2nd oldest coyote I've killed

Cal Taylor

Active member
I was out for alittle afternoon session today, it snowed all morning, and called in a pair. The male was extremely agressive. I had my brown dog(buddy) along, and that pair built to him like we were on a den. It's way too early for that here. They went and had some fun and he brought them back in way faster than I would have liked. I finally hollered at them and got em stopped before everyone was in my lap, and shot the male at about 40 yards. The female lined out with buddy in hot pursuit and he finally got her mad enough to follow him back to about 250 yards, which is where she died. When I went to look at the male, I couldn't believe how old he was. His canines were worn round and less than a half inch long. The rest of his teeth were worn smooth to the gumline. His teeth were also completely yellow. Looked like he chewed Copenhagen for about twenty years. The only coyote I ever killed that I thought was older was down on the sweetwater near Jeffrey City. It was a female that didn't hardley have a tooth left in her head. She was thin, but she also had a litter of pups that year. This male was in good shape, one of the biggest coyotes I've taken this year. He weighed 46 lbs.
 
46 pounds! my word that is a big sucker.
The largest I have ever taken weighed 35 pounds. You grow em quite a bit larger up there.
I wonder how old that fellow must have been? Can you make any kind of estimate? I have seen guys try and age coyotes and I never could decide if they were doing anything other than just making an off the cuff guess.
 
Here is a chart and the text for using the chart so you can use the teeth of a coyote to roughly tell its age.

Sorry, but my account at photopoint doesn't exist any more If you want the photo, just e-mail me and I'll send it to you.

View


Aging Coyotes (Taken from a posting by AZWill on Shade Tree Hunting Forum, 3/6/2000)

In the field, coyotes are normally aged in four categories or classes: (1) Pups; (2) Yearlings; (3) Mature; (4) Old.

At six months the pups normally have their permanent teeth and weigh between 12 and 16 pounds. Young coyotes retain a juvenile face until about eight months old.

At one year coyotes are fully-grown, seldom have much body fat, and their canine and incisor teeth are white and sharp showing no wear.

The above figure represents average tooth wear in a coyote, by years, at mid-winter.

1 yr. – Incisors all rounded; no wear facets; canines sharp, incomplete.

2 yr. – Incisors inner cusp blunted; distinct wear facet; notch distinct; incisor (1) slightly blunted; canines complete.

3 yr. – Incisor flat, notch barely visible; incisor (1) almost square, inner notch distinct, incisor (2) inner cusp half gone; other incisors showing some blunting.

4 yr. – Incisor flat; dentine showing, notch gone; incisor (2) almost flat, incisor (1) worn to inner notch; incisor (2) blunted; both notches visible.

5 yr. – Incisor (1, 2) flat, notches gone; incisor (3) notch visible; incisor (1, 2) flat both inner and outer notches gone, incisor (3) distinctly blunted.

6 yr. – Lower incisors essentially flat across with only tiny notch in incisor (3); incisors (1, 2) flat across, all notches gone; PM (pre-molars) cusps showing wear.

7 yr. – Notch gone from incisor (3), upper incisors flat except incisor (3); canines and all cusps of PM and M (molars) distinctly worn.

Mature coyotes, 2 to 6 years old, have teeth with an increasing degree of wear on the canines and incisors and the animals are heavier in body weight. Older animals of 7 years or more may have teeth that are beginning to yellow and usually show wear on all the teeth. The canine and incisor teeth are sometimes broken or missing.
 
Silverfox,
Great chart, I've looked for something like that for a long time.
Craig,
I kind of fall into the four categories that silver mentioned above. I would classify this coyote as ancient, but I really don't know how old. As far as size, ours are bigger (coyotes that is, LOL). Not usually by a great margin, but I've called some in northern AZ (from Kanab Ut to around Page AZ) and the coyotes weren't as large as I was used to for sure. Our males average around 30 to 35 lbs. The largest I ever killed was 58 lbs, but I have to tell the rest of the story. He was a big coyote, but I shot him off of a dead calf, and he was literally gorged. I don't know how much a coyote can pack away, but this guy couldn't have ate another bite. He was so heavy, I had to weigh him just for my own information. Kind of like today, I usually don't bother weighing anything unless I am curious. I killed a dwarf female once, By her teeth, she was 2 or 3 years old, and I bet she didn't weigh 12 pounds. I didn't have any way to check, so this one is just a guess, but she was tiny.
 
sounds like you had a good hunt.
I wish the dog's here were that big.
we see around 25 to 28 pounders?


------------------
Jason's Gun Room
Quialty Custom Gunsmithing
 
I assume you mean the dog I was hunting with. He's a bull terrier/greyhound cross. I got him when I was doing ADC work full time. He's been in on a lot of coyotes demise.
 
In looking at the chart, I admit that the subject of age is usually not tremendously important to me. I notice young, small, very big, sex (sometimes), condition, color, but generally don't inspect the teeth with much enthusiasm.

That coydog that I killed at the Tom Mix Monument hunt, he was the first for me, and by far the largest, and the teeth were so worn that "I" even noticed! Judging by the chart, he was older than eight years. However, I have seen some breeds of dogs that age much faster than others, so I'm not sure if the mixed lineage would increase the rate of wear?

Good hunting. LB
 
Yeah, I was referring to the hunting dog, Cal. What caught my interest was the way you described Buddy playing his part and of all things, able to out run them. The "greyhound " part I guess answered that for me.
Never the less...somebody did a beautiful job on that dog. I would go to great lengths to have a dog like that.
Good job,
~River Runner~
 
River Runner,
Sorry for the mis-understanding. I didn't mean for you to think that he could outrun a coyote, because he can't. He's the fastest dog I've ever had, but when a coyote turns on the afterburners, they out distance him pretty fast. But when a coyote is trying to make up their mind as to what to do and looking back over their shoulder he can lope up and antagonize them a little. BTW, the dog is for sale. I have a registered Black Mouth Cur thats bred and I'm trying to make room for some pups. I posted this before. This is a nice dog, but not quite as far ranging as my cur. She will go quite a ways to a howling coyote,and pick them up, and bring them back.(I'm talking about a denning situation). The brown dog (Buddy), stays alot closer than I like, but is an excellent dog for just calling. But he will only go to what he can see. I have used him alot, mostly denning, and he knows how to play the game.
 
Great chart Silver Fox! That's a great contribution! I can usually tell the yearlings, 2-4 year olds, and old ones but never was able to get more accurate than that.

Cal, 46 pounds, that's a whopper. I do ADC work here in SD for the state program and I killed 3 that weighed 40 one year. Never before and never again since. I know of one that weighed 45. I know one that was trapped that weighed 52. I know of one that was trapped in ND that weighed 54. 52 lbs. is the biggest coyote that I know of that was taken in this area. 58 lbs. with a full stomach, WOW! I wish you would have weighed the stomach contents. I know, YUK! It would be interesting to know how many pounds of meat they can hold! Thanks! Wiley E
 
That chart is definitely an asset, thanks for posting it. Most of the coyotes I see are pretty young, although every once in a while I see one with some age on it.

The first coyote I killed 4 years ago weighed 48 pounds. I've never seen one as big since. I did get one other male that was close, but everything else is in the 30-40 pound range, although one little male that was full grown only weighed around 15 pounds.

Does anyone else ever notice rear dewclaws? They don't show up often, but I do see them every once in a while. Maybe it's because I was a dog breeder, but I thought it was interesting.

[This message has been edited by Nightstalker (edited 03-26-2001).]
 
Please thank AzWill for the chart on how to age coyotes by looking at the wear and tear on their teeth. AzWill posted it on the old Shade Tree Hunting Forum back in March of 2000. I merely copied it from there and kept it on my hard drive.

[This message has been edited by Silverfox (edited 03-26-2001).]
 
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