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As a result, two yipping, barking and howling coyotes can sound like eight.

Scott Henke, a researcher at Texas A&M University, coyotes use many different sounds and pitches in one howl. Between October and December, the young disperse, seeking new territory.Ī pair or small family of coyotes can sound like a much larger group! According to Dr. In late summer or early fall, a family group of adults and youngsters (which can resemble a pack) may hunt together but most of the work is done by the adults.

They may venture off alone for a short distance while hunting and then rejoin their mate as the hunt continues. I’m betting on the crow to survive this encounter!Ĭoyotes don’t hunt in large packs like wolves, but in mated pairs. Hunting Style and the Famous “Howl”Ī Western coyote approaches a crow. You can prevent your small pets from becoming prey by keeping them indoors or accompanying them outside, especially at night. Larger dogs are generally more trouble than they’re worth to a coyote. Unaccompanied, unleashed small dogs are an even lower percentage. Feral or outdoor cats with their twitching tails in the night are an occasional food source for coyotes some research indicates less than 2% of their diet. After all, dead deer along our roadsides are sadly plentiful and require little effort on the coyote’s part. Coyotes will occasionally take down a fawn, but rarely an adult deer unless it’s already injured or ill. Some birds and small mammals like squirrels, rabbits, and chipmunks can make a meal year ’round. In summer, they also eat fruits, frogs, insects, snakes, goose eggs or goslings. As a result, the main diet of our coyotes are rats, mice, and deer carrion. Notice how much less fur it has than our coyotes!Īny wild animal wants to expend as little energy as possible in getting food. The Size of Our Coyotes : Less Than Half of the Size of a WolfĪ smaller Western Coyote probably hunting a mouse or even a grasshopper! Photo by Franco Folini (CC BY-NC-SA) at. Here’s a useful link from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for comparing the appearance of wolves and coyotes. But they are still far smaller than wolves and have a different appearance and behavior. Those genes are quite far back in their genetic history.) The wolf DNA has resulted in our coyotes being somewhat larger than western coyotes. (Rarely, if ever, does a coyote mate with a dog these days. As a result, according to an article published in the National Library of Medicine of the National Institues of Health, the current DNA of coyotes in our area is about 66% western coyote, 24% eastern and western wolf and 11% domestic dog. When the wolf populations in eastern Canada and New England were decimated by European settlers, western coyotes migrated east seeking abandoned territories and mates among the few wolves that survived. Well, our coyotes are much more coyote than wolf. You’ve probably heard the term “coywolf” applied to our Northeastern Coyotes ( Canis latrans thamnos). Let’s Start with the Facts about Our Northeastern Coyotes Their DNA: Are They Part Wolf? So now’s a good time to get better acquainted with coyotes. The breeding and pup-raising season is when most human-coyote interactions take place. That’s when you’re most likely to see two coyotes trotting along in the distance, see two sets of single tracks in a snowy meadow or hear a pair howling and barking in the dark. We’ll soon be entering the mating season for coyotes in Michigan, which runs from December through February or March. The first took place in 2016 with naturalist educator Laura Zoet who founded Nature on the Go, and the second earlier this month with Jonathan Schechter, a nature education writer for Oakland County’s blog, “The Wilder Side of Oakland County.” Ben VanderWeide, our Stewardship Manager, has hosted two well-attended, useful coyote presentations for Oakland Township residents.