Today I was photographing this little coyote when I noticed what looked like “heaving” as if it were going to upchuck. Sure enough, I had my camera right on the little fellow when whatever the problem was came up and out. The coyote looked disgusted at what came up, it sat down to rest a minute and then wandered out of sight. I was alone now. This was my opportunity to see what had “come up”. I went over to the location, but decided that it really wasn’t my “thing” to analyze the stuff, so I took several photos instead.
Then, something interesting happened. AS I was taking the photos, who should I see coming purposefully towards me, but the mother coyote. She was headed directly towards me with an intent gaze. I decided to move off quickly — my immediate impression was that the upchucked stuff I had been looking at was not to be interfered with. I watched as the mother went right up to the spot I had left. She spent some time there sniffing it out intensely. She must have seen the little coyote spit it up. Otherwise could she have been drawn to the area in the first place by the smell? Was she trying to figure out why this piece of food was bad? Did it really smell bad? Don’t coyotes avoid bad food? After it had all been checked out to her satisfaction, she trotted off to a rock on which she curled up. I didn’t see her go back to the spit up area again.
I’ve noticed several dead rodents on the ground — maybe four in the last few days. They were all soggy, but entirely whole. One was a rat. Could these have drowned in the recent rains we’ve been having — someone told me this was not unusual. Or could one have been poisoned by humans? Coyotes, after all, eat carrion. I’m wondering if the coyote ate a dead rodent that was bad? No way to tell without analyzing the stuff, and I’m not up to that.
