COYOTES ?

[ImAfossil]

Since we moved to S Central PA, 10 years ago, you name it I have probably seen it, while groundhog hunting.

It is somewhere around 8 years ago, that I saw a fox step into a cut field at approx. 800 yards. The field rolled, so at times I lost the fox. It popped up right in front of me at about 75 yards. I thought, 'that's not a fox, it's a dog that did not look to healthy'. The thing made a left hand turn and came up to me at 15 yards, along a wood line, stayed for about 30 seconds, and stepped into the woods.
I never put my rifle to my shoulder. A fox, but I did not have a furtakers license. No it was not a fox. Maybe a mangy, sickly dog.
Then it dawned on me. Could that be a coyote ??? I had no idea what one looked like.

The 2nd one that I saw was 2 1/2 years ago. It was almost a repeat of what the 1st one did. I never shouldered my rifle.

Here is what I saw:
A splotchy grey color (not solid)
A weight guess would be < 50 lbs >
Height at shoulder < 24 inches >
Really thin---Looked like they needed a few good meals.

My questions are: Could they have been coyotes or coy dogs---I still do not have the foggiest idea of what I saw. Do they populate South Central Pennsylvania ?

There may have been other characteristics of these animals, but you would have to jog my memory.
fossil

[theunrulychef]

We've certainly got coyotes around here in Berks county as well as Schuylkill county at my hunting club. I haven't seen population estimates, but it seems like they're rising. Pop it next time & make yourself one of those cool hats.

[bigandy1966]

theyre around in every county in PA.

[Cyclops]

I have seen Eastern Coyotes in Central PA while doing nature photography in those locales. The Eastern Coyote is a mix of wolf and coyote. Its population was nearly devastated but it is slowly coming back. At a distance it is hard to distinguish it from a large long haired dog, but if you get close enough to one, you clearly recognize that it is not a dog.

[wanneroo]

Last I have seen or heard of them around here was last August. A big bunch of them moved into Tioga County a few years ago and started causing problems and the farmers started offing them. At 1 or 2 in the morning you'd here the yipping, yapping and howling and then POW!, POW!. Took about a year or so but they either got wiped out or moved on.

[ar15jules]

I watched a coyote cross an interstate today in Erie County.

[PAwhitetailbowhunter]

Shot one with a bow while deer hunting, one with a 17 HMR while fox hunting and caught one in a cable restraint, all within miles of Downtown Harrisburg.

[ImAfossil]

This is not much (description) to go on, but does it fit a typical coyote / coy dog.

Here is what I saw:
A splotchy grey color (not solid)
A weight guess would be < 50 lbs >
Height at shoulder < 24 inches >
Really thin---Looked like they needed a few good meals.

I still do not have the foggiest idea of what I saw.

There may have been other characteristics of these animals, but you would have to jog my memory.
fossil[/QUOTE]

[Cyclops]

Sounds like an Eastern Coyote to me. If Google or Bing search for Eastern Coyote photos, you will why I say that. The fact that it was thin could be that it was expelled from a group. Coyotes do hunt solo but more often hunt in packs like the wolves that they are descended from.

[A-5]

All over PA, Maryland. We shot 3 one year in bucks county. Put the gun up and yell hey pooch. If he runs like the dickens it's a coyote.