Predators: The Will to Protect

Predators: The Will to Protect
By Walt Earl

The strongest instinct in all canines is the will to protect what is theirs. The domestic dog shows this trait in many ways; perhaps the most obvious is by being man’s best friend – a dog will go to great lengths to prove their loyalty. Suppose you and your dog go for a ride into town with a pal in the passenger seat; nonetheless, this is yours and your dog’s pickup. Then, when you and your pal stop and go into a store, the truck becomes his to protect. Just let anyone but you try to enter this truck - he will bark and growl at first, but will bite and attack if not left alone. When you return, he will let you do the protecting of the truck domain. The will to protect. Or, suppose you have a fenced yard to keep your dog in and another canine approaches the fence from the outside - What does your dog do? Inside the fence is his domain and he will challenge the intruder through the fence to let him know he is not welcome, once again, the will to protect. Perhaps you have a female dog and she is your best friend, she loves and obeys your every command. You have her bred and she whelps six fine pups. She lets you handle and examine each pup while licking you and wagging her tail. Should you take a predator call and “ki-yi” like a hurt puppy near her house and puppies, she’ll run out of her house and bite the first thing she sees that she feels is hurting the puppy. Even though all six of her puppies were in the dog house, well and healthy, the instinct to protect what is hers takes over any other senses that should prevail. After forty-plus years of hunting coyotes and being around other canines, I know one thing for certain – canines cannot count. If canines could count, then your dog would not have left the doghouse in the first place. In this scenario, she let instinct rule. If coyotes could count, the “ki-yi” of a puppy would not work as well as it does while denning. All female canines respond the same way when hearing a puppy yelp - coyotes will not leave the den area even after being shot at. I have witnessed and filmed this many times to show how strong the “will to protect” is. The coyote knows, after being shot at, that death is near and yet the will to protect is so strong that the coyote will throw caution to the wind and keep coming back until it stops whatever is hurting the puppy or it is killed. I have shot over coyotes several times, sometimes intentionally or sometimes not, and had them keep coming back to protect that hurt puppy.

During the mating season (December through March) before the pups are whelped, I often call in pairs of coyotes and try to shoot the farthest one away, usually this will be the bitch. If I get her, I’ll try to sound like an older dog who has been hit by a car. I have killed the male as close as thirty feet from his mate, once again an example of the will to protect.

Why do the bark and the howl work so well as a hunting strategy during the mating season? A coyote is a canine and will defend their domain just like your own dog protects your yard or property. The coyote marks his or her domain with urine and scat. Any canine that enters and passes this barrier announces their presence with a single bark, or a bark and a howl, and will be challenged by the pair within this domain. The pair will exhibit territorial behavior because the female has usually picked the den site and the male has selected his hunting areas to feed his soon-to-arrive family. I have noticed for approximately one-quarter to one-half mile around the den, the rabbits and game birds are not bothered. I feel the reason for this is that the parents have left these animals alone so that when the pups begin hunting and running around the den, there is food for them to practice chasing and catching.

In August, September, and October, the best call is to simulate a coyote giving chase after a deer. I start with the chase and then go to my deer in distress, then I give chase again and end with the deer bleat. When mom and pop coyote hear this racket in the domain, they come running and bring the kids with them. I feel that this is a lesson for the pups to protect what is theirs; another coyote is in their domain and the family must run the newcomer out. If possible, I’ll shoot the male coyote and then get on the puppy “ki-yi” as the bitch is still protecting the pups. After shooting the female, the pups will scatter. On several occasions, I have brought a pup or two back by giving a couple of short barks. However, most of the time it is best to just sit and watch as the pups will frequently come back looking for the adults. If the pups do come back, then you might get one or two of them. Again, an example of the will to protect.

Have you ever watched your dog as it was going out into his domain, the yard, after being in the house? The dog will check all corners and sides of the yard to see what has visited during his absence. This canine trait is what I use in trapping coyotes. When a coyote finds another place where a canine has marked - he will mark. I haven’t found a canine, male or female, that can pass a spot that has been marked by another canine. I use my decoy dogs to find where coyotes have marked and then I pick a site close to or right upon the marked spot and set my trap. I use my own dog’s scat and then squirt coyote urine on the scat. This technique has worked for me for many years; it also lessens the chance of catching a skunk or coon as there is not a food lure or mixture of scents to lure them. Generally, I set the trap sixteen to eighteen inches from the urine scent to increase the probability of catching a front foot, not a hind foot. Watch your dog as he or she seeks out a place to mark, note how your dog will turn in circles or move around for the right position for marking the spot.

Remember, your dog can tell you a lot about canine actions. When your dog is confronted by another strange dog, what happens? His hackles come up, he gets stiff-legged – these actions show the intruder who is boss in this domain. The coyote will behave the same when confronted by decoy dogs. A coyote will show that he is one tough dude and, when my dogs come back to me, the coyote feels that he has put the fear in them and will chase and bark at them. The coyote believes that if he can run my dogs out of his domain, he is the biggest and baddest dog on the mountain. Little does he know what is waiting for him. The will to protect has taken over his normal precautions - think canine.

I have spent many days glassing and watching coyotes. There is no better way to learn what makes them do the things they do. One early morning as the sun was rising, I watched a pair of coyotes approach a sheep bedding ground. They stopped just out of sight of the big guard dogs. Soon, one of them went running toward the sheep, as soon as the dogs saw the coyote they gave chase. As the coyote with the two guard dogs headed southeast, the other coyote went to the bedding ground and caught and killed the first lamb that broke from the band of sheep. The guard dogs were showing their will to protect their sheep and domain, while the coyotes were showing their will to survive, protect, and feed their future sheep killers. I watched as the sheep-killer gorged itself and headed for the den - which I found the next day. After the other coyote had run off the dogs and headed back, I was in the right place at the right time and, as he crossed 100 yards below, I shot him.

One of the best ways to call a coyote is to sound like you have just marked your domain and want no intruders. I was using this call one time on a sheep ranch. After barking and howling the first time, I didn’t get a response. I was sitting on the west side of a ridge with three coulees coming off the far ridge towards me. In the past, I had called coyotes and found dens in this area. After waiting five or so minutes, I cut loose with a slightly more aggressive bark and howl while looking across the third coulee. I soon spotted what at first I thought was a coyote, about two hundred yards off, in the farthest coulee. I barked twice and the biggest coyote I had seen in a long time headed straight for me. I grabbed my dogs and held on for dear life so they would not try and chase the big one. The wolf came within eighty yards or less and stood watching me and my dogs; its head and feet were very impressive. After a while, he just turned and went back the way he had come. Later, while talking to the rancher, I learned that he had seen the wolf while flying his super cub over the area I had just been hunting a couple of days before. I had hunted the ranch for two days and had not found any sign of coyotes - now I knew why, this was the largest canine I had seen to date with the will to protect. The wolf came to my coyote barks and howls and was going to defend his domain.

If you have had the opportunity to watch domestic dogs mature from puppies to adults, you can learn a lot about canine behavior. For example, a litter of puppies will normally fight amongst themselves over a bone or even a piece of rag. It all stems from the will to protect what they think is theirs. They will fight and even draw blood from each other in order to keep that piece of bone. After the fight, the winner trots off with its head held high and the bone in his mouth. Some female dogs will let their pups eat with them from their dog food pan and others will growl and nip their pups if they get too close. The female is protecting what she feels is hers. Almost all ranch dogs, when you drive into the ranch, will come barking at your rig. Some will recognize the rig and just run alongside until you stop and, when you get out, greet you with a wagging tail. Others will still be aggressive and sometimes try to bite - they are protecting their domain.

A few canines think only of themselves and could care less about their mates or pups. I have seen bitch coyotes leave the country after I have called, and not come back to a puppy “ki-yi” or even follow my decoy dogs back. I set traps around the den and lightly brushed the area so that I could see if a coyote had returned; but some just leave the pups to die. I have seen this very few times; however, and feel that the female must have wanted to elude certain death and be able to raise pups next year. She sacrificed her pups for the chance to protect herself for the future. The will to protect has been shown by coyotes in different forms than normal. I have seen places where a pair of coyotes were killed on or near a den, usually from a aircraft, and a single coyote has adopted the pups and raised them as their own. Most of the time this is a female, only once did I kill a lone male at a den where there were three pups living. Once I shot a pair off a den and had another pair of coyotes adopt the pups and try to raise them.

As with all neighbors, some get along and some do not. One rancher I worked with raises sheep and the other rancher hated sheep; a five-strand barbed wire fence became my coyote-hunting boundary. I could kill coyotes on the sheep side of the fence, but not on the other side. From the aircraft, I could see a den of coyotes on the wrong side of the fence with five pups running around the outside of the den. Then I spotted another den in some scattered timber on the southwest corner of the sheep ranch. The pilot put me right on top of the pair and I got both of them. Other commitments kept me from being able to return that day to get the den. Four days later, I rode horseback and with my dogs to take the den, but when I got there my dogs showed no interest in the den area. Usually, when at a den with pups, my dogs will dig and whine and show a lot of interest. I was at a loss as to what had happened and hunted for puppy sign; I found nothing. About ten days later, I flew the area again. As we went over the no-hunting ranch, we counted ten puppies sitting and laying around the den that had had only five puppies before. I’m guessing that the second pair of adults adopted the extra pups. I have heard of domestic dogs adopting other pups, suckling them and raising them - so why not a coyote?
The will to protect the domain, the young, and the future species.

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