Deer Pack Hunting Coyotes in Nevada

One of the most amazing sights of our entire trip happened near Lake Washoe, Nevada.  That is where we encountered Mule Deer; a species you definitely don't see in New England.  Mule Deer are related to our familiar White-tailed Deer, but they are larger, have black tipped ears and and rope-like, black-tipped tails, and a bouncy gait when running. Probably the most noticeable difference in the two species are the huge ears on the Mule Deer, which is where the species got it's name in the first place.

The herd of deer impressed us much more than it did our friends from Nevada, who see them practically every day.  And unlike us, our local friends were not at all surprised to see a coyote sharing the same field as the deer.

What transpired next was a phenomenon that shocked even the locals, however.  As we were watching, the coyote started to drift closer and closer to the herd of deer.  When he got a little too close for comfort, all of the deer suddenly became alert.  They stopped grazing and turned to watch the coyote intently.

Suddenly the herd of Mule Deer started running toward the coyote - and the coyote started running away!

The chase was no game, either.  The deer were out for blood and the coyote was running for his life!

The coyote had good reason to fear.  Those large, hoofed animals could easily tear that puny canine to shreds when hunting as a pack.  Of course, who knew they ever hunted as a pack?

Eventually, the coyote disappeared into the underbrush, never to appear again.  Even more amazing than the sight of a coyote being hunted down by a pack of deer was the fact that it happened again just moments later! A second coyote was chased into the underbrush, too.  A week or two later, we learned that our friends had witnessed this heretofore unprecedented scenario yet again on the day after we left Nevada!  Evidently, the big Mule Deer out west have learned the coyote's own strategy of hunting in packs - and they've learned it very well, indeed!

Wildlife in Nevada and California

I spent the last few weeks driving across the country with my daughter.  Driving from coast to coast is a marvelous adventure that I would recommend to everyone. Since we were on a pretty tight schedule, I didn't take out my camera until we met up with my son in Nevada.  (My daughter captured some lovely landscapes along the way, though.  Thank goodness for that!) In Nevada and California I managed to see quite a few examples of western wildlife, such as the Brown Pelican pictured above. I'll go into more detail later, but this post is just a quick taste of the exiting sights out in the wild west.

This coyote is not much different than the ones we are used to seeing, but wait until you hear the story behind this image.  It will amaze you, I'm quite sure about that!

I thought this little bird was a miniature Eastern Towhee or something.  In reality, this is an Oregon Junco.  It's the size of a junco, all right, but I would never have guessed his species by his coloring!

The sea otters in Carmel, CA were just adorable.  We saw other amazing sights in Carmel that I'll post about very soon.

There were literally thousands of Brewer's Blackbirds everywhere we went.  Prior to this trip, I had seen exactly one!

Of the four or five species of grebes we saw, the Western Grebe was by far the most exotic.  But all the Grebes were life-listers for me, so I couldn't be happier about seeing them.