Frogman gets out

Frogman · January 29, 2009, 08:14:54 PM

Hey guys,
My power has been off due to the recent ice and snow storms we have had. This afternoon I decided if I was going to be cold I might as well be cold out in the woods. I headed out to the woods behind my house. The snow was very crunchy and noisy today. No way to slip in to the stands. I would set up and let things quiet down for several minutes before I started calling. I found lots of tracks but some of the neighbors have dogs so I'm still not sure how to tell the difference between a dog print and a coyote print. Some of these tracks were not far from the house, others were clear down in the woods. What do you guys think???

The above tracks were in the field behind the house?

I did a stand here on the dam overlooking this old farm pond. The dam has washed out and it's just a stream again. I set the Scorpion way out in front of me near the far end of the pond. Wind was very slight and coming right in my face. Stayed for about half an hour here and did mainly rabbit distress. No success.

The above tracks led to this . . .

A devoured deer carcass. Are these coyote tracks????

The above tracks were near my final stand quite a ways from the house and only 150 - 200 yards from the deer carcass. Are they coyotes or dogs??

The above were taken at my final stand. Started with female invitation, then some female whimpers, finished with hurt pup distress. After half an hour no success. Wind was from my left to right in the first photo. The e-call was set up behind and below me to my left about 50 yards. The female invitation spooked a deer that was bedded up in front of me. No success, but still a beautiful day to be out and about. All the tracks appeared to be at least a day old, most of them had recent snow in them that we got after the ice storm. Temp here today was 27 degrees.

What do you guys think about the tracks?? As always your experienced tracking skills are helpful to us new guys!!

Jim

pitw · January 29, 2009, 08:51:21 PM

I think it's great that you got out. It's my experience that coyote tracks are the more elongated [narrower not round] ones so without seeing the critter in them I'd be only guessing but I'd say that pic 6 look's the most like a coyote to me. Up here I find coyotes of the same size as a dog have smaller feet than a dog. Just my observations and take them as intended [free].

vvarmitr · January 30, 2009, 11:25:47 AM

When I first read "Frogman gets out" I thought was Jim in jail again?

Quote from: Frogman on January 29, 2009, 08:14:54 PM
The above were taken at my final stand. Started with female invitation, then some female whimpers, finished with hurt pup distress. After half an hour no success.

Must be dog tracks, ya think.

alscalls · January 30, 2009, 05:14:09 PM

Some of em I really cant tell but I would say dog on #7 cause of the staggar.
A couple of the others I would say dog but I would rather see them first hand.

Silencer · January 30, 2009, 06:31:33 PM

Its gonna be crunchy for us in the morning as well but we're heading out anyhow.

CCP · January 31, 2009, 08:55:43 AM

Frogman I always look forward to your post with pictures and how you are hunting.

QuoteAre these coyote tracks????

Identifying coyote tracks in most cases isn't to hard once you see the differences many times over. When I do find tracks that are questionable I usually just count them as dog tracks.

I would more than likely say pic 1 and 4 would count as dog tracks and 6,7,8,9 as coyote tracks. The reason I believe most dont reply to "is this a coyote track"? is we see in 3D and a camera lens see's in 2D making it harder to tell. When looking at a track in the field we can see it from all angles and somtimes have others near by to compare to.

I have watched several coyotes through the years and after shooting them looked at there tracks where they had came in. knowing far a fact I am looking at a coyote track some looked doggie at times. You will notice the ground hardness and softness coupled with the speed and size of the coyote makes a difference in the coyotes print. If you follow a track for several yards somewhere along the way you will see the tell tell signs of it being a coyote or not.

Here is a good coyote tracking video CLICK HERE

alscalls · January 31, 2009, 10:18:03 AM

Interesting Vid. However we must keep size of the coyote in our minds.....They stress this in the Vid. but it is esily forgotten.
Look at the two different coyotes feet here and the size difference.
Also look at the difference from back to front feet.........

http://www.finsandfur.net/forums/index.php?topic=7860.0

CCP · January 31, 2009, 10:44:35 AM

Al you seem to have trouble with the coyote track identification. The LBL hunt will be a great tool for you next week. There will probably be no hunters there with dogs in the preceding days. There should still be some snow on the ground. So while in the heart of the LBL if you run across canine tracks there should be a 99% chance it will be a coyote or fox.

You should be able to see many different size coyote tracks and should also be able to see the similarity's even in the different sizes and shapes.

If Jimmy is able to make it he should also be able to go over some of it with you and others. This is the great thing about the guys at LBL they are willing to help others with facts and not theory's.

Frogman · January 31, 2009, 11:15:50 AM

The two front toes close together and not splayed is helpful to me. I guess the context in which the tracks are found is also important. I have heard that an oval egg shaped track is coyote, round is dog?? X between the toes is coyote?? But I have seen tracks I knew were dog tracks that also have the X between the toes. In some of the photos above I noticed that the front and rear paws stepped in the same place thus overlapping somewhat. That seems to indicate coyote? Also the video indicated that the trail of a coyote would be narrow, no more than 5 inches between left and right paw prints. The one set of tracks in my photo above seemed to meet this criteria.
Richard, thanks for the very informational video. Thanks also to the rest of you for all your input. Reading and identifying coyote tracks is difficult for me and I'm trying to figure it out. Please continue to post your thoughts about coyote tracks, I need all the help I can get!!

Jim

alscalls · January 31, 2009, 12:40:24 PM

Quote from: CCP on January 31, 2009, 10:44:35 AM

Al you seem to have trouble with the coyote track identification. The LBL hunt will be a great tool for you next week. There will probably be no hunters there with dogs in the preceding days. There should still be some snow on the ground. So while in the heart of the LBL if you run across canine tracks there should be a 99% chance it will be a coyote or fox.

You should be able to see many different size coyote tracks and should also be able to see the similarity's even in the different sizes and shapes.

If Jimmy is able to make it he should also be able to go over some of it with you and others. This is the great thing about the guys at LBL they are willing to help others with facts and not theory's.

I do not think I have any more trouble than any one els.......I just do not think we are right as much as we think.
I would always welcome an opportunity to learn.
I have posted dog tracks before on other sites and gotten responses like for sure thats a coyote!! And I myself have been fooled. I just think our best guess right now is all we got.

msmith · February 06, 2009, 04:28:15 PM

Interesting thread. There is a lot to learn here and I'm all ears. Something that Jim said helps me a lot. "Context". Not being able to discern dog from yote tracks very well, I try to take the context in acoount. For example: if there are human tracks interlaced, sometimes on top of the dog tracks, sometimes dog tracks on top, then I would assume a farmer and his dog on a walk and not a farmer that just happened to walk in the same place as a yote. Another example would be on the back forty away from houses, I see a set or pair of tracks that are running a tractor or logging road for a good distance and they display the typical X, I assume yote as most of the domestic dogs I see spend more time "snooping around" and don't make a direct trail usually. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I'll stay tuned to learn.

CCP, thanks for the vid. Good stuff there.