So my dad and brother have been out at our family farm the past few weekends getting ready for first season deer- inevitably they came across some coyotes and were able to thin a few of them out. On seperate occasions on the same farm both my dad and my brother shot a coyote that at first seemed normal, but when they went out in the field to pick them up saw that it was missing a foot. On both of the 'yotes the left foot was missing right above the ankle. We are 99% certain no one in the area traps. Most neighbors are older/retired farmers and we own or know the owners of the majority of the surrounding ground. With their large range I know it might be possible for the coyote to have been caught in some sort of trap eventually escaping without their foot- but in all my years of hunting I've never heard of a 'yote knawing their foot off to get out of a trap. On the end of the stump you can see a padding. The texture and feel of the padding is exactly like what would be found on the bottom of the paw. There's no mangling, disfiguration (besides the obvious) or anything unnatural about the coyote besides it has 3 feet. It appears they were born this way. I could understand an accident happening and finding one like this, but 2 with the same foot missing? They are still able to run 20+ mph and it doesn't seem to affect their life. Any thoughts on this? I'm including pictures of one of the 'yotes but unfortunatly I don't have pics of the other. One of the pictures is really big so you can see the pad I mean as best as possible.
Freak Coyotes
- Thread starter Beretta12
- Start date
Here's what I know about trapping. You can always tell if it is a male or female by what foot you have in the trap.
Males lift their hind leg to pee on the stick with the scent so their other hind foot steps in the trap.
Females go up to the stick to smell and put front feet in the trap.
If they are both males then it is a good chance they were in a trap and the trapper never got to them in time.
Also they only chew off what is on the other side of the trap because it is numb and there is no feelings on that side. So maybe only part of the paw was in the trap and they chewed that little bit off. I can't tell how much was chewed off.
food for thought!
Males lift their hind leg to pee on the stick with the scent so their other hind foot steps in the trap.
Females go up to the stick to smell and put front feet in the trap.
If they are both males then it is a good chance they were in a trap and the trapper never got to them in time.
Also they only chew off what is on the other side of the trap because it is numb and there is no feelings on that side. So maybe only part of the paw was in the trap and they chewed that little bit off. I can't tell how much was chewed off.
food for thought!