Disturbing trail cam photos

[John A.]

I checked my trail cameras the other day, and got a bunch of pictures that I wanted to share with you guys.

At first, I thought it was a mangey and sick coyote. But the more I look at it, I don't know.

I have seen dogs with the mange and they usually don't lose ALL of their hair. Not every bit of it. They scratch it out in patches. And their skin is usually raw from scratching in places where they can scratch at.

From looking at these photos, doesn't really look like what I am used to seeing.

I've showed a few people in my family and everyone is teasing me that it's some chupacabra or something, but I wanted to show you guys some of the pictures to see what you think.

First and only time I have seen it up there. Thing hung up for 15 minutes though.

 

[MikeD]

Chupacabra!!!

Most likely a form of mange; there are two types from what I understand. If you search for hairless coyote there are a lot of hits that come up from all over so it must be a relatively common disorder.

 

[John A.]

Thanks for the reply mike. I did some researching based on what you said and this is the best one I have found. Short, sweet, and to the point.
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http://io9.gizmodo.com/5671700/chupacabras-are-just-coyotes-with-scabies-says-biologist

When a photo of a chupacabra appears in the news, it tends to be a shriveled, hairless, canine-looking corpse. According to University of Michigan biologist Barry OConnor, these chupacabra corpses are simply coyotes with sarcoptic mange (a.k.a. scabies).

The scabies mite is an annoyance for humans and domesticated dogs but can be devastating for wild dogs — the mites cause skin inflammation, hairlessness, and skin infections, which explains the chupacabras mottled appearance and horrific body odor. Furthermore, livestock becomes a more attractive food source for the infected coyotes, as they don't have to expend as much energy chasing them down.

Says OConnor:

Whenever you have a new host-parasite association, it's pretty nasty [...] It does a lot of damage, and mortality can be relatively high because that host species has not had any evolutionary history with the parasite, so it has not been able to evolve any defenses like we have [...] So they may be forced into attacking livestock because it's easier than running down a rabbit or a deer.

While this isn't exactly surprising news, it's always welcome to hear the science of the legendary goat-sucker.

 

[Rossignol]

Dang that dog is ugly.

 

[John A.]

Yeah, only seen him the one time, and while I do always carry when I check my cameras, he's made it on the cull list for sure.

Thinking about maybe trying to set one of my traps for him since it can work 24/7. Though I'll probably have it full of foxes and raccoons and stuff that I'll have to let loose and then worry about being ate up by one of them. But trapping will be hard for me because of the stupid bears up there. They'll probably tear my wire cage trap all to pieces.

Trying to think of what bait to use.

Chicken livers, tuna, sardines ??????????

 

[Water Monkey]

Chicken livers, tuna, sardines ??????????

Try the laughter of children. Heard hell beasts are drawn to those types of sounds.

 

[John A.]

No, the Yunwi Tsundi watch over children up there.

 

[ripjack13]

Looks like a yote to me. Most likely wont last long. Hes real skinny now....

Side note....that'd be one ornery looking mount though...lol

 

[John A.]

Eewww.

 

[John A.]

Doesn't look like it's exclusive to coyotes. Whatever it is. Mange? Rabies? Hell, I really don't know.

Pretty sick looking bear up there right now too.

Saw a game warden on the side of the road at the rail road crossing.

Wasn't doing anything besides leaned back in his seat looking at his cell phone reading his messages, but did see one setting down there when I left the cabin nonetheless.

 

[Rossignol]

That's really quite interesting. I think I saw a movie where this is how the zombie apocalypse started, lol!