Although supposedly difficult to capture by other means, we have captured over
60 crows in box traps.While doing coyote research on Cape Cod it is common to encounter other wildlife (especially at night). Here is a pictorial of some of those creatures.
Although supposedly difficult to capture by other means, we have captured over
60 crows in box traps.
Sometimes two crows at once.
Although typically not given the ability to kill deer we occasionally find carcasses of deer apparently killed by coyotes. I have always thought that a 30-50 pound predator (coyote) could kill a 100-200 pound prey (white-tailed deer). Look at wolves (80-100 pounds on average) that kill animals as large as moose (1,000 pounds). Despite popular opinion, wolves do not need to be in groups to do the killing. It is now mostly thought that wolves live in groups so offspring can feed off their parent's (and older relatives) kills.
However, most of the time we see our deer in full flesh and hoove, ready to run at the drop of a dime.
We hope to eventually do a companion study of coyote-red fox interactions on Cape Cod. Although most studies report that coyotes exclude fox from a given area I have on numerous occasions (mostly at 2 AMish) seen red fox within established coyote territories. We have captured 10 fox in box traps (compared to 29 coyote captures).
On places like Sandy Neck Beach we occasionally find dead (left) and live (right) seals
Just like a small fraction of ranchers out west that are occasionally driven crazy due to coyote predation on domestic sheep, I feel the same way about raccoons (although we don't kill our problem - i.e., the raccoons). We have captured over 100 of them (including 2 and once, 3, in one trap). Every raccoon capture is a trap night that can't capture a coyote.
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We have also caught animals as beautiful as red-tailed hawks.
We have also captured many skunks, who are actually very easy to remove from a trap. Simply approach slowly, lift the door and back away.
One of the negatives about research is shown here. Getting stuck in high tide on a barrier beach. It doesn't take a genious to figure out that salt water is not good for a car, especially all over it!
