Coyotes nose "vs" Deers nose

Originally posted by yotes:
[qb]can you even compare a coyotes sense of smell to a deers?[/qb]
Yes you can compare them! You may not reach a conclusion but you can give your theory on which one smells better.

One depends on his nose for finding food and the other depends on his nose to not become the food. So which do you think smells better?

While I would give the slight edge to the deer I doubt that one could ever be sure of which is truly the better at sniffing things.......James L.
 
I have yet to see any scientific study which compares sense of smell of coyote-VS deer. I hope that someone can find such a study and post it here. Having said that, I am going to give my educated opinion. Being a bowhunter, I have a lot of experience with close encounters with deer and coyotes. I feel that I can fool a deer's nose with cover scent, but not coyote nose. I would have to say that a coyote nose is at least twice as good as that of a deer. Just my two cents worth. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
This is interesting. I havent had enough encounters with cooyotes to give my oppinion. Hopefully i will be able to soon. Thanks for you oppinions, hope there are more to come. I am intersted in what everyone has to say.
 
James Lindley nailed the essence quite nicely.

It depends. Better how ? What is "better". You need to define your criteria much more narrowly.
 
Robb,
Let me put it in layman terms for you. Which animal can detect human odor the easiest? Which animal will smell you and spook the soonest? In my own experience, the coyote will detect human odor and spook much sooner than a deer will.

I once was sitting in a tree-stand over looking a deer trail. I had walked down a soybean row on my way to this stand. I watched as three whitetail does walked right down the same row where I had just walked, and they paid no attention at all to any human odor I had left in the trail. Several minutes later I watched two coyotes approach the trail from a right angle. The lead coyote had no more than stuck his head over the bean row where I had walked, before both coyotes spooked. Now did they spook because they have keener nose? Did they spook because coyote nose is closer to ground, and therefore closer to my footprints? Did they spook because they fear human odor more than deer do? Did the deer smell me and know that I had walked there but did not care? Food for thought now ain't it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I would say that when you are talking wild animals there is no possible way to tell because you never know what it is that sets off an individual animal. I have had similar experiences such as the one Rich tells of . And I have also had the opposite experience where deer came through and spooked and the coyote walked within feet of me down the same path. And yes I missed him!!!! :eek: It unnerved me to say the least....

I have noticed that dogs (as in pets) will key on you a lot faster than a wild animal will even if you don't move. Even when you are in a tree stand way up in the air..>>>>>James L.
 
I think Rich raised a really good point, which is that just because an animal doesn't react, it doesn't mean it didn't smell you. Different animals react with alarm to different things. Bobcats, for example, have pretty decent noses, I think, but they don't seem to care about human odor even when they do smell it.

It would take some carefully controlled laboratory tests to answer this question, and even then, I think it would be hard to come up with something that's definitive. Until they do that, I think we can just say that they've both got good noses, and you'd better factor that in to your hunting plans.

-dan
 
Dan K i once witnessed a bobcat at LBL hit my scent trail,which i thought was scent free,and jumped straight up in the air and i never seen it hit the ground!I swear it was flying.
 
Yep. There's exceptions to everything. I guess I should have said "MOST bobcats don't seem to mind..." /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Anytime you're dealing with living animals, there are no absolutes. Just tendencies.

-dan
 
It seems to me that the question is, "Which animal is better able to detect odors?"

This, I'm sure, can be studied. Based on the physiological qualities of both animals olfactory receptors as well as a little testing, I'm quite sure that a definitive answer to this question may be had.

The question that has been answered here so far is more of a psychological one, "What is the animal going to do after he has smelled me."

This question would be considerably more difficult to answer definitively.

My answer to both questions is, "I dunno.." /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
My votes for the yotes!
I bowhunt alot and I try to be as scent free as possible.Rubber knee boots,clothes washes with sports wash,wash with scent elimator soap,and spray down with scent killer.This combo works pretty good on whitetails.
Well I was bowhunting one morning and decided to change stands,I walked across a field that had been mowed earlier in the fall and the grass was no more the 4-5inches high anywhere.When I reached my other stand I could see backtrail.As the morning wore on several deer crossed my path even a buck with his nose to ground looking for receptive does.None of the deer gave even the slightest indication of anything that smelled wrong to them as they crossed my path.
Then here comes a Big Ole Coyote and since he was out about 100yds. all I could do was watch as he approached my path of a couple hours earlier,when he got to it he stopped like like he hit a brick wall and spun on his heels and ran back the way he had just come about 50-75yds.The wind was blowing slightly from him to me.
But he wanted to go the way he was going and after about 5 minutes he cautiously went back ever so slowly,when he reached my path again he smelled around it and looked every which way,he knew it wasn't right,but finally he went on.The coyote smelled my tracks left in 4-5" high grass with rubber knee boots the deer may have but they showed no indication they had.
Thats my only experiance where I have been able to compare several deers noses to one coyotes.
 
I'm thinkin a 'yote is more likely to spot you before it smells you, but they do combine sences to survive. I think their local habitat plays a role, especially if there are more people near by. One thing I've noticed when a deer is spooked by a smell it usually bolts, then after about 30 yards or so turns to check persuit. They are of course not so spooked before turkey season opens up. Just last fall I was out early for turkey and just about walked right up on a bedding buck. I noticed those big ears and rack way before he saw me. I managed to sneek up 50 yards from him, thats when he got up, looked, and actually walked twoards me within 30-40 yards before he wheezed and went on his way. vs. new years day I was out squirrel hunting and late in the day after sitting against some pines and scoping the last gbt for the day, spooked up 2 doe. They were about 30 yards behind me, I had no clue. I think they ran into the next forest before stopping.
 
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