Coyotes pass through my yard at night. Here's clips where a coyote, with emptty mouth, entered my backyard, and 3 minutes later, left with a meal in his mouth.
Coyote makes a kill in the backyard - YouTube
One cam, aimed at the driveway, is far enough & high enough to not concern coyotes. When the Yotes left that FOV, and headed into my backyard, I couldn't see where they went. Two routes were likely. So I put a cam on a table, right between the two likely routes. Video showed they didn't follow either of the two routes. So I moved the camera closer to the driveway.
I found the coyotes gave the cam a very wide berth, and seemed to keep an eye on the cam. And now, after moving the table & cam, they returned to the two routes I had suspected they used. Then I moved the table & cam, a 3rd time, to be closer to the path. Then the yotes walked a very different route.
My conclusion: The glow of the cam affected which route they took. The glowing IR cam was given a wide berth.
Coyotes are smart and cautious.
They're not startled when they trip my motion sensor driveway lights. They show no alarm at being suddenly lit up by floodlights. They're used to living amongst humans here in Seattle.
I initially figured IR lighting wouldn't phase them. I was wrong. Their behavior with IR LEDs close to them indicates they see IR very clearly.
1) It's not common White light, from Humans, which they've learned to ignore
2) It's IR light, uncommon in their human habitat, and they definitely pay attention.
I'm still considering getting some 940nm IR light sources, and placing them away from the camera. Then disable the 880nm IR LEDs in the cam, and place the cam near their path to get nighttime "Money Shots". I suspect Looney2ns sent them some ipcamtalk.com hats.
My Q: Will 940nm LEDs be as visible as 880nm LEDs to coyotes?
