Coyote Yipps

Hi Janet.

Summer is behind us. Fall is here. Still hot but..foggy mornings briefly tell us..yes..Fall.

I’ve spoke to the family who have for 3 generations allowed coyote in their vast ranch and ranges. They know the packs and individuals. They have “trained” the coyote with LGD, allowing coyote habitat to give them areas, and by allowing coyote to become stable and territorial. Coyote..DO NOT like to share turf with strange coyote. Thus..stable couples and packs keep out nomadic coyote who have their own habits and behavior.

It’s here that I’ve told you about Slim Jim the older coyote. Quite elderly and mostly blind he was last seen with daughter Kinky Tail and 2 pups.

Updates: 

Slim Jim is still alive and well. He had moved back to buffalo herd areas and spent rest of summer with them mostly. He has been very busy. He has easy hunting with voles. Even with multiple misses he gets enough.

He was seen hanging about an apple tree for about a week. At night he fed side by side with deer and slowly fed on big apples. 

Wolves have been seen going thru via trail cams. Slim Jim disappears days if wolves travel thru.

An elk died a few miles into range which is usually beyond nearly blind Slim. 

Kinky Tail and 2 pups and her Mate all fed from it. Kinky Tail returned next day..closely followed by Slim Jim.

He fed long and well..stomach huge. Kinky then walked back towards Slim’s areas..and Slim followed so close it seemed his nose touched her tail. Walking well along..Slim followed daughter Kinky until “home”. Kinky disappeared. And Slim Jim went back to apple tree, ate an apple and slept by nearby cliffs. The ranch family watched him and took turns seeing how long he slept. 7 hours till he woke and yawned…and slept 3 more hours. 

About a week later, Kinky and her family came around and seemed to have stayed. Slim Jim has company again and Kinky seems to have claimed old territory. But Slim Jim is allowed to do his thing and is peacefully accepted.

How old is he? We don’t know. He seems VERY old after summer. His teeth look worn. Pale face fur. But..hearty appetite. And plays with sticks often.

Slim Jim carries on. 

He has cataracts. He has outlived all mates. He has built packs and is related to many local coyote. He has been attacked by wolves and seen them kill his pack. 

But he’s here. And daughter Kinky Tail seems to watch over him. 

It’s a gift to live long. Have a place. And eat apples.

To Slim Jim

Take care Janet. Old Coyotes can raise our spirits. 

Lou

Hello Janet, 

This time of year is very busy for our wild canid. Foxes, Wolves and Coyote are prepping for parenthood, deep in courtship or fending off competition.

But not Slim Jim.

You may remember him from past reports as the very old Patriarch of a coyote pack. His mate and most pups and grandpups were killed by wolves last summer. He was injured badly, recovered and survived with his adult son, and 3 pups. 2 males and female Kinky Tail.

Fast fwd … Kinky Tail matured extremely fast and inherited their territory. Amazingly, this pup is courting and being courted. It appears she’ll be a yearling mom later this year. 

The male pups and Yearling Male Big Brother dispersed. Slim Jim decamped for territory edge. It took the ranchers a while to realize he is not only ancient (10-13 years approx) but he is literally, nearly blind. 

The Ranching family that knows and sees him often has viewed his cataracts on both eyes growing thicker especially last few months. Also .. if he’s with bison he moves freely with them. But when he’s by himself he is very tentative in certain spots. They have caught him in trail cams and literally he’s bumping into things. He never blinks when a trail cam flashes. He merely stares wide eyed and casting for smells.  Finally … he doesn’t look at new items further away whereas formerly he was instantly aware. His senses of hearing and sight are clearly dulled greatly. 

He attached himself last summer to a nursery herd of ranch bison. He literally follows them. Sleeps near them. And easily catches the countless rodents they disturb grazing. This Bison herd grazes nearly 5,000 acres in slow rhythmic moving and Slim Jim follows them in much of it. He has become nomadic because … the bison are so accustomed to him they are like guard and friends. Both calves and older bison treat him as non-event. I think he instinctively and by choice realized..the wide ranging but slow Bison are perfect. They stir up rodents every step. They chase any canid away (but have long accepted Slim Jim) They see, hear, and push away any dangers. They are a wall of protection. Also..this is a nursery herd. They are the nucleus of much bigger goals and herds. For now, the 25 or so bison are left alone to breed and range. So it’s perfect for Slim Jim’s last days. 

The various packs on this property are either descended from Slim Jim, or long know him or don’t even bother him. He holds no threats from his battered old aura. He also doesn’t howl or bark messages any longer it seems. He is very low key as befits a lone old coyote. 

His daughter does seem to welcome him when he comes round like a circuit traveler. And her new mate is calm and doesn’t drive him off. Slim Jim moves onward. Ever with bison.

The Bison also keep all non-coyote away. Any LGD, wolves or ranch dogs that go to bison range are in great danger. Several Bulls would love to score their horns on any canine. So Slim Jim … old, nearly blind, dull toothed … carries on.

He is stiff but moves well. And he tosses sticks and bones about. He listens long and seems distant. He seems very content. Its extremely rare to see a really old coyote in ranchlands. They don’t often make 4 or 5 years. His white face, battered body and wise demeanor are a real testament to so much. It’s fitting his last days are roaming with bison friends and guards as he meanders among descendants in his nomadic old age. 

🐾❤Lou

[For more on Slim Jim’s past by Walkaboutlou, see Spring Madness, The Dilemma of Denning, Pack Strategies and Growing Pups, Nature, Family Update, and Kinky Tail, or put Walkaboutlou into the search box.]

I got to the park and noticed one of my coyotes in the distance walking behind some bushes. So I rushed down the hill so as to be able to “capture” which coyote, WHO, it was. Two men saw me and said, “one is over there”. I asked, do you know who, which one? No, of course they didn’t. I put up my camera, took a couple of shots and examined the image. It was Silver. They said he looked so calm over there; that he got up slowly and was now stretching he was so relaxed. And, “do coyotes always walk like that?” I knew what they were talking about — there was stiffness in this fella’s pace. I answered, “he’s an old man, and I’ve got to run catch it — I don’t want to miss it.”

“I don’t want to miss it” is my usual approach to coyote viewing, and in this case, this “old man” would be slipping away at some point and every moment I had with him was valuable to me. I followed. I knew his path. Several other people stopped to watch, but I asked if they could move out of his path — the path I knew he would take — and they complied. He kept moving, traveling for about 1/4th of a mile through the park and then stopped in an overgrown spot for several minutes where he listened and sniffed with his head down and finally dove in. He came up with a tiny garter snake.

Usually coyotes “toy” with garter snakes and leave them, as far as I have seen, but this time the snake was carried off. Maybe it would be a toy for his litter born that year, or maybe it would be food for them. He disappeared into a thicket and I didn’t want him to feel followed, so I turned the other way. On the way back I crossed paths with one of the people who had stepped aside for him only a few minutes earlier. We talked about “the old man”. I mused at what he might be like in a year. “A year?” was the response I got. “This guy isn’t going to last a year”, was the answer I got. I could feel my eyes fill up with water. He was eleven-and-a-half years old at that point — I’ve known him all his life. The coyote had walked very slowly. He sometimes looked like a pile of rags. My friend suggested that he was probably going blind. I hope you can understand the urgency of not wanting to miss it.