{"id":107433,"date":"2022-02-11T05:30:14","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T12:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=107433"},"modified":"2022-02-11T11:44:58","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T18:44:58","slug":"another-coyote-amputating-duck-heads-before-eating-only-the-heads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2022\/02\/11\/another-coyote-amputating-duck-heads-before-eating-only-the-heads\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Coyote Amputating Duck Heads Before Eating Only The Heads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two days ago I photographed a coyote biting off and eating a duck’s head and leaving the rest of the carcass behind<\/a><\/span><\/span>. Yesterday morning I photographed a different coyote doing the same thing, twice. I have to wonder why they’re doing it.<\/p>\n

Once again many of my photos of this behavior were soft, most likely because I was shooting a moving subject in deep shade and\/or because the action began immediately after I arrived at my destination so at the beginning I was shooting with a warm lens in cold temperatures – causing lens contraction issues. But I think the images are sharp enough for documentary purposes.<\/p>\n

Note to the squeamish. No blood or guts can be seen in this series but some of the photos may be quite unsettling, even gruesome, for some viewers. So please, if you choose to proceed, no complaints about what you’ve seen. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You have been warned.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Yesterday morning on the Antelope Island causeway this coyote walked east and toward me from the island soon after dawn. Based mostly on size I believe it’s a male but I could be wrong. It’s a different coyote from the two coyotes I photographed two days ago. His feet and the end of his tail were muddy and possibly still wet.<\/p>\n

He strolled over almost nonchalantly and picked up this male Northern Shoveler on the beach that I hadn’t noticed earlier. The shoveler was apparently disabled because it made no attempt to avoid the coyote, none at all, even though at this point it was obviously still alive and even alert.<\/p>\n

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He grasped the shoveler by the neck and with two chomps (I could tell when he was biting down hard because he closed his eyes each time) he…<\/p>\n

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severed the duck’s neck at its base and…<\/p>\n

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with some difficulty swallowed the head and neck whole.<\/p>\n

It was unsettling to watch the body of the duck flop around after the head and neck had been removed. The coyote had the duck’s right wing pinned down but the rest of it’s body was free to thrash around, and it did.\u00a0 It brought back rather unpleasant memories of chopping heads off of chickens with a hatchet when I was a kid on the Montana farm.<\/p>\n

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Then he chewed the neck stump off of the duck’s body and…<\/p>\n

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walked away with the stump still in his mouth, leaving the rest of the duck behind.<\/p>\n

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He swallowed the stump and then walked slowly east for some distance before something in front of him near the bridge caught his attention (yes, that’s a bird wing below him). Almost immediately he broke into a run toward it.<\/p>\n

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It was another, apparently disabled but still alive, male Northern Shoveler that made no attempt to avoid the coyote.<\/p>\n

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The coyote carried the duck a short distance and dropped it behind the out of focus large boulder at lower right. Then the coyote walked back west in the direction he had come from, leaving the shoveler behind the rock where I couldn’t see it.<\/p>\n

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He returned to the first shoveler he’d beheaded earlier and carried it back west in the direction of the island. Soon he was so far away I turned my attention to photographing ducks in flight that were nearer to me.<\/p>\n

He was gone and out of my sight for over four minutes before he returned to…<\/p>\n

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the male shoveler that he had stashed behind the rock earlier. To my great surprise the duck was still alive.<\/p>\n

He pinned the duck’s body down with his front feet, bit the neck a time or two, and then pulled upward with the duck’s head in his mouth which quickly and efficiently…<\/p>\n

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amputated the head.<\/p>\n

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The duck’s body and wings continued to thrash around. At this point the head, chewed up a little but still whole, remained in the back of his mouth and unswallowed.<\/p>\n

I keep coming back to this photo – it both disturbs me and mesmerizes me. There’s just something about that poor, thrashing and headless duck…<\/p>\n

It was taken at the moment he noticed a huge and incredibly noisy construction truck (they’re laying a pipeline on the causeway) approaching from the east on the road. It frightened him very much so he left the duck’s body behind the rock and began to run to the west in the direction the truck was heading.<\/p>\n

But the truck was going pretty fast and quickly passed the coyote so he…<\/p>\n

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stopped in his tracks and watched the receding truck with the duck’s chewed up bill sticking out of his mouth. He swallowed it and then…<\/p>\n

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went back to the carcass behind the rock, retrieved it, and<\/p>\n

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this time he actually ate a significant portion of the duck’s body before abandoning the rest and disappearing in the direction of the island.<\/p>\n

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OK, I’ve documented the behavior but I sure can’t explain it. At this point I have two primary questions.<\/p>\n