The Will to Live

By Walt Earl

Through the late 60’s and early 70’s, the Federal Government tried a poison called 1080 in order to slow the losses of sheep and calves for stock growers. I had the opportunity to accompany a government trapper who was schooled and trained in the use of 1080. Over the years that I spent with this government trapper, we found over each progressive year that 1080 was used in his area, less and less coyotes would consume the bait (we would use half of a large wether-male neutered sheep at each site). At first, most of the baits were well eaten on. However, after a few years, we could see signs that coyotes had approached the bait, but they would not have eaten on it. We figured that approximately 30 to 40-percent of each year’s pup population might have been taken by baiting. The coyotes we found around the bait stations were almost always these young ones. After a few years, the coyotes sensed that this was not the best food to eat and they passed it by as a food source.

Before the big fur boom on coyotes in the late 70’s and early 80’s, the dens I dug out and the number of blood spots on the horned uterus numbered from five to six pups average. But, during the mid-80’s to early 90’s, I found eight to ten pups or blood spots on the horned uterus. In the mid-90’s, I saw the number drop back down to five to six again.

The pressure put on coyotes during the fur boom was unbelievable - airplanes, helicopters, snowmobiles, trapping, and whatever else could be used to harvest a $150.00-plus pelt was used. I feel that the coyote’s will to live is what caused the increase in pups during this time period. Similarly, when the mange hits coyotes hard in a certain area, they still manage to make a comeback in a year or two.

After being called in to a rabbit call, most coyotes that get shot at and escape with their lives will either bark or howl the next time they hear that sound or they will circle to get downwind to see if man is involved. Sometimes upon hearing the call, the coyote will turn like a forty-mile wind is straight behind him and run the direction away from the sound of the call.

In areas that wolves inhabit, the coyote will circle and get downwind of the prey’s sound to make sure a wolf is not the one doing the taking of the prey (a coyote is no match against the wolf), the will to live is shown here through common sense.

My decoy dogs are broke off of getter guns, cyanide, by placing a red pepper capsule in the barrel of the gun and letting my dogs pull the baited barrel. The gun blows the pepper into the dog’s throat and most dogs will not pull a getter again as the memory of what caused the discomfort to them is etched into their brain, a second chance at the will to live.

Canines that have been caught in traps and then escaped by losing a toe or a whole foot will be very alert as to where they put their remaining feet and will know to dig traps out of the ground and turn them upside-down. Even the cleanest trap and set will be detected. To me, this is one of the sharpest instincts of the will to live.

I have seen coyotes, while being hunted from a super cub or helicopter, dive into holes or brush thickets and then stay there until they feel it is safe to come out. These coyotes know every hole, rock pile or hiding place that will save them from harm and most find it quick. I feel that coyotes who behave in this manner have been burnt with shot or have had a close call before - here again is the will to live.

Other coyotes that I have seen from aircraft, and I would say this includes most of them, just take off running and don’t seek cover. The coyotes that behave this way are most likely not native to the area and have not been hunted by aircraft.

The most amazing will to live that I have personally dealt with was a coyote that took me 2½ years to kill. The coyote had toes missing on his right front foot and the whole hind foot, pads and all, missing on his left hind leg. I would find this coyote’s tracks in the snow and mud all year long. I hunted him from the super cub and saw him often, but he always outdid the plane. In the chopper, he always found rocks or cover. I would set traps using every set possible and he would go around them. I would set snares in places where he traveled. I would later find his tracks and make sets and, almost always, he would push my snare to one side and go kill a lamb anyway. I set leg hold traps under my snares and, still, he would find another place to get in and kill lambs. I found, after a light snow, that he was jumping the fence in a low spot, so I gang set traps in the area where he landed on the ground (gang setting is putting six or more traps in a small area). The coyote quit jumping the fence in that spot.

Two different times I found where he and his mate had a den of pups and I worked hard to get him but, when I used my dogs, he just left the country and only the bitch came in. I shot the bitch and cut out her rectum and other parts and set them in the middle of a low bush cedar. I then set four traps around this bush. The coyote never came back to the pups or the area. Almost always, if the female glands are set in a bush and traps are set around it, the dog will be in a trap the next day. I have used this type set many times and have had good success.

When I finally took this old trooper out it was by accident. I was coming back from being out on horseback with my dogs for five days; I had been checking on bands of sheep while doing predator work. I pulled up on the edge of a butte that had some trees for shade. I got off my horse, man it was hot, and decided that the dogs, my horse and I could all use a rest after our long trip. I walked over to the edge of the butte and sat down to look this old dog’s area over. I had called from this spot many times, but it was to no avail. I had never had a coyote even answer me from this spot. As I sat there looking down into the coulee below, I noticed a movement. It was a coyote and, as I watched, I knew it was him. I had watched the old dog with binocs many times and I could tell by the way he hobbled and limped that it was my elusive ghost. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at, the tables had turned. He made a mistake and I was in the right place at the right time. I turned my aimpoint on and, as I settled the red dot on him, I almost had second thoughts of dropping the hammer on him. He had given me more trouble than any other coyote and he had managed to elude the super cub and the chopper. He had eluded my sets, he didn’t act like a coyote should when pups were in danger, he had no protective acts toward his mate when she was in danger - he had earned my respect. But, as he came closer, I could see he had a lamb leg in his mouth. To me, that was like rubbing salt into an old wound. I put the dot back on him and squeezed the trigger. My dogs were up and looking, and the old grey dog never knew what hit him.

Some of the coyotes I have harvested over the years have made me a firm believer of the will to live. One coyote, I have pictures of him, had one hind leg missing from the knee joint down. It was healed over and he could run about as fast on three legs as a four-legged coyote could. This coyote became a calf-killer and would grab a newborn calf by its umbilical cord and rip open the stomach. He would only eat the liver and then leave the rest to the magpies. I used my dogs on this coyote and, after three times of him getting away, I was able to stop him from anymore calf killing. I was on horseback and the dogs trailed him for over a mile before he made a stand in a small ledge of rocks. As I rode up, he backed tighter against the rocks and was giving the dogs quite a battle. Once he saw me, he charged past the dogs. I swung off my horse and grabbed my rifle out of the boot. I had only one shot and I got lucky and hit him. He rolled and the dogs were on him before he quit rolling. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I looked him over and found his hind leg missing. There were no more calf losses that spring on the ranch.

Another coyote I shot out of a super cub was a true example of the will to live. When the pilot first spotted him he thought it was a large rabbit. But, as we flew closer, we saw that it was a coyote. It hopped like a rabbit; it never straightened out its hind legs. The pilot made a pass and I missed. As he banked the cub around, the coyote stopped and watched us come back in. He started hopping again and this pass I hit him and put him down. The pilot asked if I wanted to land and look the coyote over to see what was wrong with it. Well, heck yes I did. Besides, we had been airborne for over three hours and old Ma Nature was calling and she was serious. We landed and walked over to the coyote. We examined it and found that his back was curved and it wouldn’t straighten out. I skinned it out going down the backbone. The coyote had scar tissue on both sides of its back and two vertebrae looked like they were nothing but scar tissue and muscle. We thought that maybe it had been creased by a bullet across the back in front of the hips and had crawled down into a hole and curled up to heal, because its hind legs were tucked up against its stomach. It had to have healed this way. The hair on the bottom of its hind legs was rubbed down to the skin, it was calloused, and the underside of its tail was also hairless. No one will know for sure, but I do know that neither I nor the pilot had ever seen anything like it before nor have we seen anything since.

I have called in and shot several coyotes that have had broken legs. As the bones were offset, the broken leg would heal and scar over with one leg ending up permanently shorter than the other. While watching these coyotes come into the call, they showed no signs of being crippled or of having any problem of getting around through the sagebrush. Upon skinning these coyotes, one could see how the leg bones had attached themselves together and scar tissue had formed around the break.

I called in a coyote in Idaho that seemed to be using all four legs but, after I shot it and went to skin it, I noticed that one front leg was drawn up and was unmovable.

I skinned the coyote and found the shoulder had grown to the rib cage. I cut the front leg from the chest and, after dissecting it, I noticed that the shoulder blade was nothing but scar tissue. It appeared that it had been shattered, as if a hollow point bullet had hit the shoulder blade and exploded, leaving only fragments of bone. The scar tissue went from the bottom of the shoulder blade joint to the coyote’s back. There was no way that this shoulder could move.

Another time, while running a trap line, I found that I had a three-legged coyote in one of my sets. The one front leg was missing from just below the elbow joint down. It was completely healed up and, after skinning out the leg, I found scar tissue had grown around the end of the bone.

The coyote had used this stump to get up and down with and crawling in and out of her den. The end of this stump was calloused from use. The hair was worn off about a half-inch all the way around. This coyote was a female and was sucking pups. I opened her up and checked her horned uterus, she had had ten pups. I waited for four days and then started using my siren. I got a response from the pups about a mile and a half from where I had trapped the female. There were nine pups at the den. The rancher’s lamb losses stopped for a while as I dug the den and caught a dog coyote within a quarter of a mile of the den.

If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from my lifetime of hunting coyotes, it is that this animal has an amazing will to live…

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