I’m curious if anyone has insights on how common this is! There is a smallish female coyote who keeps appearing on my trail cams hauling deer chunks of various sizes (probably back to her den and cubs). The first time I saw it I thought maybe she’d raided a mountain lion’s kill, but it’s happened m…

Common. Very common. Coyotes usually target fawns, older, injured or sick deer, but will go after healthy adults too. High losses in fawns can be half or more each year.

When/where I worked with fawns, coyotes were the number one predator.

I once saw three coyotes chasing deer in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I’m thinking it was a family group of coyotes. Like a lot of places, Northeast Ohio has a lot of white-tailed deer. It’s no wonder the coyotes try to catch them.

[image] graysquirrel: So it seems like she’s actually regularly hunting and killing them Coyotes can and will hunt deer — especially young, who are probably not much more challenge than a jackrabbit. They will also chase and test many things they cannot or do not catch or kill. But coyotes …

Coyotes preying on deer

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Coyotes preying on deer

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