![\"coyote](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/coyote-4226-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNineteen days have shown what I believe is\u00a0a remarkable improvement in the snout injury of this coyote.<\/p>\n
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On February 16 I photographed the injury up close. Here you can see the swelling on the top of the snout caused by the awful wound on the other side. There’s also a deep gash on this side at the rear of the upper lip but it can’t be seen well here because it’s partly\u00a0covered with hair. I’ve posted these first two images of the injury before but I include them\u00a0here so you don’t have to go back to another post to\u00a0determine how much improvement there’s been.<\/p>\n
The next\u00a0photo is a bit gory so if your sensibilities preclude viewing such an image I’ve left extra room below so you can leave this post before you’ve already scrolled down to it.<\/p>\n
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![\"coyote](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/coyote-4220-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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The other side of the snout was injured terribly.\u00a0I don’t know how it happened of course but likely candidates are a fight with other coyotes (a common occurrence) or a kick from a bison.\u00a0In all my time on Antelope Island over the past 8 years I’ve never seen coyotes bother bison (they always seem to ignore each other) so I lean toward the former for that reason and others.<\/p>\n
The injury was severe enough that I worried about the survival of the coyote.\u00a0If a bison was involved the maxilla (upper jawbone) could have been broken and the swelling\u00a0suggested major trauma and likely infection. At the\u00a0time of my original post I indicated that I’d keep my readers\u00a0up to date on\u00a0any developments, good or bad, if I encountered the animal again.<\/p>\n
I believe the news is good.<\/p>\n
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![\"coyote](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/coyote-6121-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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Early yesterday morning I\u00a0encountered the injured coyote and the two companions it’s been running with lately (you may have to squint to see the one at upper left but they’re all three here).\u00a0It was an absolutely beautiful morning on the island and all three of them seemed to be enjoying life. They laid on the grass in the warming\u00a0sun, yawned, kept looking at\u00a0each other and one of them even rolled on its back like we so often see in our\u00a0domestic dogs.\u00a0The injured\u00a0animal is the closer one at bottom center.<\/p>\n
This image was taken at only 158mm in order to include all three coyotes but…<\/p>\n
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![\"coyote](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/coyote-7519.jpg\")
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another camera attached to my 500mm and 1.4 teleconverter, plus a huge crop (16.5% of the original image), show us that the coyote seems to be recovering nicely.\u00a0Its behavior appeared normal, it looks healthy, the swelling has gone down\u00a0and the wound is apparently healing splendidly, considering its original severity. And I couldn’t be happier about that.<\/p>\n
This\u00a0“underdog” just may come out on top!<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nineteen days has shown what I believe is a remarkable improvement in the snout injury of this coyote.<\/p>\n