Conference vmsnet::hunting$note:hunting

    I saw coyotes on Quabbin several years ago. It wouldn't surprise
    me if they were much closer to Boston now, either in pure form
    or cross-bred with wild dogs. (Remember, they live within the city
    limits of Hollywood!)

    The folks at MA F&G are happy to talk if you've got intelligent
    questions, and I think they still investigate coyote predation.
    
    From a recent conversation I had with them I'd be surprised if there
    weren't coyotes everywhere up to rt 128!  You can shoot 'em with a
    centerfire, just NOT during deer season.  The exception is Barnstable,
    Bristol (where I live... sob!), Dukes (Mathas Vinyad), Plymouth 
    and Nantucket counties, where they're taboo from Nov. 1 thru March 31.
    Covers coyote season nicely (grrrrrrr!).  Buckshot and slugs are
    illegal ANYTIME of year, except deer season, of course, so if you're in
    the cursed southeast counties, its #2 lead birdshot.  Or a pistol.   If
    you can get a LTC, of course!  (Boy, ain't it fun to be a gun nut and
    hunter in Dukesland?)
    
    <<< t >>>

    
    Coyotes are just about in every town and county in Mass. Last weeks
    local paper had a write up of one killed by a car in Haverhill which is
    off of Rt; 495 as you head towards the beach.
    
    
    
    The question to ask is which area's do not have a coyote.
    
    They are resillent !
    
    Rick
    

    I have been calling/hunting coyotes for better than ten years,and
    hunting them here in Mass. since the season opened a few years ago.They
    are pretty well established throughout the state.I work in Hudson and
    have seen them on several occassions here in town.Once at the end of
    290 where the extension meets I saw a pair,and a couple of times I've
    seen them in the old orchard behind hlo_1.I've been successful calling
    them in both Northboro and Berlin/Boylston but due most of my calling
    north and west of Worcester.I also due nuisance wildlife control or the
    central district,and have done this for 20 some odd years.It would be
    highly unusual for coyotes to tear open the cages/barn as you stated.
    It was more likely domestic dogs.The markings you mentioned occur as
    well as others.The eastern states coyote has a variety of color phases
    from red to blond,brown blackish ...etc. Ron R.
    
    

    	The coyotes I've seen in Maine are handsome critters.  Not rangey
    or mangey looking.  They're full bodied - combination grey, white and
    some black and maybe brown.  The first face I saw reminded me of a
    husky.  Very pretty.

    Saw a good size coyote carcass on the side of 495 in Amesbury MA, this
    morning.
    
    Mark.

    mass laws are screwed up...  
    
    you can hunt yotes with a rifle but have to use a shotgun for deer...
    I don't get it...
    
    you can't check in one unless you give the FWS a skull, and a
    taxidermist won't touch it till it's tagged.  Sooooo what do you do???
    guess you have to learn how to cape out a head in a hurry...
    
    Fra
    

    Tom Decker, the head honcho for the furbearing dept of the FWS here in
    Ma, just returned my phone call concerning the checking in process (or
    should I say the lack of one) for coyotes.  last year there were 95
    Yotes checked in with the FWS and only 3 of them were going to be
    mounted... so evidently it isn't a problem as of yet...
    
    What he told me was that upon shooting a Yote you are to have it
    tagged, (carcass intact should you not know how to skin it out) and
    they will attach the tag through the nose of the animal.  You can now
    bring the carcass to the taxidermist to have it caped out.  After the
    taxidermist is done caping out the face he can contact you to pick up
    the skull to be turned into the FWS (within 30 days) to satisfy their
    requirements.  BTW, a taxidermist cannot work on any animal not tagged,
    this according to Tom Decker.  He was going to call all the offices to
    spread the word regarding this new info.
    
    Evidently when I went down they didn't know this was the process or 
    have come up with something really quickly since Tom Deckers
    return from his vacation.  I talked with another guy from Westboro
    concerning the lack of a process and was told that the taxidermist did
    not have to have the animal tagged before working on it... and that
    depending on whether or not the checking station felt like it they
    would tag the animal and allow you to return the skull... basically he
    was full of horseshit.  Can't recall the guys name (too bad) he was
    really snide and obviously was less informed than I was, scarey ain't
    it ;^)
    
    So there you have it, shoot them and have it tagged through the
    nostril, you then have 30 days to return the skull, and the taxidermist
    can now do the work.
    
    Fra

    I just recieved the Coyote rug/head.  looks great, the taxidermist (Bill
    Thompson, Fitchburg, MA 345-6556) did a terrific job mounting it,
    considering he had an exit hole the size of a large grapefruit.  
     
    Fra

    
    A friend of mine ran into a coyote while walking through the woods of 
    Rutland, MA this past weekend. Seems he jumped it and it ran about
    25-30 yards and stopped looked at my friend and started to circle him.
    Dont know why, maybe trying to wind him? He said the coyote looked
    mangy and in poor health. i also saw a dead one out on 495 this past sat.
    
                                                Walt

>He said the coyote looked mangy and in poor health. 

 I wonder if it was just losing its winter coat.

	Chris Thurlow had told us at a recent Sportsmen's Club meeting
	that MANGE is prevelant this year especially dur to the mild
	winter we had this past year and due to the numbers of animals
	that survived it... He also said that we should start seeing
	RABIES starting from Western Mass and moving toward the EAST...


			Let's be carefull out there,


					~Mike~

    Yesterday, I saw a BIG coyote on I-95 north near the Taylor River in
    Hampton Falls.  It was fully intact laying on the median.  Looked to me
    that it weighed about 45 pounds, but it could have been bloated.
    
    Mark.

        I have a good story to tell.  I went bow hunting Wed. morning
    in my favorite town to hunt.  My buddy couldn't go so I went by myself.
    It was about 4:45am and the moon barely lit the ground.  I was into
    the woods about 50 yards when I heard a branch break. I turned around
    with my flashlight and scanned back and forth but I didn't see
    anything.  I turned around and started walking again when I heard
    two coyotes in separate location ahead of me starting to howl.
    Then another branch in back of me breaks.  I turned around and saw
    the reflecting eyes of a coy-dog looking right at me.  I proceeded 
    to piss my pants as I stuck the flashlight in my mouth and grabbed 
    an arrow.  At this point the coyote took off into the woods.  Being 
    by myself I decided not to go into the woods. I started heading back
    when I heard something running in my direction.  I got ready a shot
    when the coyote ran about 60 yards away through the laurel.  I got
    the hell out of there as fast as I could.  I'm going back next week
    during my week off and I'm going to plug one of those damn things
    with lead!!!
    
    BJ

    
    
    	The question I have is, were you using a scent to confuse these
    	critters?
    
    	It sounds like maybe they couldn't fiqure you out or they would
    	have scattered real quick.
    
    	Gary

    
    
    	re.14
    
    	what town was this in?? 

    ohhhh re-1 I can't tell you that.. that would take the fun out of it.
    Zone 8 is the general region.   I had fox piss and I this some Doe
    2000 on.  I'm going to plung them on Monday....
    
    
    BJ

 Chuck-

 The place I hunt has so many 'yotes that the farmer sez he's seen 'em peeking
into the house on cold winter eves! He just popped one of two that were munching
on a dead calf a week or two ago. (His mother sits in the house and "has nothing
better to do than look out the window and call me when she sees coyotes.")

 The place is loaded with coyote scat. They dumped a pile of turkey parts out in
the back last sunday. I can only imagine what a wild scene ensued as darkness
fell.

 This is in NH, BTW. Coyotes are practically at epidemic proportions. If you
want to find coyotes, go to your favorite deer woods. They are almost certainly 
in there.

 The Doctah

    RE  .14
    	
    	Which were they - coy-dogs or coyotes?  They ain't the same.
    
    	Coy-dogs are a hybrid product of coyotes and domestic dogs which
    cannot propagate, while the Eastern Coyote is a strain which came to be
    in the North-Central part of the country.  They're a cross between the 
    Western coyote and the wolf - bigger than one and smaller than the
    other.  They are now pure-bred (?)  and propagate like crazy (up to
    16 per litter when food is good.)
    
    	(This according to a study released by Mass. Wildlife group.)
    
    Andy
    

    According to Paul Resendez, resident coyote expert working for the MDC,
    there is no such thing as a Coydog.  Not sure of the biological
    jibberish, but it has to due with breeding it out of existence and it
    being a one time thing etc.. etc..  Maybe Doug Bonin can elaborate more
    on this... the details seem to have escaped my brain cells for the
    moment. ;^)
    
    The eastern coyote however is a cross between the smaller western
    coyote and timber wolves as the "herd" made it's way east.  This would
    account for it's larger size. 
    
    If any of you get a chance, and have some interest in coyotes, I'd
    recommend attending one of Resendezs' lectures...  very informative
    and interesting... there is a slide presentation while he speaks.
    
    Fra

    Fra, the coydog myth is discussed in 317.11.
    
    Doug