Coyote Facts

Ref: Live Science

Coyotes are members of the Canidae family and share a lot of the same traits of their relatives: wolves, dogs, foxes and jackals. They have narrow, elongated snouts, lean bodies, yellow eyes, bushy tails and thick fur.

Known for howling at the moon, coyotes hunt at night and howl to communicate their location. They are also known for being "wily"; in fact, they are very smart creatures and have a heightened sense of hearing, smell and sight.

Size

Coyotes are about as big as medium-size dogs, though they are smaller than wolves. They are 32 to 37 inches (81 to 94 centimeters) from head to rump, according to National Geographic. Their tail adds another 16 inches (41 cm) to their length. Coyotes typically weigh about 20 to 50 lbs. (9 to 23 kilograms).

Coyotes' fur may be gray, white, tan or brown, depending on where they live. Coyotes that live in the mountains have darker coats and ones that live in the desert have lighter coats.

Habitat

Coyotes live in North America and roam the plains, forests, mountains and deserts of Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central America. Some even live in tropical climates.

As humans take over more and more countryside, coyotes are adapting to living in cities to find food. In fact, it is becoming more and more common to see coyotes in big cities like New York and Los Angeles.

Habits

Coyotes are solitary creatures and mark their territory with urine. When hunting deer, however, they use teamwork and form packs. They take turns pursuing the deer until it tires, or they may drive the prey toward a hidden member of the pack, according to the University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web (ADW).

These hunters are nocturnal, meaning they sleep during the day and hunt at night. This is why people usually only hear coyotes howling at night. Coyotes also use other noises to communicate. They use three distinct calls — a squeak, a distress call and a howl, according to the ADW.

Diet

Coyotes are not picky eaters. They eat small game such as rodents, rabbits, fish and frogs, and larger game like deer. Their diet is 90 percent mammalian.

They are typically thought to be only meat eaters, but they are actually omnivores — they eat meat and vegetation. When they aren't snacking on bigger prey, they will eat snakes, insects, fruit and grass. Coyotes have been known to kill livestock and pets, but they usually help control agricultural pests, such as rodents. In cities, coyotes will eat pet food or garbage.

How Dangerous Are Coyotes To Humans?

Although coyote attacks are rare on humans, they do happen and are becoming more frequent.

Between 1976 and 2006, there were at least 160 attacks on adults and children. To give some insight as to the increase of aggression, in the five years between 1998 and 2003, there were as many attacks as there had been in the previous nine years between 1988 and 1997.

Due to the small size of coyotes compared to most adult humans, they rarely cause severe injuries to adults. Coyotes generally do not hunt in packs large enough to injure a full-grown adult seriously.

Because of the child's size, many attacks have taken place on children. There were 83 attacks between 1978 and 2018. Between 1978 and 2003, there were 35 attacks on children that would have been likely serious or fatal if the child had not been rescued from the coyote attack.

There have been approximately 130 attacks on adults since records began in 1978 with very few serious injuries. A lot of these attacks happened to pet owners where a coyote had attacked the dog. The owners then tried to defend their dog, causing the coyote to attack them as well. So do be warned, leaving your pet's food outside is inviting coyotes into your space.

We Hunt Coyotes

We believe the only effective way to deal with the growing population of these animals is to hunt and remove them. Here you'll find a few pictures and videos of our recent activities ...