What is worse ? coyotes, or wild hogs. I have both.
The hogs. They really tear up the land. More than a few years back I was visiting Florida and I went out to some state land near Lake Okeechobee to take pictures. I was walking off road quite a bit. Huge tracks of land were had been plowed up by pigs. This place was full of Palmetto's which channelized where you could walk. The pigs would plow up the ground in the trails between the Palmettos. I walked into one area, the ground was plowed 6-10 inches deep. The little man on my shoulder said I needed to leave so I did. There was only 2-4 feet between me an the Palmettos which could easily hide a bunch of big pigs. All I had with me was cameras, lenses and one big heavy tripod. That tripod ain't much good against a big pig.
So I walked back the way I walked in. A few hours later it was waiting to see the sun set and I was on the road about 100 yards away from where I walked out of the woods. For some reason I looked behind me and saw this big black thing cross the road. At first I thought it was a black bear. It was big. It was possible it was a bear but not likely and it did not quite walk like a bear. It was a big pig. A very big pig.
It was right in the area I had been walking. The little man on my shoulder was right. :thumbsup:
A minute or so later a pick up drove down the road with dogs in the back. They were not supposed to be on this land but there they were. The truck was jacked up pretty high and the dogs were loose in the bed. The truck crossed where the pig went across the the road and those dogs jumped out and started chasing. The two guys drove off road a bit, they could only go so far before they hit water, and then they started running.
At our house we saw a coyote back in 2005 within 25-30 yards of the house one morning. He had no fear.
But we only saw him once and I never heard any at the time. My dad tried to call the coyote in but he took my dog with him. Something started to move in on his call but then the dog chased it away.
Sometime last year I thought I heard howls off to our SSE but I could not be sure. This week I and the kids were outside. They were playing and I was in the barn. I heard something but could not tell what I heard other than it was back to the SSE but closer. It could have been a owl or a coyote.
Last night I was up late and just went to bed when I heard a coyote howl to or NNW very close by. Withing a 100-200 yards. And I heard them yelping.
The neighbors dogs, which are at least 1,000 feet away started barking. Our so called guard dog was sleeping.
We need to see if we can call the coyotes in. The kids are still to young for the coyotes to be around and the kids are starting to explore the woods as they should but that gets them a bit farther from the house.
Later,
Dan
