Coyote
The coyote is a medium-sized wild canid native to North America and Central America, and one of the most adaptable predators on the continent. Slender in build, with a pointed muzzle, large upright ears and a bushy tail tipped in black, it weighs between 7 and 20 kg and measures roughly 75 to 100 cm from nose to rump, plus a tail of 30 to 40 cm. It thrives in an impressive range of settings, from scorching deserts and open grasslands to boreal forests, tropical pastures, farmland and busy city neighborhoods. Its diet shifts with the seasons and whatever is available: mice, ground squirrels, rabbits, deer fawns, birds, insects, fruit and carrion all feature regularly. Coyotes communicate through a rich mix of howls, yips and barks, especially at night. They live alone, in bonded pairs or in family groups depending on the season. Since about 1900 the coyote has spread from the plains to Alaska, the Atlantic coast and Panama, and it now lives in every US state except Hawaii.
What is a coyote?
The coyote (Canis latrans) is a wild member of the dog family, found only in the Americas. Its closest living relatives are the gray wolf, the eastern wolf and the red wolf, and like them it can interbreed with domestic dogs. The scientific name means "barking dog", a nod to the yips and barks it uses alongside its famous howl. The common name comes from coyotl, the word for the animal in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, which reached English through Mexican Spanish. A coyote looks like a slim, long legged dog of medium size, with a narrow pointed muzzle, large upright ears, a grizzled gray, tan or reddish coat and a bushy tail that it carries low, pointing down, when it runs (wolves and dogs tend to hold the tail higher). It is much smaller than a wolf and larger than a fox. Fossils show coyote ancestors living in North America for around a million years, so it is one of the continent's oldest native predators, even though many people today think of it as a newcomer to their towns.
How big is a coyote?
Coyotes look bigger than they are. A thick coat, long legs and large ears make them seem close to wolf sized, but most adults weigh only 7 to 20 kg, about the same as a medium dog such as a border collie. The head and body measure roughly 75 to 100 cm, the bushy tail adds another 30 to 40 cm, and an adult stands around 50 to 65 cm at the shoulder. Males are slightly larger than females. Size also changes with geography. Coyotes in the deserts of Mexico and the American Southwest are among the smallest, often around 10 kg, while northern animals are heavier. The largest are the eastern coyotes of the northeastern United States and eastern Canada, which carry some wolf ancestry from hybridization roughly a century ago; they often weigh 15 to 20 kg, and a few individuals pass 25 kg. Even so, a gray wolf is usually two to three times heavier than a coyote, which is the easiest way to tell the two apart in the field.
Are there black coyotes?
Yes, although they are rare. Most coyotes are a grizzled mix of gray, tan and rusty red, with a paler throat and belly; desert animals tend to be lighter and sandier, and mountain animals darker and grayer. Fully black, or melanistic, coyotes turn up only occasionally, and most reports come from the southeastern United States. In northwest Georgia, researchers documented up to nine black coyotes between 2003 and 2012 through trail cameras, captures and hunter kills, which is unusually many for a trait that is almost absent elsewhere. Genetics helps explain them. The black coat in North American gray wolves comes from a mutation that entered the wolf population long ago through crosses with domestic dogs, and the same mutation produces black coyotes. A black coyote studied near Atlanta had about 5.5 percent dog ancestry. Black coyotes are therefore real coyotes, not dogs or wolves, but their color is a small genetic souvenir of past contact with dogs. A large black canid in the eastern states may also simply be a feral dog, so a clear photo is the best way to know.
Where do coyotes live?
Few wild animals in the Americas have expanded their range as dramatically as the coyote. Before European settlement it lived mainly in the open plains and deserts of central North America and Mexico. Around 1900 it began to spread in every direction, helped by forest clearing and by the killing of wolves and other large predators. It moved north into the boreal forest and reached Alaska in the early 1900s, east to the Atlantic coast and Newfoundland, and south through Central America. Today it lives in every US state except Hawaii, across Canada, throughout Mexico and in Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. In Panama, camera traps recorded coyotes between 2016 and 2018 at the western edge of the Darién forest, the last barrier before Colombia, and biologists expect they may eventually reach South America. Coyotes do equally well in deserts, mountain meadows, coastal marshes, tropical pastures and farmland, and over the past century they have also settled in cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
What does a coyote eat?
The coyote's success owes a great deal to how it eats. It is an opportunistic omnivore, and its menu shifts with the seasons and whatever is available locally. Small mammals such as mice, voles, pocket gophers and ground squirrels form the backbone of its diet through much of the year. Rabbits and hares are taken regularly, as are birds, eggs, lizards, snakes, frogs and insects such as grasshoppers. In late spring many coyotes hunt deer fawns, and in winter they feed heavily on carrion, including deer and livestock that died of other causes. When fruit is in season, coyotes eat berries, persimmons, prickly pears, watermelons and other plant food with obvious enthusiasm. In cities, studies of droppings show that most coyotes still eat mainly wild food, but fallen fruit, compost, pet food left outside and unsecured garbage also find their way into the diet, and some individuals take cats or small dogs. This broad approach to feeding means the coyote rarely goes hungry, no matter the environment.
How do coyotes hunt?
Coyotes adjust their hunting style to the prey. For mice and voles they rely on hearing: a coyote stands still in a field, tilts its head to pinpoint a rustle under the grass or snow, then leaps high and pins the rodent with its front paws in a pounce much like a fox's. Rabbits and hares are run down in short, fast chases, helped by a top speed of around 64 km/h. Larger prey calls for teamwork. Pairs and family groups cooperate to take deer, especially fawns in spring and adults weakened by deep snow in winter, with one coyote often distracting the mother while another goes for the fawn. One of the most remarkable partnerships in North American wildlife is between coyotes and American badgers. The badger digs into ground squirrel burrows while the coyote waits at the surface to catch anything that bolts out, and squirrels that hide underground from the coyote are dug out by the badger. A 1992 study in Wyoming found that coyotes hunting alongside a badger caught about 34 percent more ground squirrels than coyotes hunting alone.
Why do coyotes howl?
The voice of the coyote is one of the most recognizable sounds of North America, and it has a purpose. Coyotes use at least a dozen different calls. A lone, rising howl lets a coyote announce where it is and find its family when the group is spread out. The famous group yip howl, a burst of howls, yips and barks from several animals at once, is usually given when family members reunite and also tells neighboring groups that the territory is occupied. Short barks and huffs are warnings, often aimed at a person or dog near a den. Coyotes call mostly at night and around dusk and dawn, and howling peaks in winter, during the mating season, and again in late summer and autumn, when the young of the year join in. Sirens and other long, wavering sounds often set them off. Their calls also play tricks on human ears: thanks to the mix of pitches and echoes, just two or three coyotes can sound like a pack of ten or more, which is why people often overestimate how many animals they heard.
Coyote pups
Coyotes mate in winter, mostly between January and March, and the pair often stays together for years. After a pregnancy of about 63 days, the female gives birth in spring, usually in a den she has dug herself or taken over from a badger or fox, or in a sheltered spot such as a hollow log, a rock crevice or the space under a shed. A litter averages about six pups, but it can range from two to twelve, and litters tend to be larger where coyotes are heavily hunted, one reason their numbers recover so quickly. Newborn pups weigh about 200 to 250 grams and are born with their eyes closed. Their eyes open at around 10 to 14 days, and at about three weeks they start playing at the den entrance. Both parents bring food, first regurgitated and later as whole prey, and older siblings from the previous year sometimes help. Pups are weaned at about five to seven weeks and leave the den area in early summer. By autumn they are almost adult size, and many young coyotes then disperse to find their own territory. If you find coyote pups alone, leave them: the parents are almost always nearby.
Adaptations
What makes the coyote so hard to displace is a combination of physical and behavioral traits that suit almost any situation. Its slender, athletic build allows it to reach speeds of around 64 km/h in short bursts, and it is a capable swimmer as well. Its senses of hearing and smell are acute, helping it detect prey or danger from a considerable distance. Perhaps more importantly, coyotes learn quickly and adjust their behavior in response to new pressures, including human activity. When persecuted in one area, populations tend to rebound quickly because litter sizes increase and more young survive to adulthood. This ability to compensate for losses has made large scale attempts to reduce coyote numbers largely unsuccessful over the long term.
Coyotes and people: are they dangerous?
People and coyotes have shared the land for thousands of years. In the stories of many Native American peoples, Coyote is a trickster, a clever and foolish character who shapes the world; in a tale told in several versions across western North America, Coyote steals fire and brings it to humans. Since European settlement the relationship has been rougher. Coyotes provide a real ecological service by controlling rodents and rabbits, but they also kill sheep, goats, calves and poultry, and they have been shot, trapped and poisoned on a huge scale. The US federal Wildlife Services program alone kills roughly 60,000 to 70,000 coyotes a year, hunters and trappers take hundreds of thousands more, and in many states coyotes can be hunted all year. None of this has reduced their range. Attacks on people are rare, and only two deaths are documented: a three year old girl in Glendale, California, in 1981, and a young singer, Taylor Mitchell, in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, in 2009. Most bites involve coyotes that were fed by people and lost their fear. Pets are at greater risk, especially cats and small dogs left outside. Not feeding coyotes, securing garbage and keeping pets supervised are the best ways to live alongside them.
Where it is found
The Coyote can be found in places such as:
