Hi all,
I was fortunate enough to shoot my first coyote over the weekend while deer hunting with my muzzleloader. Surprisingly the 300 grain sst did not cause very much hide damage due to a grazing head shot. After inspecting my trophy yote, I noticed the fur did not have the silverish grey color that I see other coyotes with. This dogs fur is more of a yellowish brown color. Is this a normal color phase for a song dog, or is it an oddity? I would like to get him mounted or have the hide tanned, and was just curious about his odd color.Maybe it's just a color phase for Michigan coyotes, anyone else seen this color phase in song dogs?
Fordfreak

That's not unusual. They go from black through blond and red, as well as the normal tawny or greys.

Do a search on "coyote color" on www.predatormasters.com there are some neat pics. of colored coyotes.

One thing you might consider is that you could have shot a "coydog", a coyote-dog cross. We see them every once in while here in SD. Only way you can tell is if you have looked at enough pure coyotes to know how long their snout is. A coydog snout is shorter than a coyote. Maybe have a warden take a look to make sure.

Murftj, Redfrog,
Thanks for the replies. I think I have decided to just have the hide tanned and wait for a bigger yote to get mounted.
Fordfreak

Here is one from today has the brown in it.
Blood is from flipping him over into pool of blood on ground.