Coyote Found Frozen In Its Tracks

Silt Man Discovers Upright Dead Animal Next To Dirt Road

DENVER -- A Silt, Colo., man made an amazing discovery this week: a coyote frozen solid in its tracks, standing upright next to a road near his home.

Seth Wettlin told TheDenverChannel.com that he ran out of gas on the way home Wednesday night and saw the coyote caught in his headlights on a dirt road, south of Silt.

At first, Wettlin thought it was frozen in fear, but upon closer inspection, he found it was literally frozen solid. The dead animal was standing in snow up to its chest, with its tongue hanging out.

Wettlin returned the next day to take photos of the animal, which was about 5 feet off the dirt road, next to an electrical box.

Wettlin said the animal had an injury on its lower chest that made it appear the coyote had been hit by a vehicle recently.

Wettlin's mother, Gretchen, said the area had been covered in deep snow earlier and she surmised the coyote died while trying to maneuver through the deep snow drifts, with the snow holding it upright after it died.

Seth said on Friday that the animal was still where he found it.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/22002764/detail.html

Nature is pretty harsh and no place for the weak or injured. The coyote died as it lived. Coyotes hang around highways in hopes of picking up an easy meal from all the rabbits that get hit and injured. Predators start eating their prey before it even dies.

What strikes me is that in the photo it doesn't even look particularly distressed (not that I'd know what a distressed coyote looks like). It's as though it was one tough animal who just couldn't defeat the laws of nature.

what got me about the photo was its eyes were open! it looked like it was just standing there.

god, I hate the cold. When it can freeze a coyote like a popsicle, its too dam_n cold.

I'm stuck here on the east coast USA for a couple more weeks before heading back to

LOS (land of sunshine) We just got hit by a major snow and ice storm.... Im ready

to come home and thaw out.....

It's brass monkey weather here in the UK. I'm off to GranCanaria on Monday for 3 weeks for a bit of thaw out time!

Given up on Thailand this year, Tigs?

Back on topic, what a sad picture. It is cold here too, but not THAT cold. Poor thing.

It was partly the cost this year. The GBP is as weak as a kitten! But I have been to Maspalomas before and I love it, okay it's not Thailand, but Thailand will still be there next year...

Hope you and R have a great time!! Merry Xmas!!

Something is not quite right with the photo. It's head is held high. There is enough heat in a dead body to stop it being snap-frozen. Sure it's body may have been held up by the drift, but not it's head which surely would have drooped just prior to and definitely after the moment of expiry.

This is blast-freezer, Day After Tomorrow stuff.

It appears it was hit by a car if you read the news story.

You can see the blood on it's chest. Wind chill factor can play a big part in "snap" freezing as well.

Yeah. So it was wounded and died and then froze so quickly that it's head didn't have time to droop? 10 cms thick of meat and bone supporting 2 kgs of head frozen so quickly?

To have achieved blast freezer snap freezing by wind chill, the temperature would have to have been VERY low, and the wind speed very high...the snow drift does not look like the result of high winds.

I'm sceptical.

My bet is that it died and froze on it's (left) side and has been propped up in the snow for the photo.

That's why there's an impression in the snow in front of it's left front leg; the left leg froze in a position that didn't allow perfect vertical placement.

believe it froze in a snowdrift.

Ok, then how do you account for the holein the snow in front of it's left leg? If the snow had drifted, surely there would be no hole there.

Regardless of whether the photo is a set-up or not.....sure, that kind of cold is not nice.

Colorado has interesting weather, see, it isn't a solid cold weather all winter long there. So, while you can have quite literally 4 feet of snow overnight (high school christmas holidays, naturally ) within three days the temps will have risen and the snow starts to melt.

Anyway, yes, I hate that kind of weather. Which is why I don't live in Colorado anymore

You can learn and see something new continually, but the only time I have seen any animal frozen, standing up, were young cattle who had drifted to a fence during a blizzard (-40/50 f) most were laying down. Varmints will normally curl up even in the snow bank.

Never seen anything die with its head up and eyes open.

I agree with the skeptics, it's more likely it died lying down, and someone may have posed it upright.

Native Americans have a special respect for coyotes, and consider them the closest animals to people, mainly because of the craftiness.

More than a few times, when I was holed up in northern California, near Lake Tahoe, I'd hear coyotes whooping nearby. Sounded like a whole bunch were laughing, or celebrating a kill together. Not a whole lot different than a troop of howler monkeys all calling out concurrently without any inhibitions (a human invention).

I like the cold.

This is why I don't miss the Canadian winters... It's the main Hwy 2 between Red Deer and Calgary.

Traffic lights jammed on green?

This is why I don't miss the Canadian winters... It's the main Hwy 2 between Red Deer and Calgary.

Ugh, this is exactly why I don't live in Canada anymore. Aside from the vehicle-related craziness, that dark and oppressive winter gloominess that the picture captures so well is something I hope I never have to experience again in this lifetime!

This is why I don't miss the Canadian winters... It's the main Hwy 2 between Red Deer and Calgary.

Man that looks just insane.

Colorado has interesting weather, see, it isn't a solid cold weather all winter long there. So, while you can have quite literally 4 feet of snow overnight (high school christmas holidays, naturally ) within three days the temps will have risen and the snow starts to melt.

Anyway, yes, I hate that kind of weather. Which is why I don't live in Colorado anymore

I hitched from Denver to Orange County in January, 1972 and went thru 2 separate snowstorms...a cold MF when I set out in the morning and I could see the weather comin' in from the west...somewhere in between the storms with snow up to my ass on an on ramp waiting for a ride a cop came by and said 'if I see you here next time I'm by yer goin' to jail'...hitchhiking in Colorado was illegal at the time...

made it over the mountains to Grand Junction and then a predatory homosexual inna pickup took me and a recently released jailbird from a fed pen for a ride outside of town...when we indicated that we weren't interested we were dumped in the middle of nowhere... I was a bit concerned as the jailbird was an unsavory character...

later was able to ditch the jailbird and then a VW van full of jesus freaks from Gunniston (reputed to be the coldest place in the US) picked me up and took me to Riverside...I remember my feet defrosting in my boots from the gentle heat of the van heater...

never did see no coyotes...

I'm amazed we ever reached the age of 30 some of the things we got up to Toots.

I hitched from Cairns to Adelaide about '77, slept by the road between Sydney and Canberra. It was freezing by Aussie standards, half an inch of frost on my blanket, and I woke up to see this guy in a car watching me. Decided he wasn't waiting to offer me a lift so I grabbed my stuff and disappeared into the scrub.

Often wondered if it was the Belanglo State Forest serial killer trying to build up his courage to grab his first hitchhiker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpacker_Murders#Ivan_Milat

^Ahh ole Ivan Milat.....the scapegoat, its his brother who you should still be worried about

No way is Richard Milat gonna get me.

I think the coppers got it pretty right anyway.

It's amazing we survived MANY of the things we did in our youth... and many of them didn't include other people. I remember logging and mining accidents that were insane and never should have happened. And, if todays Workers Compensation rules were followed they never would have. Most of my near misses happened either logging or while on hunting trips in the wilderness of BC.

But, probably the most risky thing I've done is what I do on a regular basis right here in Thailand... ride around in Thai traffic on a motorcycle. You have to have your awareness antenna up 100% of the time and even that's not always enough.