How Rare is a Black Coyote? Trail cam pic.

Originally Posted By: lyotehunterthose things are not pure coyotes

Id have to disagree with that statement. Several mammals have distinct color phases associated with them. I have even seen a "black deer" and killed a piebald doe once. It has to do with how temperature effects the amino acids which make up the genome of each individual animal. For example its what gives domestic cats spots/blotches throughout their body.

Now there are many eastern coyotes that have interbred with red wolves and there are actually very few pure bred red wolves in existence.

Black coyotes are just that, black coyotes. Still same species just a color phase.
 
Originally Posted By: RustHunterRight, if i saw one i would prolly assume it was a dog

Right you are -- I had this same one in my scope on Monday morning at dawn but he was 5-8 yards into the woods and was not clear before he walked deeper and away from me. I thought it was a dog at first until I could see the pointed snout and the ears and the gait. The female with him was buff colored.

Cannot be a good color adaptation for survival because the black color made him really stand out in binos or scope and we don't even have snow on the ground!
 
Jake
So back to the original post and topic. Black or nearly all black coyoyes seem to be rare by the anecdotal comments. Guys who have spent many more years than I have calling and hunting them do not seem to report having seen very many in this coloration.

Do you believe the anecdotal evidence is valid-- that black or nearly black is a rare color?
 
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Originally Posted By: brannon74btech29 lets see the video. I would love to kill a black one.







 
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CTShamrock, that coyote is beautiful. I would taken him straight to the best taxidermist I could find and have him mounted lifesize. I saw one like that 3 summers ago. I spent all winter hoping to see him again, but never did. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when I first saw him. Hardly anyone believes me when I try to describe his coloration. I'm glad you posted this so I can show people this color phase really does exist!
 
We had one running in our area that we seen a couple times each year for about 2 years but haven't see him at all this winter. wish we could get it called in for some supressed hd camera footage.
 
Ursus

Thanks. My hunting partner skinned him that night. He was very healthy and full coated. Entry was in the low throat/ high chest from front and we could not find it until he was skinned. Never exited. 95 grain VMax. Yes I put the cross hairs on that lighter patch of fur on his chest as he came at me.

Rare color aside - he was the healthiest male I have seen around here in some time. I know he was the same one we saw the morning before at dawn. He looked like a shadow moving across a field 500 yards out.

Unfortunately Mrs. Shamrock is not going to let a coyote mount in this casa and my two German shorthairs would go ballistic if I did so a mount was out!!!

btech-- awesome videos. Thanks for posting them.
 
Originally Posted By: CT Shamrock
Do you believe the anecdotal evidence is valid-- that black or nearly black is a rare color?

Id have to say that I do. Im no geneticist, but I would say that this darker color phase arises when some recessive allele is expressed. You hit the nail on the head by saying that for a number of reasons this darker color is not to the yotes benefit. Now given that throughout most of the yotes' range (certainly in the east) there is no "higher" predator exhibiting some form of selective pressure on coyotes other than humans.

However, as with many other "conditions" or "traits" many have always been rare. That is to say that the reason they are rare today is not that they have been selected against for x number of years, they were just never that prevalent to begin with.

You are right to question anecdotal evidence though. Too much of that becomes what I call "dogma". Unproven science that through verbal repetition becomes "fact."

Jake
 
CT, I don't know what you ended up doing with it, but had it been skinned out for a taxidermy mount it would have brought a pretty penny at taxidermy.net. I'm sure it would have gone for between $200.00-$350.00.
 

Mi11z, those are some nice trail camera photos. That's a real trophy by most standards.

Btech29, that's some great footage and camera work.

My first called coyote was a black one, called it practically into my lap at about 15 yards or so. My rifle was pointing in the opposite direction and needless to say it got away. It was a beatiful animal, with silver markings around the face, but a shot was not meant to be.

I have since seen another black one on the family farm, or rather the trail camera saw it.

Some coyotes around here seem to have a bit of black on them. The black genes seem to be showing up more and more. I shot two a couple of years ago that had a good touch of black in them. The black seems to be more on their back than sides.

Here's a couple of trail camera photos and the two yotes I shot.

BLACKCOYOTE3.jpg


Coyote02.jpg


22magcoyote2.jpg


Coyote2-27-103.jpg



 
my uncle has saw a darker 1 at one of our bow hunting spots 3-4 times last fall .. he says it is almost all black but i havent saw it for my self .. but if i do it will at least be tanned !!!
 
I saw one on opening day of muzzleloader deer season two years ago. At first I thought it was a German shepherd, but once I scoped him there was no doubt it was coyote. Too bad he was out of range. I pretty much gave up deer hunting for the year after that and went to calling all over the area, but never got another look at it. Best I could tell at first light it was almost solid black and I would have loved to have that thing mounted up for the man cave.
 
we hunt with hounds on ny pa border have gotten at least 3 or 4 black ones.(last couple of years) some are darker than others. seems to me that the black ones have longer legs.
 
Maybe so but that 47 pounder that you and your buddy bagged last week is simply a hog!! Check out the photos in the Calling in the East forum

That black male I got is 40 pounds but yours is 20% bigger. That's a whole lotta dog.

Congrats man.
 
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