Opportunistic Coyotes Tackle Adult Moose: Meal Time!

Adult moose can be massive. In fact, they can be as much as 6.5 feet tall at the shoulders and weigh as much as 1,800 pounds. Although wolves have been known to tackle the largest of the deer species, researchers have long believed that coyotes wouldn't be able to take on a full grown moose. New research, though, proves them wrong.

It order to get a better look at coyote hunting tactics, the researchers live captured eastern coyotes and eastern coyote x eastern wolf hybrids. They then fitted the animals with Global Positioning System (GPS) radio-collars and took blood samples for DNA analysis. These GPS collars gave the researchers the means to visit the locations of the study animals in order to investigate their activities and document predation patterns.

During the course of their study, the scientists found that a total of four canid packs, ranging in size from two to five animals, actually killed moose. One of the moose was very old (about 20 years) and the other was very young (about 20 months). Yet the coyotes also attacked others, though more likely than not it was opportunistically.

"Coyotes and coyote x wolf hybrids probably prey on moose opportunistically and only when circumstances are favorable," said John Benson, one of the researchers, in a news release. "For instance, when snow is deep and a hard crust forms on top this impedes the ability of moose to travel and gives the lighter coyotes and hybrids an advantage because they can travel on top of the snow."

That's not all the researchers found, though. They also noted that some of the moose that were killed were located on steep slopes. These slopes may have slowed the moose down and may have created unstable footing. In addition, the scientists found that some moose were killed in areas where medium-sized trees were moderately dense, which may have prevented the moose from swinging around quickly to fend off the predators.

"Killing of adult moose by eastern coyotes and coyote x wolf hybrids appears to be relatively rare and probably does not pose a threat to moose populations in central Ontario," said Benson in a news release. "However, from the perspective of a pack of coyotes or hybrids, killing even a single moose during a winter is very beneficial and goes a long way towards helping them meet their energetic demands. For instance, a pack of two eastern coyotes spent some or all of 18 days feeding on a moose that they killed."

The findings reveal that coyotes are actually more dangerous hunters than scientists once believed. Despite their small size, they use opportunistic means in order to bring down prey that's far larger than them.

The findings are published in the Journal of Zoology.