There’s more to coyote lore than meets the eye.
To be sure, they are secretive and naturally seldom seen, and to the untrained eye, they appear to be as large or larger than a fully grown gray wolf.
But to those hunters and trappers who physically handle coyotes, on average, an Ohio adult coyote is more likely to weigh in at 30 pounds or so, even smaller than your neighbor’s collie.
Compared to a Labrador retriever at 70 pounds or more, most coyotes are relatively small in actual body size, but big in fur and even bigger in appetite. Of course, older male coyotes, especially alpha males can be larger.
Not picky eaters. Coyotes are primarily predators, but they don’t depend on a steady diet of puppies, cats, rabbits, and deer. Far from it.
Coyotes are not that picky
They will eat just about anything, including grass, fruits and road kill. In more urban areas, they’ll also enjoy a nip of dog food.
According to those who actually study coyote poop, called scat, the fact that piles of scat often contain deer hair doesn’t mean it is from a recent kill, but just as likely to be from a road kill carcass.
That’s debatable since an abundance of coyotes seems to correlate with a decrease in deer numbers. And certainly coyotes kill a significant number of newborn fawns in late May and early June when deer are birthing and coyotes are especially busy on the hunt to feed their litters.
Breeding
Coyotes breed during the late winter, most often during February and March. Like all members of the rather extensive canine family, coyotes will whelp, or deliver, their puppies in 63 days, give or take a day.
The alpha male of the family group does the breeding, that’s just the way it works in coyote culture. The alpha male is pretty much in charge of everything as long as the head female agrees. Go figure.
Prior to the breeding season, surviving males of the previous spring’s litter have been forcibly sent on their way. These disbursing yearly males will travel for miles, sometimes as far as 100 miles, in search of a partner, friendly pack, or a new home of sorts. This disbursement prevents inbreeding.
Litter sizes
It’s most interesting to look at the number of pups born each year. The size of the littler is closely related to several factors.
The availability of food sources is a key because the number of coyotes earning a living in a certain area is reflective. More coyotes mean less food, so typically smaller litters are born. Less coyotes mean more food and the response is larger litters born.
It’s not quite that simplistic, but it is nature’s way of balancing litter size, which can range from one to 12 and the underlying reason hunters and trappers can’t truly eliminate coyotes in any given area.
Coyotes are monogamous but only until one of the pair is killed or somehow removed from the family unit. If that occurs, new relationships are formed.
Rare to mate with dog
Although coydogs, can and do exist (the cross between a male coyote and female domestic dog), it is highly unnatural and quite rare.
Probably, suggest experts, it can happen when a disbursed male runs into a female dog in heat. It’s more likely, they say, the coyote would have the dog for lunch.
Where studies have been done to estimate the population of coydogs in a region, the number is less than 2 percent of the true coyote population.
There is solid evidence that coyotes can and occasionally do inter-breed with wolves of which there none in the wild in Ohio.
Related Content
- Understanding coyotes and their living habits
- How to understand coyote vocalizations
- Prime time coyote calling, February and March
Thanks, Mike, for this article.
“Coyotes are monogamous…”
maybe humans can learn something from the ‘yotes after all!
I have to argue your statement “Prior to the breeding season, surviving males of the previous spring’s litter have been forcibly sent on their way.” As I am getting my Master’s in Wildlife Biology and I focus on predator mammals, especially coyotes, which I have been studying for over 20 years – I do my best to keep up to date on the latest research on coyotes. I’m talking actual scientific research papers. Research shows this is not always the case. The males that disburse are those that have sexually matured. They are a territory and/or a mate away from becoming an alpha male. But many males do not sexually mature at one year (the usual age of disbursement) but instead, stay with the family unit as a helper for the next litter. They only disburse after they have sexually matured.
Also, for the sake of being factual, I have to argue your statement, “The alpha male is pretty much in charge of everything as long as the head female agrees.” Your statement suggests the Alpha female is really in charge. There is no research that backs this up. Coyote research is based on observation, and observation shows a pattern of behavior that suggests the Alpha pair are equals. Of course, we can’t talk to coyotes and ask them if there is true equity in their relationship. I always have problems with people using human constructs to define animal behavior. I once heard an interpreter define the monogamy of coyotes as “we could find no evidence of cheating”. When a puma mates with more than one puma, it isn’t cheating. It is the puma’s nature to find a willing mate. The scientific advantage is passing on its genes and diluting them against inbreeding which relates to their continued survival. But the puma is probably unaware of this advantage. Only humans define actions with meaning. Animals behave as is their nature.
it’s my Understanding that coyotes don’t really pack up. That what people see as a pack is more like a family. As the previous commenter noted the mails from the litter and females stick around and help with the young ones so you have 2 parents 2 or 3 one year olds and then growing pups so it can look like this 4, 5 or 6 animals in a pack but they’re not exhibiting pack behavior like wolves do. That would be a real problem.
Also, it’s my understanding that if an alpha gets killed then all the other coyotes in the area begin breeding so one would have to kill 75% or more of a Coyote population to put a Dent in their numbers or else they will grow back like weeds.