Couple questions on coyote behavior

[wtnhunt]

Most of you know I lost my bow shot deer to coyotes this year. I think the coyotes were on her in under 2 hours, which brings some questions to my mind.

One question I have is with 8 or so deer still in my field after I shot and up until I got down, is it possible these coyotes were hanging around the area knowing these deer were there? Was it their instinct to know to hang around where the deer are, were they maybe also hunting the deer or was it just bad luck or just completely coincedental?

Is it possible that the coyotes have an instinct or are smart enough to be associating a connection with deer hunters who are hunting behind us who might leave the guts behind or who are wounding deer on occasion and the coyotes maybe hanging around the area expecting to get an easy meal?

I know coyotes have very strong senses of smell, sight, and hearing; how does a coyote find a deer that is wounded or dead so quickly, like in under 2 hours? How close does a coyote have to be to key in on a wounded animal in a pretty dense woods? Is it likely that they heard the deer struggling and keyed in on that and then smelled the blood and picked up her trail? Or was it maybe just some bad luck that they happened to be around?

[sureshot]

I doubt that a coyote will be waiting for a hunter to shoot a deer, I do know coyotes will sit and wait if there is a wounded or sick deer and wait for the best oppertunity ot get it, I also know deer and coyotes will sleep in the same areas, more than 100 times I have called slough bottoms and had both coyotes and deer come out, soem times no bigger than 100 ft by 100 ft, saterday i was parked on a hill glassing the distance for coyotes as I was warming up and looked down to a dugout with fireweed all around it, out coemes 6 deer at 100 yards, next then I know I catch movement and a coyote was on the run not 25 ft from were the deer were, I knwo he was not hunting the deer couse i yote will not even try but they were just having a nap in the same spot!
I would really guess that they smelled the blood,A coyote can hear a med range call from well over a mile away with with a bit of wind blowing the opposite way,with a wind who know how far they can hear it, with there noses I know a coyote can wind you at at least 1/2 mile away couse i have been, this is wiht cover scent also, if they can smell human oder that far away how far can they smell a puddle of blood somethign they are looking for all the time especially if there is a bit of breeze,What prob happend is one was wondering downwind a ways smelled it came for a meal and was nice enough to invite the rest of the local gang with a few howls, these howls that he made are the ones you try to make when youa re out there huntign them, its soemthign they hear all the time and usually means a free meal!!

[JimT]

When we were getting the last few bears we shot out of the woods coyotes starting yipping off in the distance. Some were very close. Within a couple hundred yards. We have also had them yipping when we were tracking gun shot deer in the dark. I do believe they can put a gunshot and a dead critter togather. You shot yours with a bow, so I would say they saw it running and fall or came across its trail and followed it to the doe.

[KTMMIKE]

My guess is the coyote smelled your wounded deer. They have unbelievable noses.

[wtnhunt]

Really think she died before they got to her, but I wonder. I never could hear the doe falling where she went to, but she was along a fence and signs indicated she was really struggling hard to stay on her feet, she never layed down as best as I could tell. The other deer in the field kept looking into the woods . Kind of makes me wonder if they might have been pushing her. The last 70 yards or so there was no blood going in to where I found her.

We heard several coyotes the night I killed my second doe of the season about an hour after I shot her, making me wonder even more just how smart or educated these coyotes really are. I had just started gutting my deer inside the garage when we heard them start howling that night. They were not all that far off of from where the one they beat me to was at when we started hearing them.

Hopefully I can thin them out quite a bit after the deer season closes.