Canines vs. moose

[snopes]

Comment: attached please find images and an email about coyotes hunting down a moose in newfoundland. there are coyotes in newfoundland, but these look more like wolves to my, admittedly untrained, eye.

Subject: Dead moose

Warning - you may not want kiddies to see these shots. They were sent to me yesterday by my friend Delphina in St. John's. I'm still awaiting news as to how they were taken but I do know that they're from the Island where there is now a healthy population of coyotes. It's just a taste of what goes on in the woods all the time but slightly disturbing nonetheless, especially to deep woods cross-country skiers!

[JoeBentley]

Hardly unreasonable. Wolf packs routinely take down large animals such as moose and everything in the pictures fits in with wolf hunting behaviour.

[Drama Queen Of Mars]

I'd have to agree that they do look more like wolves than coyotes. There are a few coyotes that live around here and like to NFBSK with me when I'm out late (or early however you want to look at it) and the canines in the pictures seem to be much larger than any of the ones I've seen. Of course this could be attributed to the odd angles of the pictures.

Drama ~Or maybe coyotes in Newfoundland are bigger than those in OH~ Queen

[Auntie Witch]

From what I've seen of coyotes, they're lankier than what's depicted here. I think their ears are bigger, as well, and they've got a more fox-like tail.

Here are some good picture of what I mean. You'll notice the article says they usually hunt alone.

Here are wolves for comparison.

[RingKeeper]

Hubby got this in an email this week claiming the photos were of a coyote attack on a moose here in Newfoundland. The photos were supposedly captured by a camera set up to catch poachers. This is easy to discredit for several reasons. One, the pictures are taken from a couple of different positions, therefore a stationary camera would not catch them all. Secondly, as Auntie Witch pointed out, the preditors appear to be wolves, not coyotes. They seem to be larger than coyotes, and pack hunting among coyotes is rare. There have not been any wolves on the island portion of the province for over a century.

This site claims the pictures were taken in Isle Royale from an air craft, which seems to be the case.

[inkrose115]

I love the last two. In the third one the poor hungry wolves are just like "WOLF PILE RAWR!" and in the fourth they look like my BIL trying to eat a particularly tough steak. Poor guys, it's gotta be tough having to bring down such ridiculously large prey. And it makes it more stressful on the prey too, I imagine. And yeah, wolfies. Definately wolves. Coloring is wrong for coyotes, and the build is a bit off.

[Morrigan]

Those are definately wolves. The head is completely different from that of a coyote.

Also, them attacking a moose is fairly common. It's isolated, and the wolves probably tracked it, chased it, and caught it.

Morrigan

[Spamamander]

Chiming in with definitely wolves, they do not look anything like 'yotes and the pack hunting and coordination behavior is very much that of wolves. I don't see anything extraordinary about the pictures except for the fact that someone managed to get it all photographed- pack hunting instincts developed specifically to bring down large game, and a lone moose particularly one having difficulty in the snow would be ideal prey.

All I could think of was "good job guys" to the wolves, that had to be a couple of decent meals for the pack.

[inkrose115]

Those moose are huge, nasty fighters, with hooves that can knock them flying or slice them open. Those poor wolves, but they did do a good job didn't they.

[Elkhound]

You can guess (from my screen-name) what sort of dog we had when I was growing up. 'Elg' in Norwegian means 'moose'. These pictures, accordingly, reminded me very much of someone I used to know, if you make the tails curly. I saw ours nose-to-nose with a coyote once, and these are not coyotes; I would guess wolves.

[Morrigan]

Here's a photo of a pack of wolves hunting a moose. It looks like it's from the same series.

http://www.wolf.org/wolves/experienc...program_id=215

This link shows a wolf running: http://www.fotosearch.com/DGT076/cb051567/

Here's a coyote: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/coyote.html

Definately looking at a wolf hunting a moose.

Morrigan

[Floater]

Originally Posted by Elkhound

You can guess (from my screen-name) what sort of dog we had when I was growing up. 'Elg' in Norwegian means 'moose'.

However, they aren't called elghund because they chase down elks like their bigger, wild cousins, but because they are used at elk hunts.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by snopes

Comment: attached please find images and an email about coyotes hunting down a moose in newfoundland. there are coyotes in newfoundland, but these look more like wolves to my, admittedly untrained, eye.

Yup - wolves. Wolves hunt large game in packs. Coyotes are skinnier, more solitary (or form pairs rather than packs) and go for smaller game.