Coyotes on the Cliff in Daly City, by Mark Citret
27 Apr 2012 2 Comments
in coyote behavior, hunting, reactions to a human
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- Coyote Stalking Gopher
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- Coyote Going For Gopher
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- Coyote Checking Me Out
Pounce, Catch, Toy With
27 Feb 2012 2 Comments
in coyote behavior, hunting, video
Here’s a pounce and a catch, followed by toying with its prey. Have you ever noticed that coyotes are similar to cats in some of their behaviors? Both coyotes and cats bury prey that they either don’t want or want to save for later. They both arch their backs in the same halloween cat like fashion when threatened. And, as this video shows here, coyotes, as cats, sometimes “toy” with their prey, batting it around or tossing it in the air and then watching it before consuming it.
Taking Aim
23 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
Here’s a cool photo. Note the intense focus right as a pounce is about to happen. The coyote has taken aim and has just backed up enough to gain maximum spring in his leap. He’s already begun his upward motion with a raised arm, which will allow him to forcefully punch his prey, thereby incapacitating it. The punch occurs sometimes with the forepaws and sometimes with the snout. In this instance, the coyote came out empty handed.
Intruder!!
18 Feb 2012 Leave a Comment
in coyote behavior, coyote living areas, group activity, hunting, territoriality
These photos above show the wary interloper coyote carefully and quickly passing through.
Coyotes are territorial, and they guard and protect these territories. Seldom have I seen intruders — the coyotes I repeatedly see in different parks are resident coyotes who are very at home in their territories. Today I saw an intruder — but I wasn’t able to figure this out until I had gone home afterwards to blow up my photos — coyotes look quite different from each other once you get to know them, but when the lighting is bad and the distance is great, sometimes this isn’t immediately apparent. At the time I wondered why one of the coyotes was so on edge and tense, keeping a huge distance, tail down and wary, looking around and fixating into the distance, and finally hurrying off as if to avoid something. There were no dogs around, but the coyote was uneasy anyway. I followed it over the crest of a hill.
Here I caught up with the coyote, or so I thought, but its energy had changed drastically. Rather than being wary and skittish, the coyote was energized and exuberant, excited and enthusiastic, rushing this way and that, sniffing all over the place and obviously onto a scent. Within minutes I saw a buddy of this coyote’s in this same mode — these two are friends who spend most of their time together. These coyotes were absorbed and focused in a frantic sort of way. They were following the scent of something, loosing the trail, jumping and running about, and then picking it up again. They covered quite a distance which baffled me, because any rodent or raccoon or even a domestic cat would not have been able to cover the distances that these coyotes were sniffing out and rushing through. It was not until I got home and examined my photos that I realized that the first coyote was an intruder, an outsider, and the other two coyotes were intent on finding it and flushing it out.
Once before I had seen a stranger coyote pass quickly through an established territory. When one of the resident coyotes appeared in the vicinity some time afterwards, it caught the scent and followed in this same manner. I’m wondering what might have happened if the resident coyotes had caught up with the interloper? As it was, I don’t think they ever did.
These photos below show two coyotes excited and enthusiastic, on the trail of the first.
Coyotes vs. Nutria, by Jen Sanford
11 Feb 2012 4 Comments
in coyote behavior, hunting Tags: coyote, coyote behavior, coyotes, hunting
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Nope, no birds involved, sorry. At Ridgefield yesterday I watched a pair of coyotes try to take down a nutria and fail miserably. I thought I was about to vomit my lunch while watching a nutria get torn in half, but nope. He made a run for it down into the slough. But it was still cool to watch.
From Janet: I want to point out that coyotes often hunt in pairs like this, especially when there is larger prey than a gopher involved. Also, coyotes, like the rest of us, don’t always have the same skill sets, most of which have to be learned through practice and through watching other coyotes. All the bites by the coyotes were to the nutria’s back: I wonder if they were trying to break its back to incapacitate it? Or, might they have been trying to pick it up to carry it off, but unable to do so? It looks like the nutria endured several puncture wounds — I hope its injuries were not too severe. Nutrias were “eradicated” from California, but they still inhabit Oregon. Thanks, Jen, for sharing your posting and superb photos!
This posting and photographs were republished, with permission, from Jen’s site i used to hate birds.
Leaps n’ Bounds
20 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in coyote behavior, exploring, hunting, video
I guess something exciting caught this fellow’s eye as I followed his movements from across a street. Whatever it was, it got away! The coyote ambled on, as he had been doing before the leaping began. Better luck next time.
Scouting Around A Log
15 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in coyote behavior, curiosity, foraging, hunting, Uncategorized, video Tags: coyote, coyote hunting, coyotes, urban coyotes
A coyote stops at a log to scout for a possible meal. The scrutiny was intense and thorough, but yielded nothing! I didn’t start the video until most of the exploring was already over, but you can see from the stills I took before the video that the coyote was all over the log. I didn’t see any digging, just poking and sniffing, so I assume it was scent and not sound that drew the coyote to the log.
There Is Something Exciting In There
11 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in coyote behavior, coyotes and dogs, hunting
This bush is actually called Coyote Brush! The coyote stopped when he got there, sniffed it, then got up on its two hind legs to reach higher. But that did not help accomplish anything. So finally the coyote leaped up to get even higher, and repeated this several times, falling to the ground rather clumsily after each leap! There must have been something pretty exciting in that bush. However, the coyote’s efforts ended there because a dog from a distant path spotted the coyote and came bounding up in pursuit. The coyote fled the scene. The dog, too, then became interested in the bush and sniffed it intensely for a minute, but the dog was not as resourceful as the coyote had been in his attempts to reach whatever was there. When the dog’s owner called, the dog returned to the path. I later returned to the bush to try to figure out what had been there — whatever it was, it was long gone, so it will always be a mystery.
Coyotes Like To Check Things Out Thoroughly
04 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in coyote behavior, curiosity, exploring, hunting
Here a coyote is stretching up high to check out a tree stump — coyotes are very curious and inquisitive, and they can be very purposeful. They normally trek along, sniffing at ground level or at eye level, but I also have seen coyotes climb the lower branches of trees when they’ve seen a squirrel there, and I’ve seen them jump high onto an unlikely rock ledge to check out a sound, smell or something they saw. Here, the coyote headed for the tree as if it knew what might be there, and scrutinized it intensely — he seemed to know exactly what he was looking for at that particular spot. He spent over a minute engaged in this activity. However, he left as empty-mouthed as when he arrived. I later checked out the tree stump for myself. There were two large hollows where the coyote had been exploring. One was about a foot deep and the other was about two feet deep. Each was about 8 inches across. Nothing was in those hollows — and they were too close to the ground to serve as wise critter nests.
My thought is that the coyote had found something very interesting there before, or maybe another critter had recently visited this spot leaving its scent there? Seeing this coyote check out the tree reminded me of how keen the memory is for canines. My own dog remembered the exact tree, way off the beaten path, in a heavily wooded area that we had visited only once a year or two earlier. At that time, a raccoon had run to that tree for protection. My dog had followed and watched the fellow watch him from the crook of the tree. Memory of the raccoon incident, and its exact remote location in the middle of nowhere, from a single incident long ago, astonished me because I had totally forgotten about it until my dog ran up to that tree again.
Kickin’ High
26 Oct 2011 2 Comments
in coyote behavior, hunting, video Tags: coyote, coyote behavior, coyotes, urban coyotes
This coyote is totally absorbed in the job at hand, totally focused. The high-strung tension is palpable as he hesitates and wavers. He holds back, preparing for his big move. He finally lets go like a wound-up coil when he thinks the time is right. Watch those legs fly! In spite of the effort, the vole evaded capture.
