Sunday, January 10, 2010

No animals were injured in the making of this post


Jim and I tried our own version of Lane's "tree and flee" today. It's a sunny mid-20s day, and we caught this coyote out on a playa flat, and took it for a spin to get a few photos.


You might have heard of "scope eye," but has anyone ever heard of "camera eye?" That's what you get when you chase a coyote in a circle at about 40 miles per hour, gripping your camera rather than holding on.

4 comments:

Heather Houlahan said...

Luisa just linked to this, in response to this post:

http://cynography.blogspot.com/2010/01/double-suspension-of-disbelief.html

Sweet.

Who or what was chasing him?

Anonymous said...

Incredible photo of running beast! And that animal Looks BIG! Is it usual size? what may be it's weight?
Neighbor of mine (NE PA) few weeks ago killed 80 lb coyote - the size of a dog (may be wolf hybrid?)

Eugene

Cat Urbigkit said...

Eugene: This was a typical coyote for our area, perhaps a little larger than normal, but he's tiny compared to an eastern coyote (which has wolf genetics). This one was about 35 pounds.

Heather: The coyote was running from my pickup truck. Husband Jim was driving, and managed to get the coyote to turn in front of us, so I hung out the passenger window, trying not to knock my teeth out with my camera. It was typical redneck entertainment. We did harass this coyote for about 30 seconds (I managed to get about six photos) but at least it escaped with its life!

Anonymous said...

Cat, what fantastic photos! These are probably the BEST photos of a coyote running I have ever seen! I bet he(she) will be VERY wary of vehicles from now on, too! Did you honk the horn, yell, or shoot any guns off? If not, then I'm not sure this qualifies as TRUE redneck entertainment, however......One reason running them with trailhounds works so good, I think, is the NOISE--the hounds baying keeps on going long after the coyotes are out of sight, and just keeps them running, after they learn what hounds on their trail are. Very often, as soon as my hounds are out for a run(and they start baying IMMEDIATELY from excitement--they don't have to have a fresh track to get them going! Come to think of it, they bay to express EVERY THOUGHT they have!) the coyotes in the area will start giving warning yaps to each other(quite different from communal or territorial howling), and clear out of the territory! I have never(yet) had a coyote that seemed to enjoy the contest with the hounds, as Red Foxes often seem to. I can verify with my own experiences the fact that Red Foxes, after some experience running before hounds, seem to get a thrill doing it, and really will come by the house some nights and yap at the dogs if I haven't taken them out in awhile--and it does seem like they are trying to taunt them into a chase! I haven't had Gray Foxes do this--like the coyotes, they just want to clear out when the hounds are loose! Now if you could just get your LGD's to accept a few hounds about the place.....L.B.