Tracks that tell a story: coyote following cougar

[Okanagan]

Several winters ago I came on tracks in the snow where a coyote traveling down a road came to cougar tracks.  The big cat had come onto the road and gone down it ahead of the coyote.  The cougar tracks enter from near the left top of the photo below, and the coyote's tracks enter from the center right.  Both animals then headed down the road toward the lower left of the pic.



What surprised me was that the coyote went back and forth up and down the first six yards of the lion's tracks on the road ahead of him.   Lion tracks and direction indicated in red in pic below; coyote movement indicated in light green.



Another view below looking down the road at the first six yards of the cougar's tracks, with the coyote's tracks going back and forth along the cougar's path.



After several trips back and forth along the lion tracks, the coyote headed on down the road following the cougar.  Cougar and coyote track below.  The cat has stepped his back foot on his front track and so the track shows extra toes.



The coyote followed the lion down the road for another 250 yards, swinging out to peek ahead on curves, and then apparently nervous, left the road and went uphill to the left.  At that point the coyote had travelled down the road for the previous two miles.   Road and general terrain shown below. 




Forgive me if I've posted something about this before but I don't recall and thought it might be of interest. 

A series of posts on tracks that show a story would be interesting, even if the teller doesn't have pics sometimes.

[FinsnFur]

That IZZZ interesting
Was he reading them? Was he he leary? nice   

[Okanagan]

My guess (from reading tracks only, not the coyote's mind! ) is that he was REALLY curious and CAUTIOUS about the cougar ahead of him.

I'd never seen that back and forth along a track before, though I have seen hounds go back and forth once or twice on a cold track when they first hit it.  This was all quite fresh, within two hours at most and likely less.   Maybe coyotes do that more than I know, but we usually don't have snow to record the tracks. 

I had followed the coyote's tracks for a couple of miles down the road as I drove, and he moved straight and confidently all of that distance, travelling down the valley.  But once he started following the cougar, his tracks would weave and side step, hesitate, reverse a bit, etc.  He did not want to come up on the cougar's rear end unexpectedly! 

On such stories, I try to describe the dots but let the reader connect them, though like most North Americans, I overexplain.  (The following should be in a sidebar box!)  A small personal peeve is having outdoors people, or news people, or preachers, tell me the meaning of events when they really don't know.  I can tell what an animal (or a person)did, from looking at his tracks and actions.  Why he did it is a whole nother!  It is fun to interpret, and we may be right, but it is speculation.  FWIW, to get a story published in America, you have to give a conclusion of what events mean, even if you don't have a clue and are making up the analysis!  Eh, Nasty?










 

[Dave]

Very interesting.  I would think the same as you with the way the track changed, but probably would be guilty of 'telling why the coyote did what he did."   


I, too, look at the side of the roads when driving. 
Tracks Items I've found include a DeWalt 18v drill (complete in its case), Cannon EOS 35mm camera, an iPhone, wallet, tape measures and various other tools.  It's almost a curse anymore.  Couldn't track down the DeWalt or Cannon owner, but tried hard to do so (I know I'd hate to lose either).

[Okanagan]

I wanna ride with you!

[Okanagan]

Very interesting.  I would think the same as you with the way the track changed, but probably would be guilty of 'telling why the coyote did what he did."   

Hey, nothing wrong in speculating about what something means.  That's why we have brains!     

Half of the enjoyment of such a forum as this is yarning about what happened and how to interpret something a wild animal did.    My beef is with the arrogance of expressing such opinions as fact.  We are fortunate on this forum not to have that kind of arrogance around.   

[JohnP]

" We are fortunate on this forum not to have that kind of arrogance around."

And that's a fact.