How Do Coyotes Kill Calves?

rws2

New member
Ok I had a calf half eatin by coyote/coyotes.

Its been bitter cold and I suspect it may have froze to death? But when I discovered it all the entrails had been ate and the tracks in the snow were coyotes.

I couldn't find any marks on its neck. I'm not sure how a coyote kills them? I'm not even sure the coyotes killed this one, it may have died from hyporthermia.
This is the first calf we have ever lost that I can find coyote involvement.

Do coyotes grab them by the neck or hamsting them???
Like I said I'm not even sure they did the deed or just happened along and took advantage of a free meal?
 
What size calf did you lose?

When we lose calves to coyotes they are generally newborn to a few hours ..... in rare instances we have lost up to 1.5 months old.

The way they kill a calf is to run it or jump it and grab the flank area and rip out the guts.

PM me if you care to.

Three 44s
 
Ok thanks guys!

This was a newborn calf. I had checked her (the cow) at dark and didn't think she was that close. I checked again at dawn and found I was wrong and she had calved but the calfs entrails were all gone and the snow was polluted with coyote tracks.

We did lose a crippled lamb before and we suspected coyotes.
Never found a trace of it. Not even a patch of wool.

But this is the first time I lost a calf that I can at least prove coyotes ate. They maynot have killed it? and then they may have? But the by golly for sure ate its guts!
 
I've been in cattle business for over 40 years. I own and operate a 150 head beef cow operation in SE MO and I have never had a coyote kill a calf that I have known about. They usually get the blame but it is usually a pack of dogs. Not just wild dogs but common house dogs that get together. When you get 3 or 4 or more house dogs together out in the wild or woods they go a little crazy. All it takes is for 1 of them to bark at a cow or calf when they are going across a field and all heck may brake loose. Coyotes will eat the baby calf scat and they love it. I have watched them walk around the fields following baby calves just for that reason. They usually don't eat very much till the little black gun comes off the seat of my truck and ends that. I would say the coyotes have found the calf frozen as you said and then eat on it. I am on the farm several times a day as I calve all year long.
 
Here are a couple of field guides that can help.
Procedures for Evaluating Predation on Livestock and Wildlife...they were $5.00 don't know if they still are.... Texas Agricultural Extension Service
Room 110, Nagle Hall
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas 77843
............................................
A Field Guide To Predatory Animal Damage Identification by Jack L. Clucas. email the author for more information clucasjm@tctwest.net
 
We calve 90 head per year and I've never known them to kill a calf or known of anyones they have killed. I've seen where they've ate the after birth and even that calf crap.

It did get down to zero that night and when I first saw the calf at a distance I assumed it had froze to death. Then when I got close I saw it had also been eatin on.

I'm a full time farmer and out and about on the farm everyday. I've seen no dogs running about. We are perty strict about dogs running loose and kill them on sight unless we know whos it is and its doing nothing wrong yet! But if its into something or we ain't got a clue whos it is we drop the hammer on them.

I do see coyote tracks about everyday theres snow on and I can see them easily from the tractor. Usually a lone set of tracks. Lately as many as 2 or 3 sets since they are mating here now.

I really still suspect the calf froze and the coyote/coyotes took advantage of the oppertunity. Theres an estimated 250 calves born in our immediate neighborhood every year and this is the only case I know of that coyotes "Might" have killed a calf.
Once a neighbor blamed coyotes but it was quickly determined that it was the work of domestic dogs and no coyotes.

But I'll still shoot a coyote on sight whether it needs shot or not. As of late we been calling and the only thing so far we've called in have been a couple Red Fox. But we will keep a trying to call in coyotes as we enjoy it!
 
I have SEEN them taking down a calf over a month old,2 of them one latched onto the rear leg and the other one running around it biting its side,they both took off when they heard the truck stop and the owner had to shoot the calf it was hamstrung.
 
I have seen cotoyes attacking calves for at least 20 years. It is the reason that I came to hunting the predators. I used to just shoot pairie dogs on a very large 200,000 acre ranch in eastern Colorado.
One morning I was passing the property manager's house..and he asked me to give him a hand with the coyotes too. He was loosing about 2 calves a week. Every time I was out there at sun rise or shortly there-after there was always at least one coyote stalking a new-born or young calf. Over the years I have witnessed not only the stalk but the attack....to the tune of about 1 a year that I witness.
 
around here they really do target newborns and up on the sweet water rive they have it down to a science.
one coyote will keep the mother at bay and one or more will drag the calf out onto the frozen river where the mother will not go. yes they attack the flank and rip the guts out.
eagles always pray on stillborn and dead calves butt first, they also eat the eyes out.
you can normally find tracks where the calf was on its feet before being killed but i have seen a coyote pull a calf during birth so that's not fool proof. if you get snow like we do any way.
 
We get no snow like you guys out west or up north get. We have only got 6" snows or less,mostly way less.

Hey guys thanks for the info. I'm learning!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I was talking to cattleman from Kansas a few years back at a Cattle Convention and was asking about coyotes. I assume he was telling me right but he said "once they start on calves the only way to stop them is kill them" I took that meaning don't expect isolated occurances and once they take a liking to calves they'd start targeting them.And naturally you'd have to kill them to make them stop!

So with that said if in fact my calf was killed by coyotes can I expect them to start stalking them? Reguardless if it/they kiled it they ate its guts, heart,lungs, they ate everything inside! Now they got the taste of it.
 
coyotes will kill calves, but I would bet yours died from other causes. If there is a struggle you should be able to see it or signs of it. They are oportunist and many will attack calves that are having trouble being born or they will gang up and take them down.Alot of times just as sheep you should have some throat markings from coyotes, as they need to be quick or the cow can do a number on them for sure. A calf in trouble is a sure sign ma,ma cow will be on the run as well as other cows.

I had one deal where and old male worn off canine teeth killed a calf ripped it up bad,an older cow got revenge a few days later he tried he got stomped to death by that cow. I skinned him out and he was nothing but hemeraged from one end to the other.
 
The calves that I've heard about and they grab the tails and pull till they can either get it down or pulls the tails off till it bleeds out.... seen a fawn that a couple dogs took down with this method...
 
I know this is an old post but I'll throw my two cents in. A dairy farmer in our area told me once that during calving season if it gets really cold, coyotes would almost get the calf before the afterbirth is gone. I've not seen this but I have seen them chase deer that are in their menstral cycle and bleeding. So giving that a mature deer can run 20mph+ I'd say a calf at almost any age doesnt stand much of a chance.
 
In the past 5 or 6 years, we have had a lot of big calves killed by small packs (Possibly family groups). One farmer thought someone had stolen a big, grey calf, but my grandson and I had found it. The coyotes had killed it on his land, drug it about 100 yds down the farm road and under a gate, and then about 75 yds across the creek bank to a small wooded area. He was a really big calf too. I had the farmer drag him up through the pasture and stake him out, and I killed 6 coyotes off that carcass in one week.
 
Hunt alot for the ranchers in my area and we find cow/calf carcasses where the calf is half way thru the birth canal and both died as a result of the coyotes trying to pull the calf out - hemorrhages the cow, bled out. We also see the coyotes hazing the young calves, trying to get them running and possibly breaking a leg for an easier meal. When in full calving mode, we usually just sit in the corrals and spotlight the yotes at night, they hang around 10-15 ft from a birthing cow that is "bellowing" and wait. That sound carries for a long ways, and really attracts yotes. Carcasses are a great place to make a stand as they usually return frequently to feed. They eat from the soft end first and I have found them in the ribcage of the carcass chowing away on meat and had no idea I was there. KABOOM!
 
Sorry, that clip didn't prove anything. I know coyotes can and do kill calves, but that footage, to me, just showed a sick calf bluffing a coyote. Then a pic of the dead calf, without any evidence of death by any predator. (no nose chew marks, no hams being feed on ect.). Just my 2 cents on a bs video.
 
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