Rare Coyote on trail cam

Paul Napper, Class of 2015

Black Coyotes (melanistic) comprise about 5.7% of the coyote population.

The first one I’ve ever seen appeared on my trail cams this year. Over the years, I’ve had many coyotes on trail cams but never a melanistic one. I set up three or four trail cams on deer trails and deer scrapes yearly. The goal is to find where and when the bigger bucks are moving. These cameras are motion-activated. Out of 100 pictures, there might be 4 or 5 of interest—primarily raccoons, squirrels, and birds. I was excited about the first four pictures I got of this Black coyote. Little did I know there would be more. Ended up with twenty-nine pictures of it from November to February. I saw it with my own eyes one time from about 30 yards. It was left in guarded fashion, which makes me think it got a little scent from my boot track. There were a few pictures of the black coyote hunting with two normal colored coyotes.

The deer is 26 seconds ahead of the coyote in these two frames.
Coyotes and whitetail deer can run at about the same speed. (35 to 40 mph)

BTW, the camera time and date are correct, but the year is wrong.