In 2022 a study by Stan Gehrt, wildlife ecologist at Ohio State University, was released that revealed the coyotes had been living on a diet of moose rather than their typical diet of smaller animals. It was concluded that the unavailability of smaller prey led the coyotes to become accustomed to large targets leading them to see the young woman as a potential food source.
Fascinating read, albeit sad
How do coyotes take down a moose? Even if there’s 5 of them??
Probably similar to wolves, run it down till its too tired to fight, bite the legs till it can’t support its own weight and them go for the throat.
It’s how they do with deer, I’m sure it would work on a moose. Bite and run bite and run.
They are Coywolf, hybrids that are like slightly smaller wolves or more aggressive coyotes.
Not sure why you’re being downvoted, the term Coywolf is in the Wikipedia article
Sometimes true, but not in this case.
Various other proposed explanations why the unusual attack occurred included that the coyotes might have been larger and bolder than normal coyotes because they were crosses with wolves or domestic dogs, rabid, starving, or protecting a carcass.None of these suggestions were subsequently borne out
They just got tough and mean on their own.
I imagine they worked hard together to incapacitate the moose then ate him alive
It says “two Eastern Coyote (coywolves) mauled her” in the OP link. Also according to wikipedia they are almost considered a different species and have been proposed to be called Coywolves precisely becuase of how different they are to the regular coyotes you’re thinking of
Here’s the summary for the wikipedia article you mentioned in your comment:
The eastern coyote is a wild North American canine hybrid with both coyote and wolf parentage. The hybridization likely first occurred in the Great Lakes region, as western coyotes moved east. It was first noticed during the early 1930s to the late 1940s, and likely originated in the aftermath of the extirpation of the gray wolf and eastern wolf in southeastern Ontario, Labrador and Quebec, thus allowing coyotes to colonize the former wolf ranges, and mix with the remnant wolf populations. This hybrid is smaller than the eastern wolf and holds smaller territories, but is larger and holds more extensive home ranges than the typical western coyote.
Crack cocaine, my friend.
How do I eat a whole rotisserie chicken by myself? When you get hangry, you find a way. Thank you Jeebus!!
As another poster already commented these coyotes were a much bigger breed than your typical coyote
okay but surely the coyotes weren’t bigger than a moose. A moose can be bigger than a truck.
Yeah they’re big, but they don’t turn very quickly. If the coyotes can draw blood, they’d be able to make the moose bleed out eventually.
Also, there was an article like a decade ago about America’s coyotes and one phrase really stuck with me: canis soup. The researchers used the term to describe all the interbreeding that was occurring with coyotes, wolves, and domestic/tame dogs. I only point this out to say that the ‘coyotes’ in this story may have had some wolf or pitbull in them.
Has anyone ever caught that on video?? A pitbull dog fucking a coyote? 😳
No, but I got this sweet video of a coyote fucking a pit bull! /s
Watched a video of a single wolverine taking down a grown reindeer. It was brutal, took some time, but the little guy won.
(Don’t watch that if you’re not accustomed to nature “red in tooth and claw”.)
So again habitat loss caused by humans, ffs.
Crazy to think that the coyotes got swole, bascially
I’m checking out her album now. I really like the first track, Don’t Know How I Got Here.
Dogs are far and away the #1 reason I carry in the woods. We got black bears and panthers, not too worried. Not even sure there’s ever been a recorded attack in my county. Oddly, I’ve never seen a coyote, but hear them in the distance every time I camp. Never imagined they would jump a human.
Dogs OTHO? There was a pit bouncing around my front porch the other night. I have a giant dog door for the pig, so I jumped back inside and grabbed the single-shot shotty over the door. Turns out he was just a dumb puppy running around with a young couple and their kids. I cannot describe my relief.
