"THE CHASE"

Coyote -  6 Photos

I had been photographing this young coyote earlier. It eventually made its way into the woods and disappeared.

Then shortly thereafter, out from the wooded area exploded a rather large female Mule Deer. It traversed the bank at great speed and headed across the meadow. And from a previous experience, I learned when you see a deer hitting top speed, watch out for what is coming behind because deer do not expend calories like that for no reason.

Yep, only seconds later came the coyote at full speed trying to make up the distance to the deer and up the hill they raced. Once the deer had hit a plateau, it turned, waited for the coyote to somewhat catch up and then down the hill it went chasing the coyote back down the hill into another wooded grove. Once the deer had reached the beginning of the trees and seeing that the coyote had reached the creek, it turned and went back up and across the ridge. So that would be Deer - 1, Coyote - 0.

Am not certain whether this was just a learning exercise for the coyote. It definitely was a learning experience. "Before taking on prey much larger than yourself or at least as fleet as foot, always have back-up, i.e. the rest of your pack" before attempting such a chase and using up energy. 

PHOTO #1

PHOTO #2

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PHOTO #5

PHOTO #6