They can't hunt a beaver the same way as a rabbit, they would never catch it, and if all they have been "tought" to hunt are rabbits and squirrels, then they would not be such a succesfull predator.
My point exactly: they aren't taught to hunt rabbits and squirrels, they are taught to hunt. The two are very different.
Do you think a coyote is not going to try to eat a wounded deer because all that was tought to hunt were rabbits and other small rodents?
_Trying_ to eat a deer is not eating a deer. But yes, there is probably enough instinctual "learning" for them to know that a) deer are potentially food and b) this one, being wounded, is probably easier to kill than most others.
That would be a heck of a year of hunting to take a bear, moose, elk, squirrel, deer, all in one season.
Sounds about right to me! Throw in caribou, maybe a bear of another color, muskox or bison if I manage to get drawn, grouse, ptarmigan, ducks, geese, cranes, furbearers, dipnetting for sockeye, a halibut trip or two, burbot, and whatever I run over and you have my yearly menu!
Coyotes are too good of hunters to have only learned to hunt from a parent. I believe takes a coyote own expierences for it to learn to hunt well. I also don't believe they can learn the whole art of hunting from another animal. There simply is too much to teach in nature and can't be done in a year or 2.
No argument there. They, like you, certainly didn't learn everything they know from parents, and they shouldn't quit learning just because they are out on their own. Learning, for any critter, is a lifelong experience.
If a critter doesn't learn from its parents, the parents should dump the offspring at the first opportunity. Pup survival is fairly low in coyotes, while adult survival is pretty good--Mom has a better chance of surviving to reproduce than does Junior, and she has already proven her potential to reproduce simply by having Junior. Nature (read evolutionary processes) is ruthless and singleminded--passing on genetic material is all any of us are here to do. An animal will not lower its own survivorship by harboring a preventable parasite, which is exactly what young are, without realizing a benefit to the species. The benefit to the species here is that Junior, by hanging around Mom and learning how to hunt, is increasing the likelihood that Mom will have grandpuppies. If most learning was by genetic memory or trial and error (as is the case in most small rodents, for example), Junior would be gone as soon as he is weaned.
I think we are arguing what is basically the same side here. Instinct is important. Trial and error is important. I simply think that, in canids at least, learning by emulating the behavior of more experienced individuals is equally important. It certainly is in wolves--for example, first-year pups seldom if ever kill moose. Coyotes are not wolves by any means, but they are similar in intelligence and their ability to learn. If pups didn't need Mom around to learn from they would be weaned and gone by midsummer.