Coyotes and dead cows

Two cows that died about ten days apart. Both in same pasture about a 1/4 mile apart. The one that has been eaten by coyotes was treated with antibiotics by myself. The one that hasn't been touched was untreated. Both been dead roughly a month. Some think antibiotics will cause coyotes not to eat a carcass. I don't see this as holding water. The one that hasn't been touch I put a chain on and drug her to the location were she's at the other one lays were she died. Only thing I can come up with is the human scent I left on thr carcass when I hooked and unkookec chain caused this. This is not uncommon for me to see. And I figure there's about a 50% chance they might not touch that one all winter. This is in a pasture at my house where I caught 13 coyotes last year within half of and I think there's more coyotes that that this year. It's also a pasture we winter in so there's someone in there every day feeding and cutting net wrap off bales so human in the pasture is normal. Also the cow that has been eaten on can be seen from the road and the untouched one is in a more remote part of pasture. Not saying the coyotes will never eat a critter I have placed somewhere because they do but it's also not uncommon for them to never touch one. Just food for thought. I'd be interested in any theories or discussions you guys might have.

I’m guessing our buzzards are the same as yours too, lol. As I’ve posted before our buzzards will sometimes pass a hog, guess they pass cows too.

Yes Sir:

Couple years ago I was after the coyotes and had access to some dead pits, and then a stretch of highway where it was open range and it seemed there was daily a dead cow hit on the highway.

On the dead pit, there was very little hesitancy of coyotes to eat new additions. However, every once in a while, there was a cow added that no coyote would touch. Really odd. They would eat the cow that was on top of, or under, the untouched cow, but no way were they going to eat "that one" cow. The untouched cows were a mixture of cows that had, and had not been, vaccinated/inoculated/etc. Some were calves, some were old cows. There was just no rhyme or reason to it.

With the cows hit on the highway, I would drag them to my preferred spots and most were hit immediately by the coyotes. I had no basis to determine their status as vaccinated, etc. but assumed that they had not been recently treated since they were range cows. However, I saw nearly the identical results with the range cows as with the dead pit cows. Most were consumed pretty quickly, but every once in a while there was a cow that nobody would touch . . . even the ravens would just pick the eyes out and that was it. I experimented with placements of the carcass and did learn a few things. Coyotes wanted a wide open view of their surroundings to get comfortable. Cows that were in high brush took longer for the coyotes to feel comfortable than those out on the short grass prairie. On the other hand, a cow in plain site, but near escape cover, had a much higher rate of being eaten than one in dense cover. For example, a cow in the corner of a pasture that had high brush around the pasture was pretty enticing to even the most paranoid coyote. Often I could take a cow that was untouched, drag it a mile or two away and have instant success. Other times, it was like that uneaten cow was radioactive -- nobody, nowhere would touch it. Another trick I learned was if you cut into the visceral cavity and opened the cow up AND THEN DRAGGED IT to your spot, there was a high probability that coyotes would eat it. I think some coyotes were just super spooky about eating big baits, and others were not. Opening the viscera advertised to more coyotes and they would follow the cow trail to the bait. Another oddity that I could never figure out was that cows I dragged to the north side of the highway had a higher chance of being rejected than those I dragged on the south side of the highway. I think this may have had something to do with there being more coyotes on the south side (because there was better terrain, some distant hay fields, water, etc.) but it was really a puzzler. And the end of the day, I came away convinced there are a whole bunch of things we probably don't know about their behavior that are very important to how they communicate, etc. Interesting topic.

Interesting wonder if there was something off-putting on the chain that left a smell behind?

That is very interesting. The next hog I kill I’ll drag to an open field, near cover, and see what the results are. Still doesn’t explain the fact that the buzzards won’t touch it.

Wannabe I was told the high fat continent in hogs is hard for most wild animals to digest and around here a coyote has to be pretty hungry to eat a pig, which doesn't happen very often. Maybe that's what u are seeing down there...???

I guess it could be. I’m with the coyote, I ain’t eating that rank smelling thing either.

Lazarus that's some interesting information and thoughts. I'm glad I'm not the only one who contemplates these things. I'm glad you brought up communication because just knowing how many coyotes we have I wouldn't be surprised if 15+ coyotes have come across the untouched cow and not a taker. I could understand the really cautious/ spooky coyotes finding something to turn them off but everyone? Makes me wonder if they have a way to communicate to stay away from this one. Say if it was my human scent that scared them off, after so many days that's going to be gone, but if a really cautious coyote came by a few hours after I put that cow there could it communicate that this cow is danger and they just keep marking it ...??? We lost 3 cows in that pasture in a short time so I believe it was likely they died from the same sickness so that kind rules that out. I'll guarantee they will still be chewing on the one cow in 4 months and likely they may never touch the other.

Dstone
I see this behavior somewhat regularly over my lifetime so I'm thinking it wasn't some unique odor on the chain but who knows...

In no way am I doubting your findings as I find this extremely interesting. However, my experience differs from yours. I had always heard that coyotes wouldn’t touch recently vaccinated cows and I had thought well that’s BS if it gets cold they’ll hit it. One winter I dropped off two sick cows that had been pumped full of antibiotics in strategic locations and kept checking on them and sure enough they laid there untouched for the most part until spring. Next time I get the chance I’d like to try the experiment again and see if anything changes. Thank you for your info.

TF I've doctored a lot of cattle myself that died some they eat some they don't. I don't think it's always the antibiotics. Most cattle that die at a feedlot have been treated yet coyotes flock to the dead piles there. And there is a difference between vaccinated and treated with antibiotics for sickness while we're one the subject. All our cattle get regular vaccines.
Once I pulled 2 400 heifers that fell through the ice out of a pond. It was very cold and I though they'd make a good trapping location. Watched them all winter and they never got touched.

Ya it’s odd when you see it, long cold winter on the northern prairie you’d think they’d get desperate. Maybe my deal was just an anomaly? Good discussion topic to bring up. Anymore I go for deer first, never seen them avoid those. Beaver don’t seem to do well here either.

Yes Sir !! WOW ! Just asking myself WHY no takers here myself! Have trapped around dead cows for 35 years now. From 160 acre hobby cow farms to 100000 acres of cattle. Coyotes around cattle still mystifies me. No ryhme no reason. Some just want touch a certain cow. In a certain place.

Last year moved a cow. Caught 13 here. Less coyotes here now on this small few sections BUT only caught 1. No tracks. Cow is now Well look at it. Not even a nible

Sometimes people. Like to say = O its so dry a coyote came by and you didnt see its tracks. OR it wouldn’t eat cause of this that or the other. Or it just nibled on cow and will come back. NOPE. 23 days latter Not a coyote! LOL!

Place looks open enough to me . How bout you guys ? Moved cow with same chain I moved other cow and we caught 13 coyotes. Had so much fun last time. Landowner got in on the trapping fun witb some Longsprings

I've seen the same with roadkill deer, you can throw out five of them and four of them will be nothing but white bones when you check them three days later (if you can even find the bones) and the fifth one will lay there until it either melts or dries up. Tossed one out this summer and put a camera on it and not even the birds hit it.

I will say I have better luck with deer than anything else on getting the canines to hit it, and they seem much less leery of whole deer than bones and scraps. They will hit bones and scraps at times, but seem much leerier.

Just thought of a question. Was the dead cow that has been eaten on picked open by birds before the coyotes started to eat. plus I have picked up road kill deer that were not tore apart and the coyotes never touched them. But if they were tore apart they were all over them. Maybe lazy coyotes.?.?

Yes sir I’ve seen the same thing I’ve got one pasture they won’t touch them till breeding season but they are there and check it out but won’t open them up Steel traps I’ve had the same scenario caught 16 coyotes in the same pasture as the carcass one year and the next only two and no tracks in the snow but the next section north was the hot one with no carcass I just figured the survivors associated that section as a dangerous place and changed travel habits

Caught 17 foxes once off of a dead cow. . .and I don't live in Pa. or Md.

JS

Hungry coyotes and /or high density of coyotes!

Anywhere pigs are being eaten especially in the day time in South Texas has a VERY high density of coyotes

I agree. I dont know much about a TX coyote but I do know that when you see em in high numbers in daytime then you have a lot of coyotes.

What's the old saying I believe Slim P. came up with..."Never say never and never say always" when dealing coyotes.

This also makes one think about bait piles?? What about the ones that you dont see? I dont pass up dead cows or bait piles. BUT anyone that puts up a camera and thinks he is getting ALL or most of the pics on his property and~or his neighbors ? I have been told od people that think = that constantly setting a camera on the bait site give them a complete inventory of all coyotes = their and the ones they pull in as well. I dont believe that. I also dont believe you can have 4 or 5000 acres and greatly pull aniamals of 100000 acres around you with a bait pile. It may help. But is not a cure all for not setting everything you can.

Spot on info^^^

Coyotes are similar to other wildlife. They have a home range, albeit sometimes large, that they use regularly, but they have NO IDEA what is outside their range and unless they've been there b4 the entire neighboring coyotes ain't coming over to search for a carcass.

Yeah, yeah...I know they hear vocalizations of far off coyotes and likely travel into new territory to investigate, but a dozen won't come at once. If you see many coyotes you can belive they were always there, maybe only occasionally, but they were there the entire time. You DID NOT have that property "trapped out" of coyotes.

Steeltraps has the right idea

I have noticed on my place over the years that both with dead cows or dead sheep it seems to make a difference if they had a fever before they died. If they have had a fever for very long before they died the buzzards won't even touch them.

I find this very interesting as I noticed the same thing with deer for the first time this year. One property I dump a fair amount of cleaned deer. Generally, if I’m processing for someone else, the guts will still be in it. I dropped two or three deer and a pig in this place the first couple weeks of rifle season. All decimated and dragged away within a day or two. Then I added another one and it sat for weeks untouched. May still be there, I haven’t checked recently. Another place that I have routinely dumped carcasses before got a possum, some chicken parts, a deer, and a coon all at the same time. I checked it after a couple weeks and the only thing removed from the pile or eaten was the possum

It might be interesting to see if the activity at the carcass picks as we get further away form deer season. Fair number of bucks rut themselves to death (or nearly to it) making them a easy fresh food source. Also right now with rifle season in full swing there are plenty of gut piles being dropped and such.

Anecdotally, I have noticed my coyote success dips during and immediately following rifle season here. I have always figured its two things... 1) LOT more easy, fresh food on the ground (gut piles, wounded deer, carcasses, etc.) and 2) LOT more disturbance. Overall, I think some people get a little carried away with scent control, esp. in landscapes like Kansas where a coyote certainly smells human scent regularly. However, I will say there is a big difference between "rancher checking cows, scent at the gate" and ".30-06 wizzed past by head, hammer down out of here" scent.

Same experiences here as you all have with a dead one. KS Wildman, No need for me to set a coyote trap here UNTIL 2-3 weeks after deer season. I can't compete with my baited foot trap vs. a deer gut pile but I suspect many guys can. I wait until about Dec. 1 to start so easy digging is out of the question here and I resort to motors, mechanical devices and waxed dirt as my crutch to snag a few with a foot trap. When you guys get this figured out (and I am still recycling baked potatoes and steak) let me know. ............................ the mike

IF I Say = IF it stops raining here in Alabama long enough. While im home for a week or 2. I have to catch 1 or 2 coyotes that have been seen on a neighbor cow pasture. Only 1 dead cow. Died a few days ago. I was always taught too. Wait till the coyotes start eating on the dead cow beforw you set traps. What about you guys? I know sometimes In places like = Kanas or South Texas. IF you dont set traps when you find kill. It may get eaten quickly. I have set traps after mowing a cow. Right then. So what do yall do ?

I don't think its a bad idea to set them regardless. I trapped a small farm a couple weeks ago with two dead cows on it. One had been sitting a little bit and was being eaten, the other was only a couple days old and had not been touched. I caught 8 coyotes on that farm and only 1 of them was caught by the dead cows. I set three traps around the cows cause I figured it would be a hot spot, it really wasn't

The farmer also has guineas and chickens up by his house that are free ranging. Also lots of fallen down old sheds/junk up there with tons of rabbits. There's a road that crosses the creek and goes up to his house. I caught 5 along that road. Seems to me like the coyotes would rather go kill a live chicken or rabbit than eat a dead cow, at least that was the case on that farm. Be interesting to go back towards the end of this season and see if the one cow has been eaten any

I don't have cows to set near but I do have deer carcasses that I set up. What I found out Is if I set In the brush near a carcass I have very little luck. But If lets say the deer carcass Is In the brush and my sets are at least 10 yards or so out In open ground I have a lot better luck when setting foot holds. Seems to me the coyote is less wary when he Is out In the open.

But I have placed deer carcasses and never had a coyote even get close to them let alone eat them. But kill a deer and not retrieve It till the next day and 95% of the time coyotes will be all over It.

So what I’ve learned is coyotes will do whatever they want, when they want, and how they want to do it, and where they want.
So what works at your place may not work at mine and vice versa.
Best thing to do is set and learn.
But the one constant I’m reading is coyotes are caught more in the open where they can see vs deep in cover. Think that would apply everywhere. I can think of a quite a few sets I screwed up by thinking they wanted cover or a lot of cover. Even the backing was probably too much.

YES, baits in the open, will out produced baits in thick cover. Coyotes/wolves want to see, both approaching and while they're on it, if there’s danger from other predators, thus the best sites are in the open and ringed by heavy cover to hang snares in.

When I place carcasses when snaring I place them out In the open then hang the cable where they leave or enter the near by cover.

We have had cows that died that the buzzards didn’t touch. But an armadillo road kill? 3 dozen will fight over it and ignore traffic.

That and a possum!

Very interesting. I trap for and work part time for a cow calf operation here in Wyoming. The calves are normally weaned in early to mid November at 5 to 600 pounds. Out of around 1000 (more or less) calves it's normal to loose 10 to 15 in the 1st month or so.
They are turned loose in a large pasture and have access to hundreds of acres of sage brush/grease wood country. The cowboys ride through them a cple times per week and doctor as needed. They mark the doctored calves with paint. It's always interesting watching the reaction of coyotes by their tracks in the snow on a doctored calf vs a natural death calf. Seems like once a doctored calf is on the dead pile and the eagles and magpies are on it hard the coyotes eventually dig in too, but sometimes that can take a long time.
I have 4 separate dead piles placed strategically for snipping coyotes. I can mess up a good dead pile placing a doctored calf in the wrong place. Ive experimented with paint on a natural death calf to see if the paint is the problem, it's not.
I've always wondered if those who use horse meat for bait make sure they use an undoctored horse.

Steeltraps, you have the mud - or dust - on the boots experience my friend and it's fun tagging along on your ride alongs.
I haven't caught a coyote in 4 days (and we have some still with us here on this 1700 acre ranch), ever since the helicopter gunners shot two and buzzed this place for 3.5 hours. There's a dead deer (locked in battle and died) and a dead Aoudad laying out in the panhandle prairie and narry a peep. Ranch hands shot some ducks and tossed the entrails out in a pile. Pigs shot and killed by the helicopter dudes. NONE of it touched in 4 days and I've seen 3 sets of tracks where I think the coyotes are moving only a few hundred yards at most.
AND I know, they know, I'm here. The chess game is on!
Love it.
My move. Their move. My move. Their move.
Steeltraps, you know the drill brother!

Blessings,
Mark

Mark. Looks like I am done for the rest of year. Home now working on cabin. Meet with power company yesterday day. Will need LOTS of poles to get power to cabin. Starting to think = was bad idea to put cabin in middle of 37 acres I will head back to West Texas about the = 29 th Hope to get power and 3 loads of gravel in to cabin in that time. I need 2 weeks off any way. After the coyote in the pasture the otherday that makes = 503 coyotes for me this year. Central/West Texas was mainly snare work. I know exactly what you mean about riding all day and seeing only 1 set of tracks. One day in November = since water holes can be key in West Central Texas. I walked and checked about 8 water tanks and a dry lake bed. Walked 5.8 miles according to Iphone. NEVER saw a track

Had a heifer die a week ago that I personally treated with antibiotics about 2 weeks. She died within 200 yds of the dead cow that wasn't treated that I moved there and the coyotes didn't touch. The heifer I treated got hit by coyotes immediately.

I’ve had lots of cows passed over.

I’ve never had a deer passed over. Ever.

If a deer ain’t getting slicked up, they just haven’t found it yet!


As for coyotes not emptying out of big chunks of country to come to a good food source (yes, even leaving their “territory”) come up North in a average to bad winter about January! Not uncommon for every coyote (or the lions share of them) within 10-20 miles to be stacked up where the food is!

I put a pile of bones from the deer processor out last Friday. Today is Wednesday and the coyotes have been pounding it. 100 yards away is road killed deer I dragged up a month ago. Fox have hit it but no coyotes. Go figure?

And we wonder why they will walk past a set with a spoonful of bait down a hole and a ton of human scent there sometimes

IF my back quits hurting after 18 hr drive yesterday. I may go check a dead cow or 2 LOL!!

That's a long way to haul dead cows... lol

I bet bobcats like dead cows

X2

Seth, you had the wrong teaspoon of bait down the hole! lol. When you get it figured out, ol hoss, let me know! Course by then, the yotes will have changed the rules again!

I have no answers. I'm trapping a farm now that has two calf dead piles. Only one calf out of both piles has been touched along with some deer carcasses with a little meat on them after butchering. One deer was taken with a hip bone sticking out of the hide and infection had set in, the coyotes haven't touched that one. It just seems odd that only one calf has been eaten out of 20 or so carcasses.

Maybe they are too froze

Definitely not frozen. It's been unseasonably warm here lately. I put in a couple dirt hole sets today, usually can't even think about that this time of year.

I also think that weather is a huge factor. When we have a couple of feet of snow on the ground for long periods combined with very cold temps then the coyotes will absolutely stay on dead piles until completely gone. They are also much easier to catch even with leaving human disturbances in the snow. The last few winters have been incredibly mild and snow free and the coyotes are way more finicky about what they will and will not eat and definitely more wary of sets.

Wanna be I don’t know if I will have any answers for you , but I’m getting ready to go on a trapping trip with a buddy of mine just south of you. He mostly uses wild hog meat for bait . I’m very curious as to why hogs go untouched in your area. It may be apples and oranges but hogs in a dead pit around here are as good a draw as any. Dead cows are rare in these parts , but when I find out about one it’s usually already cleaned up . I think it’s funny how deer and deer parts ( liver, lungs ) make up some of my best baits and yet a deer carcass can sometimes lay for weeks untouched.
Yup , never say never, never say always!
Thanks, Slim

There's a dead cow on a farm I know of and a dead calf probably 70 yards away from it. Yotes seem to like the calf more than the adult. I haven't noticed any bobcat tracks at it yet

Ttt

Years ago when I was a young teenager, my family I were in the Texas panhandle for a couple weeks of deer hunting over Christmas break. Which gave me plenty of time to run a decent line on our place. A horse had died earlier that winter pretty close to a water trough but was just about eatin up. In my eyes the coyotes didn’t have much left to chew on other than some bones and rawhide. After a couple days a younger cow in good flesh died roughly 75 yards from the horse. Boy was I pumped. I knew the coyotes had been making rounds by the horse just by looking at tracks on the ground. But to my disappointment the coyotes never touched that cow. I caught 4 coyotes over the length of our trip right around the horse carcass in flat sets within an eyes view of the dead cow that was never touched in 10 days. The weather was very harsh also. It hovered right around freezing for the high for most of the trip. I never could wrap my mind around why the cow wasn’t messed with.

We had a dead buck floating in the pond in September. The biologist and I drug it and removed the head for testing. I carried the whole carcass to my dumping grounds and it’s just now about gone. Nothing touched it including buzzards.
Had another deer die naturally and nothing has touched it. That was late October and it still smells of death in that area.

First spot was an open brush field. Second area was in a drain so buzzards couldn’t get to that one if they wanted.

30+ hogs had been dumped in the field as well. Buzzards ate 75% of them, the others rotted away. We just have weird finicky coyotes I guess.

Here we go. Beating a dead horse again!! Or in this case a dead cow !!! Just kidding Yes Sir. It’s a fine topic. I am waiting to get on some dead cows when = deer hunters leave. Jan 7 th is last day. So on the 8 th O will set some traps around some dead cows. Set 3 traps round a dead deer. Hung in fence. No coyotes yet. Set up a = dead pile today. 3 elk carcasses and 4 mule deer Got 6 traps. Hope to have 1 in the morning. I have to head back to = Sheep Country tomorrow

I know this would be impractical in all but the most extreme of predator control...but has anyone tried parting out said dead cows and spreading em around and seen a difference in reaction.

I have drug off dead cows, goats and a horse here. Coyotes and buzzards made short work of them.

i would add another possible layer on the avoidance of large baits by coyotes...coyote hunters. Theyre legion now especially with the thermal scopes and a favorite strategy is hunting over dead deer. Eventually coyotes would get wise to that tactic. Same way if you set traps right at the carcass, if you dont get em all on the first time, they wise up to it.