Marking territory or playin match maker

[FinsnFur]

Settin on the ice with my brother ice fishing the other day and he told me an interesting story.

Said he was out checkin his beaver traps which entails an approximate 2 mile hike. He had to take a leak so he finds a tree he can lean forward onto to keep from peeing all over his chest waders. I told him his pecker was too short...but anyway he said he walked for ways yet and checked the rest of the traps, turned around and started the trek back.

When he got to his pee tree, he noticed fresh coyote tracks in the snow around it. A little investigation revealed that a female coyote walked up and sniffed his pee tree and then squatted down by it and left her own.

Ya think she's got the hots for him? Or was just claiming territory?
I thought it was funny that a coyote would do that period. They almost have to know it's not coyote urine they're smellin.

[coyote101]

I told him his pecker was too short...

A family trait?   

Pat

[Okanagan]

Fascinating info.  I think that is pretty common for canines, especially coyotes.  Interesting that it was a female.

Here's a parallel:

I stopped on a logging road at the boundary of Kootenay National Park to unlock my rifle for November whitetail hunting.  While stopped I took a leak on the base of a small stump beside the road.  On my return when I stopped to lock things, a pair of wolves had come down the road and one of them had diverted over and peed on top of my mark in the snow.

As a trapper, I'd consider making one set on the naturally placed man scent, just for the experiment! 

[FinsnFur]

Not a family trait Pat.  I know cause I can lay on my back and pee, and still not get it on my pants or waders.  jis sayin

Okanagan, I'm kinda intrigued you had a similar indecent. I knew coyotes bantered back and forth marking territory like that but I've never heard of it competing with human urine. You made this even more interesting.

He's even told me of times where he'll walk out across a vast wide open area of the frozen river, cutting the only trail in the fresh snow, and he'll look behind him once in a while and has seen coyotes dash parallel across the frozen river and jump across his tracks rather then sprint through them. He said he see's them do the same thing to snomobile tracks.

[nastygunz]

pee right in ya waders..keeps ya nice n warm...;)

[Okanagan]

Trappers know more about wildlife than anybody I've met, including most wildlife biologists when it comes to practical natural behavior.

The first coyote I ever called came within 18 inches of me or closer.  Scared both of us.  Missed a bow shot.  Exact time and place one week later while I called with the same sound, a coyote sneaked within 40 yards and deposited his steaming fresh dump of scat in my boot track pressed into mud on my way to the stand.  Could have been luck but he selected my track rather than my partner's.  That message seems clearer than these urination ones.

I am debating whether to post on this thread about watching cow caribou that urinated when they saw me urinate.  Guess I just did.

Wonder why the coyotes jump across the man or snow machine trail? 

There is a LOT of scent/behavior/communication that is common language to most animals that humans are deaf to.

  A few weeks ago while moose hunting I couldn't resist getting into an exchange of howls with some coyotes vocalizing a quarter mile away, then tried to call them with rabbit distress.  I was surprised that they would not even come out to the edge of the timber they were in.  An hour later I drove the road along the edge of the timber where they had been, and discovered in the fresh snow that one had come across the road toward where I'd called from, peed on a weed and returned into the timber.   

[Okanagan]

pee right in ya waders..keeps ya nice n warm...;)

Divers know that every wetsuit has a heater in it.

[FinsnFur]

  Very interesting Okanagan.
I usually find myself reading your contributions twice or more.  I'm typically so intrigued, that I have to go back and read it again to validate the visuals.

[Dave]

Very interesting shit piss.
I've read a few articles on deer scrapes where it doesn't matter the piss in the scrape (deer, human, or other).  The writers implied the deer don't know, just that it's another animal in his territory.  I think an animal knows the difference between urines, and whether a guy is laying on his back trying not to pee on himself or not. 

[FinsnFur]

LMAO Dave

I think they know too. And if you talk to any trapper today they'll tell ya that peeing anywhere near your traps is a cardinal sin. 

[Okanagan]

Very interesting Okanagan.
I usually find myself reading your contributions twice or more.  I'm typically so intrigued, that I have to go back and read it again to validate the visuals.

Thank you, I think.    I'll cautiously take that as a compliment!

Will fill out the caribou thing a bit more:  in Northern BC I was resting while backpack hunting when a caribou cow strolled past in an open rocky stream bed 30 yards from me.  No other caribou in sight and when she was about even with me I stood up and stepped to one side to take a leak.  She stared at me, then carefully squared up to face me.  About the time I finished my business she spread her hind legs and squatted to urinate, with her eyes locked on mine.   Hmmm...

The next day I encountered some caribou up close, (30-40 yds.) a young bull, cow and calf if my memory is right, and I urinated to see what would happen.  The cow did the same routine as the one the day before:  squared up with a sort of formal motion, squatted and carefully peed when she saw me.  I don't live close to caribou and haven't done further testing.   

Like your brother, we're just reporting what happened, not what it means.

[Okanagan]

Very interesting shit piss.
I've read a few articles on deer scrapes where it doesn't matter the piss in the scrape (deer, human, or other).  The writers implied the deer don't know, just that it's another animal in his territory.  I think an animal knows the difference between urines, and whether a guy is laying on his back trying not to pee on himself or not. 

Ditto to Jim, I think they know what creature made the urine and probably his health, age, and social security number just from the scent.   I.e. Animals pick up a vast amount of info from sniffing urine.

Similar but IMO unrelated:  Several times when hiking and camping above timberline we've had white Rocky Mtn. goats and deer (always fork horn bucks) come and lick at a spot where a human has urinated.  I'm 99% sure they are after the salt in those cases.  One goat aggressively threatened me, apparently to get me to move and give him access before I was finished, still in mid-stream.  I don't think those situations have anything to do with these coyote and other reactions/responses to man urine.

There is a genuine Ph.D research project in this topic!   I'd read the dissertation. 

[FinsnFur]

LOL I think I know why you didnt want to bring that up.
SOunds like a challenge to me though

[vayotehowler]

Works for deer too. I read in field and stream this year about a guy peeing in a scape line . I got to my stand and mornin coffee kicked in and two bucks came checking the spot where i peed and only one of em left.

[FinsnFur]

only one of em left

[Frogman]

pee right in ya waders..keeps ya nice n warm...;)

Divers know that every wetsuit has a heater in it.

Some divers swear they never pee in their wetsuits??  I just don't believe them.  I admit that I have "warmed" my wetsuit a few times. 

Now a dry suit??  That's another matter entirely!  I'm here to tell you, when you gotta go, you better not wait to long to get out of the water and behind a tree, cause those suckers can be hard get unzipped and down around your ankles??

Scuba Jim