Coyote Travel DIstance

t/c223encore

New member
How far will a coyote travel from it's den? If I was to spot a coyote while I was out scouting, how far could it possibly be from home? 5-10 miles?

t/c223encore.
 
Hmmmm, boy there's alot of varibles in an accurate answer. From what I've noticed in the months of December to early March in central Iowa. I've spotted quite afew of the same paired-up coyotes, on occaison in a 2-5 square mile home-range area. Mostly they stayed in an area of only a 1-3 square miles the closer spring got.

I don't know if that would vary that much, while being denned-up. Also noticed quite afew tresspassers as well. Especially winter of 02 to spring of 03.
 
A lot has to do with what coyote you saw. Whether it was a parent or not.

The mother does leave the den but being the primary caretaker and the only one allowed in the den Im sure it is less then just a few miles depending on where the food and water is located.

Subordinate coyotes that are in a pack are less likely to get to breed for fear of being whooped off depending on their status. There is a rabbit under every mesquite tree here so Im sure more get to mate without fear of loosing the benefits of having a pack.

Id think its a lot less then 5-10 miles depending of food availabity.
 
A study done in eastern Nebraska (farming country)found that coyotes this time of year..first of May till the end of June averaged about 1/2 mile from the den.In Stanley Young's book The Clever Coyote he said coyotes were known to carry a leg of lamb a distance of 8 miles back to the den.
 
ok so if I'm out and about, and just happen to spot a coyote chances are it aint more than 10 miles from home? I was just wondering if I happen to see one somewhere then that general area would be a good place to work a few stands?

t/c223encore.
 
How ever far they are willing to travel. I can about guarantee it don't take em long to get where they are going.

I've watched em run pretty fast /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
OHhhhhh k, that wasn't funny. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
 
If you see Wiley at the far reaches of his territory one day and decide to call that area the next day he might be 4-5 miles back home in his bed. Dont see how your call can travel 4-5 miles. And a 4-5 mile radius is a lot of country.

Your spot on with trying to call where you see coyote though, but its always going to be a crapshoot.
 
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif River Runner thats was a good one, I was amazed the first time I ever seen a coyote run.

Tommy, I know they aint in the same place 2, or even 3 days in a row, I learned that after seeing some crest a hill on the way out of the area I was in. At dark thirty the next mornin I was sitting there, and thats when i spotted them farther ahead of me as they was going over the next hill. But I understand what you mean, I just meant that if I see one I should start workin the area and I might get one, oh wait a minute, unless it was one that was just passin trough. them I might not be in a good area. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif Damn those tricky coyotes /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angry-smiley-055.gif

t/c223encore.
 
from my exsperince yot seem to have ruteens. where i work there are a lot of yots, they go through pieriods where they will be in one arey avery day for a week and then there wont be any trace of them for a week or so, and if you can't hear them in the morning ther is signs of them like fresh track and crap everywhere. and sometimes it seems like they make rounds of there territory everyday like they are making someking of loop. but that is just what i have observed.
 
I've been slingin lead @ a 4-pack this snowfly. Coyotes in my hunt area. Mostly stay in a 3-mile loop. Generally ending back up, in their bedding area, early am.

This 4-pack [3 healthy ones & a gimp]. I've seen them early am, 3-days in a row[bedded]in the same [focal]area this winter. Number #4[gimpy] has my name on him. He won't hold still /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif.
 
There was an old man I knew of as a kid back in the 70's who raised goats here in Mo. He was also a hound man with coyote hounds. He got to losing kid goats every night. He finally saw the coyote kill one about daylight one morning and put the hounds on it. The hounds bayed it in the den with pups 9-10 miles cross country from the goat herd. That female was traveling that distance every night to feed and then going back to regurgitate it for her pups. I was retold that story over Christmas by a family member who still hunts with hounds and hunted with the old timer who had the goats. Interesting bit of Ozarks hunting lore.
 
NWRC is conducting research on 9 coyote packs on the INL in Mud Lake , Id. All 18 alphas, 6 betas and 2 nomads are collared with GPS units that are interrogated every 5 minutes 24/7. Last June Dr. Jaeger told me that an alpha male was resting at the den, the female was resting at a rest area 2 kilometers north. The male suddenly moved at a fast pace in a staight line from the den to a location 20 miles away. He remained there for a short time. It then traveled at a fast pace directly to the rest area where the female had been. While the male was at the destination area the female departed and traveled at a fast pace for the same location where she remained for a very short time and returned in a straight line for the den.They did not encounter the other. Shortly thereafter the male joined her at the den. Dr. Jaeger's grad student drove to the GPS co-ordinates of the destination to try to determine what attracted the coyotes. It was an irrigation ditch at an alfalfa field. ??????????
 
Rich,

I suspect...they knew they were being monitored. Thought they'd throw the researchers a curve[drainage ditch] /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif. Smart, huh. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowingsmilie.gif
 
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