Coyote Loses Bid Against Mountain Lion In Red Desert, Ends Up Becoming Supper

A coyote pushed its luck too far with a mountain lion in the Red Desert east of Farson and ended up becoming the big cat’s supper, according to a recent sighting by a shed antler hunter. Jeremy Kaiser of Kemmerer and his son were out hunting sheds when they spotted a mountain lion roughly a mile away carrying something in its jaws. Through a spotting scope, they believed it was a coyote. Kaiser connected his phone to the scope and captured video of the mountain lion dragging its prey across the desert before disappearing after about 25 minutes. “That’s the mountain lion I’ve seen just out roaming around like that, and I spend practically all my time out in the hills,” Kaiser said.

Biologist Mark Elbroch, director of the mountain lion program for Panthera, a wild feline conservation organization, said after watching the video that he believes the mountain lion had a coyote carcass. “I don’t know what else would be in that size range” in that habitat, he said. Elbroch noted that mountain lions are usually associated with rugged mountains and thick forests, but they can succeed in open country like the Red Desert, especially when wolves are not present.

According to Elbroch, when a mountain lion makes a meal of a coyote, it is usually one of two scenarios. The first is when a mountain lion has already killed a big-game animal and a coyote comes hoping to scavenge the carcass. If the coyote is not paying attention, it becomes a target of opportunity. In other instances, mountain lions actively hunt coyotes. On the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, a researcher once heard a mountain lion killing a coyote about 100 yards away and got a photo of the big cat standing over the fresh carcass.

The mountain lion’s preferred hunting method is “a well-timed ambush,” Elbroch said. “Their hunting strategy is to walk silently and then sit and wait.” Mountain lions are masters of stalking, sometimes using as little as 8 inches of grass or brush for cover. “You’ll see them hugging the ground, just slithering around,” he said.

Retired biologist Franz Camenzind, who studied coyote behavior near Jackson, said he was not surprised. “I’m not surprised. They run into each other a lot,” he said. He noted that a trail camera on his property has captured images of both species, indicating they are thriving near Jackson. However, nature can be dangerous for any creature, and coyotes walk an especially fine line as they compete with larger predators such as mountain lions, bears, and wolves. “It’s a rough world out there,” Camenzind said.

Sometimes coyotes are lucky. Camenzind recalled watching a coyote and wolf feeding side-by-side on a big-game carcass. “They didn’t seem to be that upset with each other,” he said. But for the coyote in the Red Desert, luck ran out.