Wolves, Coyotes, Foxes

[petemi]

I have heard a lot of people say, around here, if you have wolves, you won't have coyotes.  If you have coyotes, you won't have foxes.  Well, we have all three in abundant numbers.  Any comments??

[yooper77]

I have hunted in Wyoming, New Mexico, Michigan and North Dakota all of these places I have witnessed fox and coyotes in the same area.

Plus, I know the Grey Wolf has been reintroduced in the part of Upper Michigan.

yooper77

[Glanceblamm]

I think that the Coyotes will hang around for sure and scour the cracks while the Wolfs would get the cream of the crop. Our fore fathers would like to describe a Coyote as being cowardly but was this just it's razor sharp intellegence showing? They certainly are adaptable as you know.

We have a couple different types of the Coyotes around here. One is a smaller, meaner type (perhaps erroneously called a coydog) that may be a mixture of the Coyotes and the wild dogs that were around when the Indians were. You would think that this strain would have petered out by now but perhaps not as we also have some Big Coyotes. The Large ones are reputed to be a cross between the Coyote/Redwolf at the turn of the century. By no means do they match the size of a 5' long 90lb gray wolf but they can weigh in at an honest 50 to 60lbs and have the shorter ears and broader snout of the wolf along with a lot of the red colorization.

We still have the Red Fox around here but they are harder to call. If I want one I have to go very early and use a very high, clean pitched reed in the more brushy surroundings. It seems like the Fox is more inclined to hold back for an opportunity these days least the Coyote would show up. The Red Fox is still here for sure though...they are so energy conscious that they will run in the tracks of the Coyotes in the deeper snow, at least in the straight away travel routes.

Another predator (unrelated to this topic) would be the Great Horned Owl. I call them in frequently enough that I often wander if they wouldn't try to bluff a Fox or even a Coyote out of Its meal via a few low passes. I usually don't see them making more than one pass but they are encountering a human instead of the fox or yote.

[pab1]

IMO if they have adequate prey and territory, they will coexist fairly well and not go out of their way to kill the "lesser" predator without exerting too much energy. I worked at a prison in Colorado that for years had several fox living around the perimeter, preying on the rabbits. A pack of coyotes moved into the area and I soon found two fox dead and did not see another one in the area until a couple of years later, and that was only a single sighting. This was on the edge of an urban area with limited prey and habitat. I know thats an isolated incident, but I think the same thing would happen anywhere that prey and territory are limited. Other than that, there were good populations of both coyote and fox in all other areas of Colorado that I have hunted. I have even called in fox at close to 12,000 ft elevation which I did not expect. I've called coyotes in around that elevation, but didn't think I'd see fox that high up.

[Sourdough]

Over the last 30 years Coyotes have moved into this area.  We have seen a decrease in the number of Red Foxes, since the Coyotes came in.  But you don't hear the yotes howling at night either, not here.  They keep real quite.  The best way to call in Wolves is to howl like a Coyote, hence the reason for the Coyotes to keep quite.

[ihookem]

Since the wolves moved into my hunting area in Price county wis. 15 years ago I have not seen or heard a coyote, but have seen a few gray and a red fox. Used to hear coyotes all the time.

[billy_56081]

 Here in southern MN we have both coyotes and red fox, although the red fox numbers are much lower that 30 years ago, when the coyot was almost unheard of in these parts. WHen our red fox were at thier lowest point a few years ago people were blaming the coyote for the low numbers. At the same time thier was a mange outbreak, the mange seemed to effect the red fox more than the coyote. Now we have decent numbers of both. We also have the occasional timber wolf stray down here but that is very rare. In Northern MN we have large numbers of Timber wolves and a decent population of red fox and just a smattering of coyote.

[cjclemens]

That seems to be true in central Illinois.  We have nothin but coyotes.  You might see an occasional red or gray fox here, but never too many.

[oldandslow]

No wolves here but PLENTY of coyotes. I listen to coyote music every night, sometimes right outside my bedroom window and I have seen them in the driveway behind my house. Every once in a while one leaves a present in the driveway. I also see a fox around the house occassionally and there are two living down at my barn right now. They co-exist very well here.

[Cap'n Jon]

I have thousands of trail cam pics of coyutes and wolves.  On some while the cam was set up next to a wolf killed cow 2 coyutes came in, then 2-3 minutes later they kept looking behind them like does do when a buck comes out.  They left within a minute of the last picture and 2 minutes later in came 3 wolves. 

I had a wolf in one of my coyute sets back in 06'.  It was a 3 year old male, 95 lbs, but in my second set 100 yardsa away was a dead coyute female.  Both had been caught that night but when the other 5 wolves saw or smelled the female coyute they pretty much tore her up and left it for dead.  It had pretty deep canines in its neck.