Why do coyotes come to coyote distress calls?

gunz

New member
Being new to coyote calling I am wondering what makes a coyote respond to the coyote distress calls? Do they eat their own species? Are they just curious? Do they want to try and help out the injured yote, thinking it is one of their pack? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
If this has been covered before, sorry I must have missed it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
Thanks
 
No, they don't eat their own .Rarely will you hear a wounded adult yelp or cry .So when they hear this they are curiuos or they believe a pup is in trouble.
 
Coyotes respond to the call driven by curiosity, competition, hunger, social concerns, and territorial issues. Probably other reasons as well.
 
First, I will say that I have seen them eat their own kind, as shown by this pic...

Cannibalismcoyote2.jpg


This is the head and shoulder of a coyote I shot a week prior in brutal cold in December, and later found where the other coyotes in the area had dragged it down to the dry creek bed and eaten most of it. The tracks you see around it (poor quality pic - sorry) are all coyote tracks.

As far as why they respond, I feel it's partly because of their social nature, and partly because of the drive to join in the melee. I used to train racing greyhounds in high school and we'd have upwards of sixty adult dogs at a time in the "turn out pen" of the kennel. All the dogs were muzzled, but if one started yelping for any reason, all hell broke loose as the others would attack it like piranhas. I don't see that coyotes are far from that.
 
Our Greyhounds did the same on occasion, Lance.

I suspect, some of this "dog-piling" was payback. For the dog on the bottom of the heap. By the lesser dogs.

Somewhat, like the local bully. Getting whupped, everyone wants to get their, one [tag]in. Before it's over /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
coyotes WILL eat their own! they come to a pup or coyote distress partly because of maternal instict and part because they will take advantage of the less fortunate coyote. If there is a strong adult in a den, and it goes out and comes limping home, the others will kill it because it is handy capped and an easy meal. I am not saying that it happens everyday but it will and does happen.
 
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