I was photographing Pronghorn, in Yellowstone, when they all took off at full speed. Then a cow Elk came galloping across followed by this coyote. The Elk had enough of a lead that she didn’t seem to be in danger, which was proven true a few minutes later and a mile or so down the road when I saw the coyote walking calmly through the sagebrush. Even though I wasn’t consiously thinking about it, clearly I was panning with the coyote. (7D2, 100-400 @ 400, 1/200 s, f/13, iso 800, tripod)
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Wow! What an amazing sighting! I love how you captured the running coyote with the beautiful background.
Way to be ready, Mark. It stands out nicely against the background, especially the face, which is so difficult to capture with detail during slow shutter speed pans.
(One note, however: this is a coyote.)
What a grand catch!! Great panning technique for sure.
Max, I figured that a single coyote wasn’t big enough to go after an elk, even a calf of the year (in late October). What’s the distinguishing characteristic(s).
Excellent pan job, with the coyote really quite sharp and the BG rendered with a very interesting texture!
There are several clues in this shot. First, I look at the proportions of the face and head. A longer, narrower snout and longer ears relative to head size are good coyote indicators. The shorter length of the legs and smaller size of the paws also help us identify it as a coyote. Of course, so much of this has to do with proportions and “relative” sizes of certain body parts compared to others, which is why it’s sometimes hard to tell from a distance. Also, fur coloration is another clue. Though gray wolves do occasionally have brownish/beige/golden fur, what we see on the legs here and mixed in on the body and face is much more common among coyotes.
I wrote a piece about differentiating the two species a few years ago. It discusses some of these points, if you’re interested in checking it out.
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Thanks. Your linked discussion is very thorough. It reminds me of how to distinguish a Downy from a Hairy woodpecker, which over a number of years and many, many sightings I can usually do… Guess I need to do a lot more wolf watching. Now, I’ll have to figure out how to separate a Coyote from a Badger… 
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I should add, Mark, that even though it wasn’t a wolf, “coyote chasing elk” is a much rarer moment. It’s something I’ve never witnessed—I’ve seen sequences of a coyote attacking a bighorn, and numerous times I’ve seen them playing tag back and forth with pronghorns—but this would be something new for me. It’s pretty special, and I’m a bit jealous.