puma guy wrote:Ed4032 beat me to it!
Have you ever considered running for governor? A coyote running toward a human being is definitely not normal behavior. Instinct tells a wild animal to beware and coyotes are one of the most wary. Rabies is the most obvious cause and a rabid animal can appear healthy. Guarding a kill or pups could be a possibility or maybe you look like Gov'nr Perry. My father was in India during WW2 where rabies was almost epidemic (he was bitten and had to take the preventive vaccine himself) --- any way he told me he toured a hospital and the staff would clap loudly to show how it stimulated convulsive behavior (he called it torturing the poor victims) so if you were making enough noise that could've been a stimulus. Have you contacted the gamewarden or health officials to get it tested? Good shooting on your part may have saved you from the dreaded preventative measures. There's not as bad as they used to be but definitely not fun. I found a racoon in one of our stands this year and no matter what I did to get it to run out it wouldn't. It didn't growl or get into a hostile posture. I finally had to shoot it with my CCW. There was fresh "guano" inside the stand indicating it was eating so it probably wasn't rabid, but it could have had distemper which will cause odd behavior in coons.
...rabies is likely the reason when a single smaller wild animal attacks us...
...your racoon might have been easier to evict if it weren't for the refrigerator, color TV, and Lazyboy...
you forgot the central air/heat and automatic shutters.
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At our lease, our members regularly shoot coyotes to help control their population. We know that you never touch them after shooting them. We'll snap a pic with our phone if they drop after being shot for the ranch record books.
However, we have to tell our hog hunters NOT to pose with downed coyotes. Folks love to shoot 'em, then stand over 'em and hold 'em up by the ears, etc.
Mange, rabies, etc.... Coyotes are ground vultures, and should be treated as such.
I recently surprised a very large Armadillo in my yard and got a return surprise when it charged me from about 8 feet away! He never caught me... but my wife was laughing at me for a while
I've seen animals do odd things at corn feeders. I think they get focused on feeding on the corn or pursuit of something that normally feeds on the corn and loose a lot of caution. People are only at the feeder on a rare occasion. I suspect the coyote charged the feeder after hearing something messing with it expecting to catch a racoon. I shot a coyote during bow season this year that was actively hunting the feeder. There was a patch of brush and grass about 20' from the feeder. The coyote would hide there and wait for little furries to come to the corn. Oddly, when the coyote was doing this, he paid me no attention in the nearby stand. I could have done a backflip and he would not have known it.
Adraper wrote:I've seen animals do odd things at corn feeders. I think they get focused on feeding on the corn or pursuit of something that normally feeds on the corn and loose a lot of caution. People are only at the feeder on a rare occasion. I suspect the coyote charged the feeder after hearing something messing with it expecting to catch a racoon. I shot a coyote during bow season this year that was actively hunting the feeder. There was a patch of brush and grass about 20' from the feeder. The coyote would hide there and wait for little furries to come to the corn. Oddly, when the coyote was doing this, he paid me no attention in the nearby stand. I could have done a backflip and he would not have known it.
I think this is also a likely scenario. Sometimes a hunting/predatory animal will get tunnel vision when trying to make a kill. Like dogs in a fight...pay no attention to people screaming, tugging, or kicking them when they are fighting. Even a loud car horn or gunshot sometimes will not break up a dog fight. Or out of pure desperation and hunger a yote might have attacked.
Every time I have dealt with a rabid animal it was behaving very strangely and did not have good balance or fluid movement. My experience has been with a few dogs, a coon or two and a opossum or two. All were stumbling about, looking up at the sky at times, and wandering around aimlessly.
"I am a Free Man, regardless of what set of 'rules' surround me. When I find them tolerable, I tolerate them. When I find them obnoxious, I ignore them. I remain free, because I know and understand that I alone bear full responsibility for everything I do, or chose not to do."
Game Warden called yesterday to tell me "That coyote wasnt rabid, just dumb". I laughed and he said the same thing, that it's probably been hunting that feeder and assumed I was something to eat. That dude was fully dedicated to getting me no matter what I was by the way he was moving.
