Coyotes and Water

W

WLONG

New member
I was talking to a friend the other day about the coyote distribution in the Hagerstown, Md, area. He was told that there are fewer coyotes east of the Conacheague Creek. Someone told him it was because Coyotes do not like to cross water.


I was rehearsing some of the videos and I can't remember seeing any cross water except for those who died there after being shot.

Anyone have any experience on this?

Thanks,
Bill
 
Mark Zepps video has sceens of coyotes crossing water. I have seen one other with footage like this, but don't remember the name of it. Coyotes can and do cross creeks.
 
While fishing I once saw a coyote swim across a lake that was almost half mile wide. There did not seem to be any reason for it except to get to the other side.
 
They may not like water.
But, they sure will cross alot of it to get somewhere.

Quote:
During the winter of 1985, reports of wolf like dogs coming ashore from the ice near the Port au Port Peninsula were quite likely one of the earliest known incidents of coyotes entering upon the Island of Newfoundland.


Coyotes in Newfoundland
Getting to Newfoundland requires crossing one big nasty piece of ocean. Even if you are sitting on an iceberg part of the way.
PC
 
In a area that i call, the coyotes wait for freeze up to cross the river, and some of the smarter ones just use the bridge.
 
I saw a coyote swimming across the Columbia River up near its headwaters once. I don't think they mind swimming any more than a deer does, and I've seen deer swim quite a bit across lakes, across salt water channels half a mile wide, etc.

I saw the swimming coyote when I was hunting elk in mile wide swamps and spotted birds marking something dead. I headed that way, jumped a coyote at close range, then from a cut bank about 8 feet high I looked down at another coyote over half way across a 100 foot wide channel, swimming toward me. He rolled his eyes up at me and upped the tempo to frantic as he turned back and swam for the side he started from. Could have shot either of the yotes but only wanted elk.

A few yards further along the bank a dead 5 point bull elk lay half in the water. He had a bullet entry wound about the last rib or a little farther back, and looked like he had swum the river but couldn't get up the cutbank. He didn't stink, very fresh and may not have even spoiled yet, but the coyotes and birds were homing in on him.

On a similar topic, a friend of mine has good photos of a cougar he came on swimming across a salt water channel between islands on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Great pics. An animal in the water can't do much so he pulled his boat within 8 feet at times.
 
Thanks guys. I also thought that was not a vakid reason for there being more coyotes on the west side of Hagerstown, I just think they are gradually moving east like everywhere else.

Thanks,
Bill
 
"While fishing I once saw a coyote swim across a lake that was almost half mile wide. There did not seem to be any reason for it except to get to the other side."

So, that's why the coyote crossed the lake.... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

I've seen coyotes swim across flooded irrigation ditches to get to a field on the other side. Down at Tule Lake NWR they do the cleanup on ducks and geese wounded but not retrieved by the hunters. They cross the ponds and marsh there.

I've also encountered coyotes on the islands in the Sand Dunes area at Potholes Reservoir near Moses Lake, Washington. No other way to get out there but swim.
 
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