Join my pack? Coyote behavior
21 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in coyote behavior, coyotes and dogs, dominant vs. submissive, reactions to a human Tags: coyote behavior, coyotes, urban coyote behavior, urban coyotes
I’m remembering an incident that occurred way before I began this blog, about two years ago, when I met a coyote for the first time ever. I want to include it here because of the interspecies dynamics involving dog, coyote and human. It involved the first coyote I ever encountered, a coyote which seemed desperately bent on meeting my dog. We always encountered this coyote at the same spot, where it must have expected us — why else would we always encounter it right there? We almost always saw it before daylight. This coyote had performed for us — for me and my dog — several times previously: it had bounced up and down, it had leaped, it had turned and spun in circles — always stopping to see how we were reacting. I always watched these performances, enchanted and approvingly. A couple of times, when we arrived after daylight had broken, this coyote sat in the grass in the distance and watched my dog explore and forage. Yes, mine was a foraging dog. And my dog was not interested in the coyote. This behavior I have just described here occurred several times in the month since I had first encountered it.
On this particular day, we were early. It was pitch black outside. My dog and I were walking along a trail beside the road, separated from the road by a barrier. I saw the coyote ahead, on the trail, so I slowed down. The coyote saw us coming and actually curled up right on the path 50 feet in front of us. I knew that the coyote wanted to watch my dog. I stayed back and took photos — bad photos with my then point-and-shoot camera — but my dog continued on. As my dog approached the coyote, we could hear the sound of a car engine approaching — something unusual for this time of day. The coyote decided to cross over the barrier just as the car with its bright headlights came up the road. The blinding headlights obviously confused the coyote. “Oh no!” I called out: “We have to get away from the road, come”.
And this is where my interest in coyote behavior really kicked in. My dog followed me, but so did the coyote. It seemingly knew that I was leading it away from danger, it seemingly had submitted to my guidance — as if I were the pack leader — it had copied my dog. I headed towards a grassy area away from the road, and when I looked back: my dog was following me, and behind him, there was the coyote, sauntering along, as if it had joined my pack. The possibility that this is what happened has remained with me ever since that morning. I wanted to write it down. Once we were away from the road, the coyote tried unsuccessfully to engage my dog playfully several times, but then sat and watched. My dog, as usual, ignored the coyote: this was normal behavior for each of them.
Stealthy behavior in the dark: Coyote behavior
20 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in coyote behavior, coyotes and dogs Tags: coexisting with coyotes, coyote behavior, coyote vs. dog, coyotes, coyotes and dogs, urban coyote behavior
Today I was up way before dawn, so I headed out to see what kind of day it would turn into. It was dark and clear when I left home in the car. As I reached the top of a ridge it was both dark and foggy. Not too foggy, but foggy enough to create a glow around the street lights in the distance. The San Francisco area has wonderful diverse microclimates which can all be found at the same point in time within half a mile of each other. On one of the exposed roads it was windy, lower down it was totally windless. In a swampy area it was ten degrees colder than elsewhere.
I reached my intended park where I encountered a fellow walker — the only other pre-dawn walker I have come across — and we began to talk. We stood still, remaining in the same spot as we conversed. It was still dark. We then moved on, and as we did so, a form materialized out of the shadows about 40 feet away. The coyote was barely discernible at first and not initially easy to identify because of its stance and the way it was moving. After seeing the coyote for a moment, my first thought was that something was wrong, that maybe the coyote was sick or had been injured. The stance is one I’ve seen coyotes assume, but not maintain for any length of time. This coyote maintained it for this entire encounter. It had its hackles up, its back was curved up high while it kept its head down — it was a strong U-shape, and it was walking on tip toes very slowly and deliberately. It approached the dog that was with us within about 15 feet, but never got closer. Occasionally it pulled its lips back to show its teeth in a menacing sort of way. The dog ignored the coyote and continued walking on the path in front of us. The coyote backed up along the path, keeping its distance, keeping its eyes on the dog, and remaining in its hunched over position. It did not run off, but remained about 40 feet ahead. Then as we kept walking, the coyote disappeared off to the side somewhere after which we did not see it. It did not follow the dog.
This coyote must have been observing us the entire time we had been conversing in one spot. Possibly it did not like the dog lingering there? I actually had a totally different feeling from this coyote encounter than what I have experienced in the past — maybe because of the darkness, but also maybe because of the stealthy nature of the animal and its stance. I remained in the park, but the coyote did not approach anyone else — in fact, it is unlikely that anyone else even saw it while I was there. Later on I noticed it in the distance, just for a moment, where it looked perfectly fine and normal. It had been much too dark to take photos.
Coyote Signs
18 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in coexisting with coyotes, indirect signs of coyote presence Tags: coexisting with coyotes
Statistically, coyotes are not a danger to humans. However, signs have been posted on various trails in and around the San Francisco area to let people know that they are around. In these areas it is best to keep our dogs leashed. Although coyotes tend to ignore humans, they do see dogs as potential threats to their territories. The most important rule we have learned about coyotes is to never, never, ever feed them. Breaking this one rule is what upsets the natural balance and often leads to aggression towards humans.
The signs only seem to appear in areas close to urban settings, where one might not expect these animals to appear. I still run into people who are astonished that a city would have much wildlife at all, much less a coyote. Coyotes have not been associated with urban environments until fairly recently. However, in outlying areas, where coyotes have always been a natural part of the environment, signs of this sort are not posted, as far as I have seen.
Communication: Coyote behavior
15 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in care for the young, communication, coyote behavior, dominant vs. submissive, group activity Tags: coyote behavior, coyote communication, coyotes, urban coyote behavior
I clicked away at three coyotes I saw this morning — not a usual sight. I really couldn’t see much detail until I got home and blew up the photos. It is the zoomed-in photos that allowed me to see what was going on — but not what it was about. One of the coyotes had a wide gaping mouth in many of the shots — it is almost a smile if you look at the eyes: possibly a need to comply? This one also tended to keep its ears low and out to the sides. Another coyote had its teeth bared and lips pulled back — the others followed this one as it eventually walked up the hill. The third coyote stood back and stayed back further. I would think that a snarl and baring of teeth would either signify displeasure, or it may have been a threat or even a command, but I did not have time to observe long enough to be able to say for sure. There was also body contact as two of them walked side by side. The coyotes followed each other at first, and then slowly, one by one, they slithered or bounded into the brush.
What Does The Yipping Mean?? I wanted to mention another behavior which surprised me. I was at one end of a park photographing a juvenile coyote which was hunting. The coyote caught a muddy gopher and carried to the middle of a hill where the coyote lay down to eat it, right there in an open area of grass, in plain view. When the coyote was finished, it began wandering on the hillside. As it did so, I heard the coyote’s mother begin an intense barking episode on the other side of the park. It flashed through my mind that I might be able to see how coyotes react to “communication”.
But there was NO reaction whatsoever: no hiding, n running towards or away from the barking, no tensing up. There was total unconcern, and absolutely no change in this coyote’s meanderings on the hillside. When I reached the other side of the park, sure enough the mom had been chased by a dog and was letting everyone know that she was upset. She ended up climbing to the top of some high rocks where she continued her barking for 20 minutes or so. So, obviously, the barking was not a communication to other coyotes. It was just a display to the dog who had chased her. Also, could it have been an emotional release?
Then, the very next day, I was in the vicinity of the mom who was basking in the sun in her normal fashion, when coyote yipping began across the canyon. This would have to have been one of her offspring. In this case, the mom did sit up and listen, cocking her ears back and forth, but she remained put, and eventually lay down to bask some more. The yipping went on for about ten minutes. It appeared that the mom could assess the danger of the situation from the yipping she was hearing. I have seen a non-yipping situation where this mom raced down the hill to aid her pup who was being chased by a dog. Hmm, coyotes seem to be able to size up the danger of a situation pretty accurately.
See entry on December 28th: “It’s a Boy!”
Mother/Pup: Affection/Protection
14 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in care for the young, coexisting with coyotes, communication, coyote behavior, coyote reactions to dogs, coyotes and dogs, coyotes defending themselves, group activity Tags: coyote behavior, coyotes, coyotes and dogs, coyotes defending themselves, urban coyote behavior, urban coyotes
I saw lots of coyote affection and protective behavior this morning. I was waiting for the rain clouds to blow by so that I could get a shot of the crescent moon. I like moons. I was sticking the camera back in its bag when I noticed a young coyote only about 30 feet in front of me. It had to have just arrived and sat down. It was too dark for photos except that of the moon. The coyote allowed me to look at it for about a minute before it headed off walking, and then disappeared.
A few minutes later, I heard a walker whistling loudly. He and his dog were coming up a distant trail. The coyote apparently had heard or seen this walker, because I saw it suddenly run away from the walker. It sat down to watch. Neither the walker nor the dog saw the coyote.
At about this time the mother coyote appeared on the scene, right in back of the young one, and sat down. The young coyote was ecstatic to see her: there was jumping up, muzzle contact, licking of the face of the young one by the mother, licking of the mother’s back by the young one, body contact. This affection frenzy lasted about three minutes. My camera settings were out of sync — so the photos are totally blurry, but I posted a couple anyway: they convey what they need to.
Then both coyotes sat, one in front of the other, watching the area where the whistler had stopped to talk to someone. This man soon walked on. Things appeared calm, so the young coyote got up and walked around for about 6 minutes.
This is when the first set of dogs appeared. These were two unleashed dogs which rushed right after the coyotes. The young coyote disappeared into the brush area, but the older, protective mother, after initially fleeing, came back, as is her normal behavior. She assumed her defensive stance: hackles up, pawing the ground, snarly face. One dog returned to its owner. The mother coyote made short charge-and-retreat motions towards the dog that remained to try to get it to leave. The owner of this dog called, hyper-hysterically, and ineffectively, for her dog to return. Eventually, the dog slowly made its way to its owner, whereupon the owner leashed it and departed.
Even before this first incident was over, three more unleashed dogs appeared, all belonging to one owner. They also ran after the coyote — the owner had absolutely no verbal control of her dogs. She seemed resigned to them going after the coyote, even as she ineffectively called them. I tried to let the owner know that this was a mother coyote who was going to defend her pup. The coyote was leading the dogs away from where her pup was in the brush. The owner of the three dogs decided to leave them — they were nowhere in sight. She went back down the hill. Then the mother coyote started barking, which is how I found where she was. The three abandoned dogs were near by, out of breath, and looking for their owner but couldn’t find her. The largest of the three dogs decided to go after the coyote again, causing the coyote to dash off to a hill further off where it continued its barking. The dogs, I assume, were eventually reunited with their owner, because the coyote was no longer being pursued by them.
This entire episode, or I should say two consecutive episodes of two and then three dogs going after the coyote, took about 18 minutes. On the hill the coyote barked distressingly for another 3 minutes before calming down. With the dogs gone, she moved higher up the hill where she relaxed for about 45 minutes, keeping an eye on the spot where her pup had hidden.
Fleeing: Coyote behavior
11 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in coyote behavior, coyotes and dogs, coyotes defending themselves, dominant vs. submissive, fleeing Tags: coyote behavior, coyotes, coyotes fleeing
In contrast to the dominant coyote in the previous posting which felt secure enough to sit out in the open while watching and assessing the walkers and dogs in a park, this coyote here immediately became alert when it heard dogs and humans approaching in the distance. When I first saw it, it was walking as if it needed to get away. It was on the move and very aware of “danger” to itself from the possibility of a human or a dog encounter. It didn’t seem to be headed in any particular direction, rather, it was assessing its immediate options for fleeing: looking around in a nervous sort of way for escape routes and for exactly where the “danger” was. It climbed up on a rock for a better view, but it could not see any more than when it had been on the ground. As the noisy group of dogs and walkers came down a main path, several hundred feet away from the coyote, the coyote suddenly dashed, swoosh, into a dense brush area where no dogs or humans could follow. I did not see it again. None of the humans saw it, and if a dog saw it, it did not go after the fleeing coyote. I noted that this coyote was visible for less than 4 minutes.
This particular coyote has always reacted to human and dog sounds in the manner described here. Although it has allowed itself to be seen for a few moments, it always has dashed off shortly thereafter. The behavior is consistent for this particular coyote and cannot be generalized to all coyotes. Each coyote is different. Each coyote is an individual. The same is true for the “monitoring” behavior of the coyote I posted below: that coyote is consistent with itself. It will also flee when it needs to, but it has a predominant need to “check things out”, which requires it to be out in the open more.
A Monitoring Morning: Coyote behavior
10 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in coyote behavior, coyotes and dogs, dominant vs. submissive, monitoring, what coyotes thinks about Tags: coyote behavior, coyotes, urban coyote behavior, urban coyotes
Today a coyote was midway up a slope, sitting and watching — intently watching. From its location it could see a number of paths. It kept its attention mostly on dog groups, swiveling its head and ears and following each group. When the last group of noisy dog walkers left the park — which was the same time it started to rain — this coyote stood up, had a huge stretch and yawn, and disappeared calmly into the brush. This coyote comes out to monitor dogs on an ongoing but irregular basis: it assesses which dogs might be a threat or competition to it, and it probably is making sure that no dogs might be trying to set up living quarters in the park. Since there are only a limited number of resources in any given territory, it is for survival purposes that coyotes need to limit who else might want to live in their own territories.
Compare this coyote to the one posted right above this about the fleeing coyote. Coyotes are very individualistic in their behaviors so that generalizations are difficult to make.
Two Young Coyotes Play
10 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in care for the young, communication, coyote behavior, group activity, playing Tags: coyote behavior, coyotes, coyotes playing, urban coyote behavior, urban coyotes
For half an hour I watched two young coyotes playing. When I first saw them, they appeared to be “wrestling”, but I was too far away for taking photos when I first sighted them. When I got close enough to take photos — never close enough for really clear photos, but at least you can tell what is going on — the coyotes stopped their activity, sat down and watched me. Soon they were playing again. There was lots of following one another and watching each other. There was lots of body contact and being next to one another and climbing over each other.
There was a “toy” — I could not tell exactly what it was: either a dead vole or a glob of hair or a small piece of wood. This toy was tossed, from a mouth, high up in the air with a flick of the head, and then it was leaped for. Later, one coyote held the toy in its mouth while the other watched, totally absorbed visually with the activity. The coyotes looked at each other often, eye to eye. They touched snouts. One opened its snout right around the other’s, or reached to touch the other’s from below. There was running towards each other, and leaping through the low growth until one followed the other out of my sight for the day. I noticed that there was a hierarchy: it was always the same coyote that was sitting, or crouched, or below the other.
Playfulness & Performing: Coyote Behavior
08 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in communication, coyote behavior, playing, reactions to a human, what coyotes thinks about Tags: coyote behavior, coyotes, urban coyote behavior, urban wildlife
Today I spotted a young coyote which I have named Silver. I name some of the coyotes to be able to distinguish them. This one seemed at loose ends when I saw it, and it continued to be at loose ends the entire time I watched it! All of its activities seem to emanate from boredom! Besides entertaining itself, this coyote appeared to be doing so for my benefit. I say this, because, just like a young puppy, it would engage in playful activities, and then look up to make sure I was watching!!
I was able to watch this for about half an hour, at a considerable distance, so the photos are not great. It seemed to be hanging out in the area with nothing to do when it became aware of me. It wandered around for short periods, and then stopped to look at me, very casually. At one point it looked down over a steep ledge — it appeared to have heard something, but did not pursue this. Then it meandered casually over to a rock, looked at me, and then tugged at something in the soil, stopping to look at me sometimes as it did so. Finally it had something in its mouth — one of the photos shows a white thing, almost the shape of a rice-cake. But a rice cake would not have been found here. It was not an animal. Anyway, the coyote chewed on this, then stood up, and then chewed some more at the back of its mouth before swallowing it. Then it meandered on.
A few minutes later it curled up on another rock where I noticed it had pick up some kind of human made wrapper. The coyote held this wrapper for a while before dropping it and getting up again.
Then it wandered over again to the rock where it had eaten the “rice cake”. Here it poked its nose into the ground and then moved the dirt over with a paw, and then it looked at me. Then it began tugging hard on something — it might have been a rooted twig. The coyote put considerable effort into pulling — it looked like a puppy playing tug of war. The item did not give way, so the coyote gave up.
Then the coyote meandered around some more and disappeared. I packed up to go and was walking off, when the coyote again appeared on the hill again, sitting. It was studying my actions. Finally it must have been time for it to go, because with a little more direction in its actions it went off to a steep incline where it bounded down, seemingly joyfully, pouncing and leaping high over the growth there as it went. It was gone for the day.
Dog Reactions to Seeing a Coyote
07 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
in coexisting with coyotes, coyote reactions to dogs, coyotes defending themselves, dog reactions to coyotes, human behavior Tags: coexisting with coyotes, coyote vs. dog, coyotes and dogs, coyotes and dogs are different
There are all sorts of dog reactions to a coyote. Some dogs never see a coyote which is right there in the open, some stop and look, some go after the smell without even seeing the coyote, some chase, some bark and chase, and some dogs ignore it.
Dogs seem to be calmer and more in control when they are leashed. If a dog is on a leash, obviously it will be the owner who is calling the shots, whether it is a mild dog or an active one. An owner can easily drag his pet away from a coyote if it is leashed, rather than having to call a distraught dog to him/herself first. Yesterday, someone told me of a bizarre incident which happened a year ago: that they were jogging early in the morning with their dog, when a coyote came in at them from the side, making a running leap to land on the dog. This itself is very unusual coyote behavior and the only instance that I’ve heard of it. The dog owner was able to yank the leashed dog, and the coyote missed its target! This happened last April, which is the prime pupping season — coyotes are much more territorial and protective of their areas during this time.
If a dog is not leashed, there are several ways the dog may react to a coyote. If the dog is more timid and obedient, it may look to the owner for what to do: the dog will either stay beside the owner or come when called. Some dogs have been told in the past to stay off of the coyote, and they do so. One of my friends has an obedient dog, which has been told to stay off of the coyotes, and it always does so. On one occasion, this dog hugged its owner’s leg as it walked. The owner sensed that there might have been a coyote around, even though he never saw it — the owner told me this was very unusual behavior for this dog. In this case, the dog was trying to communicate unease to the owner.
The majority of dogs are somewhat curious about coyotes — they know the coyote is something “different” from other dogs. But different dogs have different degrees of apprehension or fearlessness or sense of fun and adventure regarding the coyote, and they act accordingly.
If a dog is not leashed, and the dog is an active type out for its free run, the dog will often chase the coyote, thinking this is great fun. It may end up barking incessantly at the coyote once it gets within about 15 feet if the coyote does not flee. The coyote will easily outdo the dog in length and intensity of barking — this becomes boring or tires out the dog. However, it is only when the coyote turns to chase or nip at the dog that the dog really starts to think.
Please see my entry on “Coyote Safety” of 11/3, as well as the three entries on how coyotes react to dogs: “ANOTHER reaction to dogs” on 11/17, and “Some reactions to dogs” on 11/04. “Significance of a Seemingly Unprovoked Challenge” on 12/1. “Blatant Visual Message for Newcomer Dog” on 2/8/10. “A short back-and-forth chase:oneupmanship verging on play” of 2/4/10.
