Love & Rigid Social Order

10 Nov 2010 Leave a Comment

by yipps in affection, coyote behavior, dominant vs. submissive, group activity, hierarchy, mother/pup learning

A coyote social order is maintained by rituals which constantly confirm who fits where in a group. Here, Mom goes through the ritual of enclosing the snouts of both of her offspring, 19 months old, in her snout and the confirmation seems to be appreciated by everyone — they seem to have interjected their snouts into hers for this confirmation. The two siblings often battle — the battles are only a few seconds long, but they definitely are there. Here, sibling #2 begins to dominate, but Mom walks off at one point and shows her teeth in another. Sibling #2 keeps peace by walking under his dominating sibling’s chin. In the end, the two siblings banter amicably.

Mom Teases & Tests

01 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment

by yipps in coyote behavior, family interactions, hierarchy, mother/pup learning, playing

In this sequence of photographs, a mother coyote catches a vole and then seems to tease the younger coyote to come and get it. He does so, but when he actually latches on to the vole, the mother is right there and encloses the young coyote’s muzzle with hers — a sign of her dominance. The young coyote immediately withdraws. The mother again runs off with the vole and ultimately ends up eating it. But the younger coyote watches, and HE is the one in the last photo who is licking his chops!!  This sequence may be about a mother reconfirming her dominance to an offspring who has been showing signs of dominance towards one of its siblings.

“Dad Sighted” by Charles Wood

25 Sep 2010 1 Comment

by yipps in coyote behavior, family interactions, group activity, mother/pup learning, reactions to a human

Friday September 24 I saw three of my coyotes.  I last saw Mom and a youngster September 13, and hadn’t seen Dad since August 31.  I had been seeing them fairly often for about a month.  I thought I understood their early evening rendezvous routine.  I felt I could count on seeing them almost daily at a particular time and place.  When I had come to that conclusion they stopped showing up.

In the 10 days since my last sighting I tried varying my visiting times.  Once I went after dark, walking with my dog heading south along the east side of the river, starting at the north end of the nature sanctuary.  About half way to their field, I heard some rustling in the dense wood and brush in the sanctuary.  I couldn’t see an animal even with my flashlight.  The rustling did morph into some obvious leaping, where brush and branches rattled for about two hundred feet at a lightening pace.  It sure sounded like a bounding coyote, evidently spooked by our presence.  A couple of times I went about an hour before sunset and wasn’t rewarded with a viewing.

Thursday September 23, impatient, I decided to enter their field.  Their field has their den and is south of a nature sanctuary.  I have observed them going in and out of that sanctuary and have also seen Dad and a youngster in an area to the north-west, across the river.  Before entering their field I visited that north-west section.  There I spotted some coyote scat on a dirt road.  I took a stick to turn it over and the dust underneath the scat was still damp.  It consisted of several fibrous palms seeds strung together with the usual brown material.  I wondered if my coyotes get enough to eat.  I then headed across the river and went south into their field.

Once in their field, I noticed more palm seed strewn scat on one of my coyotes’ roads.  I kept my dog on leash and walked south along their main dirt road.  I came to the area that has their den. A young coyote poked its head out of the dense brush, ears up and staring.  It held still for a moment and backed into the brush.  I left the field encouraged and waited on the river bank for an hour.  I didn’t see a thing.

The next day, Friday the 24th, as the sun was setting I watched from the river bank.  I hoped at least to see Dad who I hadn’t seen since the end of August.  Instead I had been seeing Mom.  There was a long period when the pups were first brought out that I would see them with Dad and never saw Mom.  I don’t consider it unusual to see only one parent.  I don’t have any certainty about why that should be so.

As soon as I arrived on the river bank Mom and a youngster showed up on the east-west dirt road.  Mom was fed up with something the youngster did and gave herself some space.  The two settled down for some waiting and watching.  I noticed Dad was near them.  I took a fairly clear shot of the youngster alone and recognize it as one of the two I saw in the rendezvous on August 31.  I’m hoping these three’s watching and waiting Friday is a clue that the other or other youngsters are still alive.  Friday’s youngster could not stay still.  Mom and Dad were vigilant yet also at times were curled up, their eyes either closed, looking down the dirt roads or looking at my dog and me.  The youngster was ignored by both Mom and Dad despite its attention seeking antics.  Mom and Dad had jobs and attended to them.

I’m thoroughly impressed by the consistency with which Mom and Dad do their jobs.  If their job is to sit still and wait, they sit still and wait.  If their job is to chase my dog and me off, they do.  I can’t imagine a coyote parent ever having to exhort “do as I say, not as I do!”  The youngster, obviously with “ants in its pants”, simply could not do as its parents and just sit still.  Yet it was not chided for ambling around.  Mom did snap at the youngster when in its amblings it disturbed her with body contact.  I read that as her saying “be a puppy, just don’t be one too close to me.”  In contrast, tonight Dad seemed better able to simply tune the youngster out, even when body contact was involved.

Posting written by Charles Wood. Visit Charles Wood’s website for these and more coyote photos: Charles Wood. His work is copyrighted and may only be used with his explicit permission.

More “Fetching The Kids”

20 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment

by yipps in care for the young, communication, coyote behavior, family interactions, mother/pup learning

I’ve seen a mother coyote “fetch” her fully-grown, one-year-old pups several times now. She seems to do this to remove them from a situation which she doesn’t like for various reasons. I have the impression that she also does so as a teaching device.

A few days ago two coyote yearlings were out playing and hunting in an empty park when a dog and its owner appeared down the path. Both coyotes watched intently as the dog and walker approached. Lately, one of the coyotes has been showing signs of friendliness to this dog and the dog has allowed the coyote to sniff it.

As the dog and walker moved on, the coyote followed them, sometimes approaching a little closer so as, seemingly, not to “miss” anything that might be going on. This situation is one the mother coyote has never liked. If she is ever present when a pup of hers is inquisitive about a calm dog such as this one, she herself intervenes by going into  her “halloween cat” hunched over, bared teeth display. This is a warning display: “keep away.” I think she does this as much for the “keep away” message towards the dog as for the example for her pups. She may feel a bit nervous and alarmed when her pups have their guard down in the presence of any dogs.

So yesterday, this mother must have been watching from the distance. I think she is always watching her pups from the distance, even though she doesn’t necessarily make an appearance. Although this mother coyote did not put on her warning display this time, she appeared suddenly out of nowhere. She ran by, kind of “low to the ground.”  She appears to have done so specifically to “fetch” the young coyote, who immediately followed her. At this point the second pup appeared, running after the other two. The usual “hugs and kisses greetings” were performed while the three were on the run. They all slithered out of my sight.

Then today, even before there were any walkers at all in the park, I watched this same mother coyote run up and “collect” her kids. Again, there was the affectionate greeting and then the “come with me” running which appears to be a magnetic pull to the young ones. They ran off, and I was about to call it a day. But not long afterwards, when the same walker and dog that I described above appeared, the mother, and only the mother, appeared suddenly and out of nowhere, as she often does, placing herself in plain view of the dog and walker. She seemed to be stating: “Just in case you come across my pups again, I’m here!!” It appeared that she had “fetched” them away earlier so that they would not encounter and be friendly with this dog!!

As the dog and owner walked away, I watched this coyote mom, now alone, eyeing a location far in the distance and then she disappeared. I didn’t give it much thought until another walker told me she had just seen three coyotes in that direction. I thought, wow, that mother coyote saw her pups over there and was over there in a flash. I went over to have a look, and yes, it was the same mother and the two pups that I have been talking about. They were taking one last look around before “heading in” for the day. Their walk “home” reminded me of my walks to and from elementary school when I was a kid: there was never any rush to get there, and the walk itself was an event loaded with activity and adventures. This is how sections of the walk home were for the coyotes. Although at times their trajectory was pretty direct, at other times one, two, or three deviated from the path and the others patiently waited! When I last saw them they were headed single file on a thin path away from where there might be walkers and dogs.

Still Looking Up To Mom: Coyote Behavior

20 Feb 2010 Leave a Comment

by yipps in care for the young, communication, coyote behavior, dog reactions to coyotes, monitoring, mother/pup learning Tags: , , , , ,

One early morning walker who was out early with her small dog had something interesting to say about her small dog’s behavior when the dog became aware of coyotes up ahead on a path. As the unleashed dog came over the crest of a hill along the path, it suddenly turned back and hugged against its owner’s legs. The owner said the dog was “asking to be leashed — asking for protection”!! When the woman herself reached the crest of the hill, she found out why. There were three coyotes. They were quite a distance away, but nevertheless, the little dog was nervous about them. The woman sat down, hugging her dog, and watched for a while and then she took a path which circled way around where the coyotes were. When I saw her again the coyotes had moved a bit, but they were still there.

The small leashed dog was actually trembling and began barking when it saw the coyotes again, yet at the same time, this dog was very curious about the coyotes, and vice-versa. I think with many dogs there is a “push-pull” interest about the coyotes. Coyotes appear so familiar to us all in many ways, yet at the same time they are sensed by the dogs as being so completely different from themselves. The woman took a quick photo and decided to walk on. That her dog had asked for protection — that he had asked to be leashed in the face of potential danger — was fascinating. Could this also have been meant as a message to the owner: “beware of what is ahead?” The same behavior had been described to me once before, but in this previous instance the dog had been a very large male Labrador.

While this woman was circling around I watched the coyotes. There were two young ones — they were very alert. But what was of primary interest was that they kept their attention on “mom” who was sitting up higher on a hill. The young coyotes moved around a little bit, but mostly they were still and strained their necks at times to keep their mother in view or to find her.

As a set of dog walkers went by in the distance, the mother went further up the hill where she was now hidden — she kept her eye on this dog group. I could not see her, but the young coyotes knew she was there and they kept their gaze on her. As the walkers and their dogs descended the hill I noticed that the mother coyote had come up behind them: she wanted to see them, but didn’t want them to see her! There must have been communication between the two young coyotes and their mother because the youngsters wandered slowly towards a brush area as they kept looking back at her — as if they were following her orders or getting her approval. After 25 minutes of continually returning their gaze to their mother, they finally slithered into the underbrush. These young coyotes are not quite a year old.

Like Mother/Like Pup: Coyote behavior

12 Jan 2010 Leave a Comment

by yipps in coyote behavior, fleeing, mother/pup learning, reactions to a human Tags: ,

Today I saw a coyote which I know to be nine or ten months old — this is full grown in coyote terms. Coyotes at this age are ready to move out on their own if they want, though some wait another year, or even remain with the family. I have observed this one’s mother over a long period of time, and now I’m seeing some interesting similarities and differences between the mother and this pup. I’ve seen no real behavioral similarities between this mother and her other pups. I have not seen the mother and pups together recently, nor have I seen the mother in a while.

In the early morning at first, as usual, I saw no coyotes. But then one was suddenly there where none had been. It was in the exact spot that its mother used to hang out to watch the world, sometimes for almost an hour. This one appeared to be following in its mother’s footsteps: it sat on a little knoll, at a safe distance, where it kept its lookout in several directions: up above there would be unleashed dogs and walkers, down below there would be unleashed dogs and walkers, and then there I was, on the same middle ground as the coyote but a ways off to the side.

The coyote never lay down, as its mother would have, but remained sitting upright. And it was on edge, I could tell, because the part of its body which was in contact with the ground was twitching: so the coyote was alert and ready, though it appeared pretty calm. As a dog — a dog which frequently chases coyotes — and walker passed on the far upper path, the coyote remained still and seated, only turning its head to observe.  And, again, as a man with his three dogs — non-chasers — walked on the path below, the coyote remained seated upright, but watchful. The coyote allowed me, off to the side, to take some photos in the bad light. I had seen the mom with a couple of her pups in this same spot once before for a short duration, but this is the first time I had seen this young coyote imitating its mother in this way.

“Observing” at this same location would have been a taught/learned/imitated behavior. But there also must be a predisposition to do so. Like mother, like pup? This coyote is the leader of its sibling. Is it destined to become a dominant one?

More loud walkers could be heard from below, and when the coyote saw them, it headed off, slipping into the brush area. But it reappeared again shortly thereafter, further along in a quiet area of the park, and began to forage — keeping me in sight but pretty much ignoring me. And then, with me not too far off and in plain sight, similar to its mother, it curled up on the ground by a tree. I, of course, took photos.

The biggest difference that I have seen between this coyote and its mother is that this one is much more ready to flee from humans and dogs — active humans and dogs — and has a much longer critical distance it keeps from them  – this difference may simply have to do with this one’s young age and inexperience. And the difference may also have to do with the fact that the mother is a mother. Motherhood brings with it dominance and leadership: one can sense that this is HER park — her territory — from the way she sits, from the way she interacts with other coyotes (the few times I have seen this), and from the way she expresses her dominance to the dogs that chase her: she does not just flee, but stands her ground. She has been dubbed “bold”.

The younger coyote, on the other hand, is much more careful and is always ready to flee — it would not, at this stage, stand up to another dog, nor stand its ground if it were chased. It would have fled rather than confront or offer resistance. However, this one has followed a couple of dogs (leashed dogs or dogs that don’t chase)  and their walkers, for a short distance off to the side of the path: this coyote has shown curiosity. Is it learning to become bold?

Most dogs are pretty keen on coyote scent, but they sometimes can’t figure out the time frame: they know the coyote has been around, but they really can’t tell if it just passed by or if it is still in the area. I know this, because some of these dogs would like nothing better than to chase — they only turn away because they think the coyote has already gone. I observed this today with this coyote.