren’t that. Those were just temporary lay-over places where they elected to lay down for a bit and watch the world go by. To identify either short-term or long-term layover locations, the hunter is looking for much the same features, a small packed down piece of dirt or grass about the size of a curled-up coyote. If there’s snow on the ground, it’s much easier to identify these spots, because their body warmth will melt the snow, perhaps even down to bare earth.
Finding these locations provides a lot of information about the coyote’s habits and preferences, with the first order of business determining if this is a long-term or a short-term location. My rule of thumb centers around the distance this spot is from daytime human activity. For example, if it’s in the middle of a section of land, as far as possible from grid roads then it’s likely a long-term spot. But if it’s relatively near human activity then it’s probably just a place for a quick rest.
Since I do most of my predator hunting during the winter months of a cold climate, I look at the south facing edges of brushy areas, on top of brush piles or haystacks and on south facing hillsides. These are places where the sun’s rays help keep an old dog warm on a cold day. Whether long- or short-term, these spots need to be fed into that computer between our ears to help form an overall picture of the resident coyote’s habits.
Deposited Sign
Other than footprints left in the dirt or snow, I suspect scat is the most commonly identified sign that indicates coyotes are present. I’ve noticed when other hunters accompany me on foot, they usually pick up on these clues walking to and from calling setups. However, there are a few things they overlook. One of these is a detailed check of coyote scat to help establish what they are eating. Poking a pile apart with a stick can reveal whether a song dog’s diet is berries, rabbits, mice, birds or some other delicacy. Depending on what’s found, I might choose to vary the sounds I would otherwise use on my e-caller. It’s just another piece of data to add to the hunter’s knowledge.
However, in my experience, the most overlooked deposited sign are these same piles of scat when they appear on a roadway. It’s unusual to find these piles on a paved road, but in rural areas, on a gravel or dirt road, they appear regularly. And most people miss them entirely while driving. Training oneself to look for them doesn’t take long, and with a little effort it soon becomes automatic, making this a fast and easy way to judge the presence of coyotes in a particular area. The reason they appear regularly on roadways is because these human travel corridors form natural boundaries to a coyote’s territory. And since coyotes mark territory with their pee and poop, these scent posts appear along roads and trails.
There are pee posts as well, and obviously these are much easier to spot during the winter months if there’s snow on the ground, but scat deposits are highly visible all year round and provide some great intelligence on what the song dogs are doing.
Menstruating Sign
Another type of deposited sign originates from female coyotes when they are in heat. Female coyotes, of course, do not experience menstruation in the same way humans do, but they go through something similar annually called a heat cycle or estrus. During this time, a coyote may experience some bleeding from the vulva, indicating she is fertile and able to reproduce. In my area this seems to occur during the last half of February.
There’s always snow on the ground around this time making it easy to spot places where a female coyote has been sitting. And as you’d suspect, there’s usually an indication of a male being with her. I doubt hunters who live in areas that are snow free during this time in a coyote’s life cycle have ever seen this, because it is usually so minor it would be hard to spot on dirt or grass. But seeing these deposits indicates it’s a good time to use coyote vocalizations when calling, particularly breeding sounds or maybe even challenge sounds.
Food Sign
Hunters need to remember that coyotes are omnivores and will eat just about anything with the potential to fill their empty bellies. We all know the obvious examples of food source hotspots that can deliver a lot of coyotes. They include things such as a thicket with lots of rabbit sign and just about any kind of intensive animal husbandry. In my part of the world, I just drive the rural roads looking for cattle. When I’ve found cattle gathered for winter feeding, I’ve found coyotes. Guaranteed.
However, there are more unconventional foods that get overlooked as possible coyote magnets, and checking these for an indication coyotes are taking advantage of them is usually worthwhile. These are likely to be highly variable depending on what’s available in each area, with potatoes and corn being two examples in my climate zone. While these aren’t food sources we normally associate with coyotes, overlooking them means missed opportunities.
Local potato farmers always seem to leave a good number of spuds that don’t meet size or quality criteria out in the fields, often in piles. These will be tilled back into the soil come spring, but during the long cold winter it’s not uncommon to find frozen spuds chewed up by coyotes. Likewise for corn, which is often not harvested, but left standing so cattle can be turned loose in it to feed. Coyotes will show up, too, tear the ears from the stalk, gnaw off the kernels and leave the husks. When I see these types of signs, I know coyotes are working the field. Every area will have somewhat unconventional food sources, so identifying them and working them into a hunt strategy can produce some extra coyotes.
Bird Sign
Scavenging birds can be another overlooked sign leading to coyotes. In my area this means watching for magpie, crow and raven activity. Odds are if there’s something of interest to these birds, there will be something attractive to coyotes as well. Additionally, the birds sometimes seem to enjoy harassing coyotes in their travels. The first coyote I ever called in approached through dry grass tall enough to conceal it but was betrayed by a magpie that kept diving at it. However, my favorite bird story involves ravens.
One winter afternoon, while walking into a field looking for a spot from which to call, I noticed a small group of flapping, noisy ravens far in the distance. However, the lay of the land prevented me from seeing what all the fuss was about. Hopeful of something appealing to coyotes, I had to take a long circuitous route to keep the wind in my face and get a look. When I finally got into position it revealed a cow’s carcass with two coyotes enjoying lunch while working to keep the ravens at bay.
It took some more maneuvering to get to a spot where I had a clear shot. Once there, I waited for one of the coyotes to stick its head inside the carcass, and when it did, I shot the other one. Apparently, if a coyote’s head is stuck in a cow’s butt, it can’t tell the direction a shot came from, because when it popped out in response to my shot, it was completely confused about which way to run, giving me plenty of time to drop it as well. Of course, the ravens took over the cow as I dragged the two ’yotes away.
Other Sign
The list of signs pointing to the presence of coyotes doesn’t end with birds. The widespread use of barbed wire in farm and ranch country gives the hunter another intelligence source. Those sharp barbs on the wire make it ideal for collecting hair samples whenever coyotes duck under the bottom strand of a wire fence to move from one field to another. I find hair collected this way to be particularly useful when the ground is too hard to collect tracks and there’s a visible trail in the trampled down vegetation. The presence of coyote hair on the wire barbs confirms the trail is used by coyotes, and I can add that bit of information to my database.
Watch too, for digging activity by coyotes. Mice, voles and ground squirrels might all require some digging by a coyote to capture, so it’s common to see this in prairie dog towns and around the edges of bales, haystacks, rock piles and logs. Calling in the area with the sounds of what those coyotes are trying to kill and eat is a great strategy.
Professionally, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some great crime scene examiners and it’s amazing how much information these forensic experts can extract from a scene. I often think of them when analyzing an area for coyotes, trying to learn their food sources, travel routes and habits. Just like criminals, coyotes can’t conduct their activities without leaving evidence of their presence. Finding that evidence just requires detailed observation and some careful interpretation.
