Identify the killer?

[RadSav]

I have a hard time believing the coyote was killed by a blackbear, but the way it is peeled sure looks like what a bear would do.  Problem there is that just about any large carnivore I can think of would have eventually chewed through the rib bones.  It's almost as if one thing killed it, another animal peeled it and the some birds picked it clean.  It's a very curious situation for sure.  Fun to imagine the possibilities.  If I had to choose just one I guess I'm choosing bird of prey

[Cougartail]

Well, let's see,  3 to 4 wolves got together,  killed this yote then picked the organs out and cleaned up the ribs without breaking or chewing through a single rib.  Yeah, Ok.

Cougars cover their kills if they plan on returning to them.  Looks like most of the good stuff is gone to me?

Cougars peel skin/ fur to expose flesh. Wolves rip and tear.

Had the intestines been opened up I would have said bear.

Not much in the way of bird excrement around?  Having left plenty of carcasses out I know when the birds feed it's messy.

The picture is of a coyote killed by wolves, verified.  More to the normal when wolves are done, not much left.

[bearpaw]

100% sure it was a cougar. They go for the organs first and can open animals with precision using their incisors. If it was wolves the area would be torn up and the coyote in pieces. Google wolf kills, then click on  "Images" and it will be crystal clear it wasn't wolves.

My field experience tells me this coyote kill probably wasn't done by a cougar. If a cougar makes a kill yes he chews through the ribs right behind the shoulder and eats the liver. However, when he chews through the ribs he eats the ribs that were in his way. Later, when the cougar returns and eats more flesh he also eats most bones while eating the flesh. I have never seen a cougar kill on deer or elk where the cat left the rib bones, in my experience they always eat the bones too.

We have found cougar killed coyotes and also had numerous hounds killed by cougar. In every instance 1 of 2 things happened.
1. The dog was bitten in the head (skull crushed) and left otherwise untouched. The dog was killed by the cat out of anger or in defense.
2. The dog/coyote was mostly eaten (including the bones) because the cat was hungry.

I have also seen quite a few farm animals killed by cougar. I have never seen a cougar kill any animal and eat all the flesh and leave all the bones. I am reasonably certain if a cougar killed that coyote he would have eaten the rib bones when he ate through the side to eat the organs and when the cat ate the rest of the meat it would have eaten most if not all of the rib bones too.

On the other hand, there re plenty of photos of wolf kills where they meticulously remove the fetus from elk and only eat the fetus and sometimes even leave the fetus.

I'm not sure what killed this coyote, but I would say 99% chance that a cougar did not do it.

[Pygmy]

Interesting that the two hind legs are together and parallel... Almost as it if they were held together by someone while the hide was split,  peeled and meat removed.   Combined with the eyes  and tongue being eaten but not the meaty hams (indicating being selective) - hide peeled but not torn by claws while pulling it -  I'd say it looks like some kind of cult ritual.    October is the peak month for that kind of activity. 

[Cougartail]

100% sure it was a cougar. They go for the organs first and can open animals with precision using their incisors. If it was wolves the area would be torn up and the coyote in pieces. Google wolf kills, then click on  "Images" and it will be crystal clear it wasn't wolves.

My field experience tells me this coyote kill probably wasn't done by a cougar. If a cougar makes a kill yes he chews through the ribs right behind the shoulder and eats the liver. However, when he chews through the ribs he eats the ribs that were in his way. Later, when the cougar returns and eats more flesh he also eats most bones while eating the flesh. I have never seen a cougar kill on deer or elk where the cat left the rib bones, in my experience they always eat the bones too.

We have found cougar killed coyotes and also had numerous hounds killed by cougar. In every instance 1 of 2 things happened.
1. The dog was bitten in the head (skull crushed) and left otherwise untouched. The dog was killed by the cat out of anger or in defense.
2. The dog/coyote was mostly eaten (including the bones) because the cat was hungry.

I have also seen quite a few farm animals killed by cougar. I have never seen a cougar kill any animal and eat all the flesh and leave all the bones. I am reasonably certain if a cougar killed that coyote he would have eaten the rib bones when he ate through the side to eat the organs and when the cat ate the rest of the meat it would have eaten most if not all of the rib bones too.

On the other hand, there re plenty of photos of wolf kills where they meticulously remove the fetus from elk and only eat the fetus and sometimes even leave the fetus.

I'm not sure what killed this coyote, but I would say 99% chance that a cougar did not do it.

Cougars are not bone eaters as their intestinal track is relatively short and inefficiant. That is why they open the stomach cavity just below the rib cage and roll out the organs first in most cases. It's fast and the highest calorie/nutrient food is there. (Important when other predators may be present and time is of the essence.)
 I have walked past numberous cougar kills while trapping bobcats/coyotes on a regular basis. With snow on the ground you get to see what is actually feeding. A chain of evidence so to speak.  Not until the coyotes have shown up have I ever seen the ribcage disappear.

As for wounds around the neck, a cougar can break a coyotes neck in his jaws without puncturing the hide. A tight grip and the momentum/weight  of the cougar is enough.

[KFhunter]

I think what's throwing people off is the fact there is a moose carcass right nearby the coyote, wolves (if it was wolves) would chase off the coyote and kill it - several wolves would stretch that coyote and rip it up, innards would fall out and those probably got gobbled up but the wolves would get back to the moose right away.


Anyways that's my theory since that's all anyone has at this point.

[ICEMAN]

Natural death followed by scavenging by birds?

No broken bones.
No heavy animal tracks around carcass.
Fur pulled off and tossed not eaten.
Not enough strength to rip apart carcass.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Doesn't make since to me a cat chasing a coyote off a carcass for a good ways, then eating a coyote over moose??? 
Cat wouldn't have taken down the moose unless it was a small sickly one? OP doesn't say what the moose is. 
Most likely scenario for a cat to feed on a moose would be someone either someone shot it or it died on it's own - possible but improbable.

What doesn't make sense is a pack of wolves killing a moose, then killing a coyote, partially eating it in a fairly un-messy way and then leave the moose carcass for other coyotes to enjoy.

What makes more sense is the moose died for some reason, possibly a gunshot wound and it drew in scavengers. And a lion took the opportunity to ambush a coyote. If wolves had made the kill on the moose, I seriously doubt they'd have given it up to a bunch of coyotes.

OP never mentioned the size or the sex of the moose or how it appeared to have died and how much had been eaten. That might tell us something.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Natural death followed by scavenging by birds?

No broken bones.
No heavy animal tracks around carcass.
Fur pulled off and tossed not eaten.
Not enough strength to rip apart carcass.

Birds will start in areas that are easy such as the eyes and tongue and anus and sex organs. When the do go through the hide, the will open a small tear and eat everything they can through that little hole and the dead animal will appear pock marked. Birds don't pull off large chunks of hide to get to what they eat, they pull small strips.

[KFhunter]

Doesn't make since to me a cat chasing a coyote off a carcass for a good ways, then eating a coyote over moose??? 
Cat wouldn't have taken down the moose unless it was a small sickly one? OP doesn't say what the moose is. 
Most likely scenario for a cat to feed on a moose would be someone either someone shot it or it died on it's own - possible but improbable.

What doesn't make sense is a pack of wolves killing a moose, then killing a coyote, partially eating it in a fairly un-messy way and then leave the moose carcass for other coyotes to enjoy.

What makes more sense is the moose died for some reason, possibly a gunshot wound and it drew in scavengers. And a lion took the opportunity to ambush a coyote. If wolves had made the kill on the moose, I seriously doubt they'd have given it up to a bunch of coyotes.

OP never mentioned the size or the sex of the moose or how it appeared to have died and how much had been eaten. That might tell us something.

Wish I was up there looking at it myself   



This ought to debunk your theory wolves wouldn't leave a kill to chase a coyote.  Notice how full their bellies are?
Too bad they cut the video off when that coyote was about to get stretched, I bet it looked a whole lot like the pictures in this thread.
Wolves vs coyote [HD]

We all know you and cougartail are certified card carrying wolf huggers, but what I don't understand is why a wolf hugger would defend a wolf killing it's natural prey.
Wolves killing coyotes is a net benefit, a small upshot of wolves being around perhaps it'll help the small game species.  So why not acknowledge that?

enlighten me on that aspect.


Also I never tossed out 100% wolf, it's just my theory based on the limited evidence - I look at the whole situation as best I can with the information given.  As far as I know that moose carcass is mostly devoured and wolves are gone or the moose died of other natural causes and a cat indeed killed that coyote then the OP came along and the cat slinked off in the woods instead of burying it -  I can't say for 100%,  only fools do that  (and wolf huggers evidently)

It doesn't look like a cat kill, but like Dale I can't/won't say for 100%

[Expedition Scout]

Sorry, maybe I should have included that earlier. The moose was a young male. By the time I found it, heavy bird predation had occurred. My experience of predators feeding on an animal they kill is normal to what a lot of you are saying. Cat & bear will feed and cover the rest to feed later, Wolf will consume as much as possible and leave lay until next time, if there is a next time. With an animal they didn't kill, they wait until the fly's and maggots have their fill, then come in and break the bones and eat the hide. Normally wolves, coyotes and bears up in my area. This moose was dead maybe a week and was heavily involved with maggots, which was bringing in crows and ravens. They in turn were picking the fur off the moose to get at the maggots. Hence why I put the camera up, to see what came in after the cows/ravens finished. Only coyotes on the camera...

[Sitka_Blacktail]

This ought to debunk your theory wolves wouldn't leave a kill to chase a coyote.  Notice how full their bellies are?
Too bad they cut the video off when that coyote was about to get stretched, I bet it looked a whole lot like the pictures in this thread.
Wolves vs coyote [HD]

We all know you and cougartail are certified card carrying wolf huggers, but what I don't understand is why a wolf hugger would defend a wolf killing it's natural prey.
Wolves killing coyotes is a net benefit, a small upshot of wolves being around perhaps it'll help the small game species.  So why not acknowledge that?

enlighten me on that aspect.

Wolf hugger? Hardly. I have no problem with wolves being hunted or trapped. I'm more wolf neutral.

And if you followed what I've said about wolves on other threads, you'd know I've said that one benefit from having wolves would be a thinning of coyotes which are a plague. This in turn will help small game and bird populations not to mention deer as coyotes might be the biggest killer of fawns.

[Cougartail]

 "Wolf Hugger"?

[Sitka_Blacktail]

Nice picture Cougartail!-

[KFhunter]

"Wolf Hugger"?

If that really is you, why would you download the picture off an Idaho hunting site then upload it to HW? 
http://gothunts.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/idaho-wolf-90x90.jpg

Taking a pic off the internet and claiming it as your own is about as low as tagging someone else's kill. 
No where in your post history do I see the story of this wolf hunt...

So do tell?   I LOVE to hear a good wolf hunt story