Coyote
Coyotes are among the fastest animals in North America sprinting up to 45mph. Coyotes (Canis latrans) are members of family Canidae. They are closely related to the gray wolf (Canis lupus), the red wolf (Canis rufus) and the domestic dog (Canis familiaris). Foxes are more distant relatives. Markings- silver gray coat with legs, ears and snout tinged with red and brown. In the West, coyotes weigh about 20-35 pounds, more in unexploited areas such as Yellowstone National Park.
Coyotes are generalists eating mammals, insects, birds, fish, reptiles and vegetation. The majority of mammals are small rodents but they also prey large ungulates up to 15 times their weight.
Coyotes keeps rodent populations down. It is easier to prey on small mammals but efforts to eradicate rabbits and voles and prairie dogs force the coyote to seek alternative food, ie. livestock.
There is an alpha male and an alpha female, much like in wolf social organization. Generally, the alpha pair are the only breeders with the betas helping to raise pups, gather food and defend territory. Only rarely are beta pairs allowed to mate.
Foraging skills are taught to the pups but if the pack is fragmented this learning does not occur. These separated subadults tend to be the ones they prey on livestock.
Courting begins in December and by mid-February the alpha female ovulates. It is only this one time per year that coyotes ovulate or have a chance at producing young. After 63 day gestation period, pups are bornhelpless and blind in mid to late April. The alpha female, alpha male and beta all join in rearing of the pups. The pups are out of their dens by mid-summer.
Litter size is an average of 4-9 pups but only an average of 2 survive their first year. With the wolf introduction in Yellowstone, coyote populations have diminished.
Prior to the 1900s the coyote was primarily found west of the Mississippi River. Now the coyote's range permeates 49 of 50 United States, Hawaii being the only state not inhabited. They are territorial and defend their area against other coyotes. Some natal dens documented in the 1940s are still being used today.
Culling a coyote population can have the reverse effect of boosting population numbers. In exploited populations, animals breed earlier and litter size increases. Killing coyotes as a means to reduce population size does not work. In order to share the landscape, humans must change behavior and manage themselves. There is a "predator control paradox" with the more killing of coyotes the more losses of livestock.
The U.S. federal government spends $10 million per year on lethal control of coyotes and other predators under the guise of protecting livestock.
In Montana alone the USDA Wildlife Services Program killed 8,458 coyotes during the fiscal year 1998. They killed 77,997 coyotes across 17 western states. The program does not work. An 8% increase in coyotes killed over the past decade show no decline in livestock losses to predators.
The funds spent on lethal predator control ($20,049,426) in 1998 greatly outweigh reported losses due to predators ($7,199,017).
There are no laws regulating the hunting of coyotes.
Learn More
Wildlife "Services"? [PCA Report, April 2002]
