Coyote Tales

On May 29, 2007 I came across a group of coyote pups in the woods. I was slowly moving through the woods looking for fawns to photograph when I heard something moving to my right. After awhile I thought they were red fox pups (but it turns out they are coyote pups). I had to approach them very slowly so they wouldn’t notice me; it took me at least half an hour to do so.

The first picture was taken on May, 29. It’s a coyote pup with a deer’s leg in its mouth. Hey, we all gotta eat!

On May 31, 2007 I returned to the area where the coyote den is located. I positioned myself behind  a tree and some brush and it took about an hour for two pups to come out. Unfortunately due to my excitement I forget to put my camera on the tripod and most of the pictures came out blurry, except the last one which was taken just as they saw me.  That’s the second picture below. After the pups went back in the den, one of them peaked out and looked at me, that’s picture #3.

I wasn’t happy with getting just one shot, so I moved to another position and it took another 40 minutes until one pup came out. The remaining pictures are from this one pup.

The pup came out of the hole that would have been right in front of me, had I not changed position. It was very careful and trying to see if I were still around. Picture #4 and #5 shows the pup near where I was before I changed position. My favorite out of the two is #4, with the sunlight hitting the pups eyes.  Next I made a little video of the pup.

The last picture was taken after the pup went around the huge rock where the coyote den is located; he came back around and looked at me even though he didn’t know what he was seeing. (I was behind a lot of brush) But he kept putting his nose up in the air and trying to smell me. He hung around for awhile and then slowly went back in the coyote den.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did taking them! So far it’s only cost me 7 ticks.