Cunning Coyote
The Great Outdoors | March 1, 2018
By Jackie Scharfenberg, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
Welcome to the Cunning Coyote’s School of Life.
First lesson: Food Hunt
Wait for the dim light of dusk and dawn, the crepuscular hours, for the best hunting. Nocturnal hours overnight work okay and, in a pinch we can venture out in the daylight but dusk and dawn are the prime time for us to hunt. Fine tune your night eyes and let’s go! Ahroooooooo!
Head to the open fields where our keen coyote vision works the best to spy that elusive prey. In thick shrubs and forests, it becomes trickier and we must rely more on our superb sense of smell and terrific hearing to locate tasty morsels. After locating an animal, we either pounce on it, or run after it (up to 40 miles per hour) grabbing to kill it. Those city coyotes need to pull out all the tricks and use their wit to find food without people spying them.
When hunting alone, small animals fill the menu including rabbits, rodents, fish, frogs, snakes, and sometimes insects. Because we possess the proportion of a medium-sized dog, we sometimes form packs, especially in winter, to take down larger prey including deer or livestock like lambs and calves. Be warned – if you take down livestock, then the humans will want you exterminated.
Don’t fret if your hunting attempts fail. Use that nifty nose of yours to smell out some fruit, maybe watermelons, honeydews, cantaloupes, apples, or grapes. You will need to be sneaky so the farmer doesn’t catch you. As a last resort, sniff out some carrion (dead animals) to fill your belly.
Second Lesson: Coyote Communication
Scientists named us Canis latrans, which translates as barking dog. They have recorded us making at least eleven different sounds from woofs and growls, to yips, barks, and howls. The howl is used for long distance communications to find mates, defend territories, inform others of a kill, and sing for joy. Lean your head back and let out your best howl. AHROOOOOO! Awesome! With that howl, you surely will find a mate. We use the other sounds to speak when we’re close to each other.
Third Lesson: Family Life
Once you find a mate, locate a suitable site for den. Comfortable dens can be an old animal hole, a hole you dug, a tree stump or rock outcropping. In the city, a spot under deck or patio makes an excellent den. You will want a location with good visibility and drainage, so hillsides work great, too. Two months after mating, females give birth to three to twelve blind, helpless pups. They open their eyes at ten days old, emerge from the den at about 18 days, and stop drinking milk at five to seven weeks old. Pups reach full size in six to nine months old and maturity at about two years old. Sometimes young from the previous year will stick around to help take care of the new pups.
If you follow these life lessons, avoid humans, wolves, and cougars, and keep disease free, you may live to ripe old age of eight years or more.
