Proof the world has gone to Hell.....

[Pigmeat]

Yesterday I was sitting in the doctors office reading Outdoor Life.

Immediately I go to the back of the magazine to read the always spine tingling tales of daring-do in "It Happened To Me." my favorite feature. Or should I say my former favorite feature for this one was a foul one.

It starts innocently enough, with a man taking his two "t'ween" daughters squirrel hunting, but soon degrades into such a tale of base cowardice that right thinking men such as Al Fansome will be mortified.

The father hearing snarling, turns to see what it is. A great bear perhaps? No. A prowling puma? Not a chance. A rabid rabbit? Nooooo! It was a coyote. About the size of your Aunt Milly's full sized Pomeranian. What does our hero do? The natural thing, chuck a rock at it and tell it to "git"? Nope, not this boy. He pops off the only round in his old single shot .22 rifle the coyote's way. He missed. From 20 yards. The coyote scampers off a little ways and works it's way back. Our hero once again hears the snarling coyote (no doubt drawn in by the scent of the ham sandwich in our hero's pocket.) and "charges". Our hero grabs one of the girl's shotguns manages to hit the charging coyote and it drops dead at his feet. Wowsers!

Several questions; Has anyone ever heard of a "charging" coyote? My guess is someone has. I've seen rabid raccoons do it. Is their anyone on this board who didn't take "Rocks and Canines:101" , voluntarily or otherwise, by the age of five? I didn't think so. What kind of knothead fires his only round off-hand at an animal he felt was menacing and misses? Why would same knothead then turn his back on said threat?

Finally, why would said individual write into a national Huntin', Fishin' and Shootin' magazine telling such a tale with his name and hometown out there for the world to see? Has the man no shame?

And the doc wonders why I have high blood pressure?

[jFarley]

Have had coyotes prowling the homestead for years, and for the most part, they have been rather shy.  At most they will shadow me at about a hundred yards as I walk jDog through "their" territory.

Last couple of years, I have seen the rise of pack hunting in the neighborhood, generally in groups of 3.  On at least one occasion, one coyote in a pack charged JDog - not exceptionally aggressively - as the other two tried to sneakyPete around the flanks.  jDog would have none of it, and they quickly turned tail when she attacked back.

An individual coyote charging?  Never seen it.

[atrainradio]

Poor Al, we know how innocent he is.

[Fansome]

I have to say, I AM mortified. I will pray to the Church of Bacon that it won't happen again.

[Pigmeat]

The local coydogs have a tendency to run in small packs here. Nothing like the packs of feral dogs of my boyhood, those packs were killing machines. Coydogs will work together to kill deer and young livestock though.

[ff]

The local coydogs have a tendency to run in small packs here. Nothing like the packs of feral dogs of my boyhood, those packs were killing machines. Coydogs will work together to kill deer and young livestock though.

Ditto.  Eastern coyote population bounced back here in the 90s.  Too much anti-gun, anti-hunting sentiment brings back their food supply and... voila!  Snarling, charging coyotes soon follow!  Seriously though, I've never seen one charge either.  They're shy, and as Joe mentioned, they tend to hunt in packs.  They have been raising hell with lambs at local farms, and keeping the whitetail population in check.  And I now keep the poop shovel in hand when out toileting the spaniel - although I'm much more apt to run into a black bear than a coyote pack. As to Pigmeat's article, I'd chalk the aggressive behavior up to a pup's brash naivete.  And Pigmeat - take those meds!

[Token]

I have seen a full grown coyote charge, at least move quickly towards, a child, but never an adult.  I have had coyotes growl / snarl at me if I interrupted them in something, but they still backed away as they did it.

With that said, while I would not expect a coyote to charge an adult, let alone an adult and two half grown kids, there is no accounting for a single animals actions.  The fact that the animal snarled at them without moving away significantly in the process indicates something was off there.  If it really did drop dead at his feet, or even within 10 yards of the group, then that was very unusual activity for the animal.  Even without looking at the actions of the person, if the basic information presented with regards to the animals actions is anything near correct then it was outside the norm and judging based on the norm goes out the window.

T!