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Sunday 3 August 2014

Coyote

The name 'coyote' is derived from the Aztec word for a prairie wolf, coyotl.

A group of coyotes is called a band.

The average lifespan of a coyotes is eight to ten years in the wild.

Coyotes can be up to 3ft 6in long and have 42 razor-sharp teeth designed to rip flesh.


They normally feed on small mammals including ground squirrels and mice, although they also eat deer and livestock.

A coyote can hear a mouse moving underneath a foot of snow.

They can run at up to 45 mph and are excellent swimmers.

Coyotes make several distinctive sounds to communicate to their pack members as well as other packs. Their various barks, howls, growls and yelps each have specific meanings.

Coyotes use their howls and yipping to create a kind of census of coyote populations. If their howls are not answered by other packs, it triggers an autogenic response that produces large litters.


As an aggressive gesture to rivals, the coyote makes its tail bushier and turns it sideways.

Coyotes will sometimes kill livestock, which causes farmers to resent them. As a result, 400,000 coyotes are killed every year in the USA.

Coyotes 'play' with skunks in order to get sprayed and camouflage their scent making it easier to stalk other prey.

Coyotes will often befriend badgers in order to form hunting parties, the coyote hunts for faster-moving prey while the badger digs up burrows.

19-year-old Canadian country folk singer Taylor Mitchell is the only recorded adult person to have been killed by coyotes. She died on October 27, 2009 of blood loss after coyotes bit her while she was walking in Cape Breton Highlands National Park's Skyline Trail.

Taylor Mitchell

Around 2,000 coyotes live in and around downtown Chicago. One GPS-collared coyote and his mate even raised a litter of healthy pups inside a secret concrete den in the parking lot of Soldier Field Stadium.

Coyotes in the US have learnt how traffic lights work so they can cross the road safely.


1 comment:

  1. I am trying to locate the origins and/or research data relevant to this quote "Coyotes use their howls and yipping to create a kind of census of coyote populations. If their howls are not answered by other packs, it triggers an autogenic response that produces large litters." it was quoted verbatim in the National Geographic in august of 2016 in an interview with Dan Flores Author of the book Coyote America which was published in July of that year, two years after this post was made.

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