Howling

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Prairie Ghost
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Post by Prairie Ghost »

Here is a topic that i have been in a discussion on in a different board that i thought i would get your guys opinion.

Do you think a human can tell by the howl alone if the coyote is Male or Female?
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lyonch
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Post by lyonch »

The only difference that i think a human dictate in a coyotes howl is wether it is an adult or pup that is making the sounds. Granted an old male should have a deep howl and a female typically a higher pitched one. A guy would have to do a lot of listening with some studys of coyotes to dictate wether it is male or female.
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LeviM
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Post by LeviM »

You would really have to understand coyote vocalizations to be able to determine gender. There a female invintation howls, male challenge howls. Young coyotes and females sounds alike so that would make it difficult.
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Post by Coyotehunter »

I believe that if you have a pair come in Feb thru Aug. you can typically make the right call which is which. I think if you only have one come in Feb. thru Aug. You can make a educated guess. I think just from the vocalization you may be able to tell with some sounds but most are the same between male and female. When a adult male makes a challenge call it is tough not to get the sex right. When a female does a "where the F--k are you" call you should get that one right. Trying to make the distinction 100% of the time from Oct. to Jan. in my opinion will not put any more coyotes in the truck. I think for denning purposes it is important to know who is coming in but for most of the guys hunting for sport and fur I do not think it is benificial. I had this discussion on stand with Craig O'Gorman after he shot a female that, as she was coming in we both guessed that it was a male. It was the first week of June and we where denning with his O'G/Dorn dogs. We had three different stands where singles came in. Two of the stands where females and one was a male. The male didn't make a sound, the one female let us know she was coming, and the other female was letting us have it the whole way. Both the females we guessed wrong and the male didn't really give us any indication what he was. knowing what you just shot while still on stand may help you decide how you are going to proceed when denning. I can not think of any usable reason for wanting to know the sex during the regular fur season if you are calling. Now, I thik if you are trapping and in the early fall you are trying to target the adults first there may be a need to know but that is a whole other topic.
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Post by Prairie Ghost »

I agree with Jamie that for most of the sport hunters it is going to un-needed because you are not playing to the territorial response besides possibly late in the year. However in the early part of the year i also think that after locating a family group in an area it would be to the benefit of the hunter to get the dominant male out of the picture first. So if you can pick him out while locating so that you can work him over first it could be good.

I think it goes without saying that if you hear the Old veteran grizzly deep throated howl that its good ODDS it's a male but i have been proven wrong on that before also.
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Post by Coyotehunter »

I was calling down in West Texas the end of Oct. a few years back and started a stand with a "group Yip Howl". I immediatly had a response from what to me seemed like a big ol'male coyote. So I went right into a challenge, basically just mimicking his response to me. Maybe 6-8 minutes later he was standing there broad side at 50 yards. My partner missed, so I did not get to check him over but standing there he looked every bit like the male I expected to see. So I would have to say that in that situation it all worked out. I do not know if he would have come in if I had gone straight to a distress. I had been blowing a distress at every stand with very little howling. Mainly we would do a Yip-Howl or a spacing howl to see if anyone was listening, then go right into a distress. I did think that it was a dominate male responding and I answered him with that in mind. I do not know if the out come would have been any different had a not howled and just went to some sort of distress call. He may still have had come in. I went to the challenge based solely on his response to me. Had he just howled back and not have sounded so pissed off about me being there I would not have challenged him. Especially that time of year.
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Post by LeviM »

Thats a really good point about challenge Howls. Alot of people make the mistake on using a challenge howl to much. When I first stated calling, I would use it at the end of every set, with zero luck. I then did some research a learned that I am probably scaring off coyotes that are less dominate in the area.

I did call one in for lyonch with a challenge howl, We saw him in the section and made some distress calls for awhile and he never showed up. My last resort was a challenge howl and finally he came strutting in. So it can be a good call to use if you know how to use it.
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Post by Coyotehunter »

This weekend would be great for challenge howls.
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LeviM
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Post by LeviM »

I would like to get out this weekend but we are suppose to get burried with snow and winds!! Hopefully I can get out a few more times before I put the guns away
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Post by Coyotehunter »

Yep, I am in the same boat.
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lyonch
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Post by lyonch »

Its going to be a good education on what the coyotes do after this snow storm we are suppose to get. Is the howls or distress going to be a better choice? Are they going to be hungry cause the snow makes it hard for them to get around? Are they going to put distressed animals on the back of their mind and focus on theis territory? I am curious if you guys have hunted after a heavy snow storm with any success. The past five years i have hunted predators there has never been a snow storm to hunt after.
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My mind belongs to my work,
My heart belongs to my family,
BUT MY SOUL BELONGS TO THE COYOTES!!!
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Post by Coyotehunter »

I tell you what, this time of year, I am on the coyote vocalizations.
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Jerry Hunsley
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Howling

Post by Jerry Hunsley »

Since Brad brought up the topic on howling , I thought I would give a little demon video on my voice howling. Some of you have probably already listened to it. You might find it kind of comical, but it do work. The sound is a little off with the howl but you get the point. Image
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littlebigenuf
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Post by littlebigenuf »

Those are some amazing vocalizations. They sound better than any noise I make with a call. Good work.
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