Coyote Yipps

I enjoy walking in the rain: I like the quiet and the sense of peace as I walk. There is a sense of focus much closer to oneself and less “out there” than on clear days. If it is too cold my fingers get cold and go numb, but if it is too warm my raincoat retains the heat and doesn’t breathe. However, if the temperature is just right, the rain can be lots of fun to walk in — I allow myself to “let go” when I’m this comfortable: allow myself to get wet, fall in the grass, slide down an incline or whatever, and enjoy experiencing all there is to experience in a good rain without guarding myself against it for fear of eventual discomfort, especially if I’m going to be out a while.

During my walks in the rain, I usually expect to find no animals, but this is less so in the springtime. Birds are all over the place, and so are other animals, including, sometimes, a coyote. In spite of steady rain, a coyote at times can be seen out in the open resting in a favorite spot and getting wet — maybe it experiences the same comfort that I do when the temperature is right. It would have been easy for the coyote to find shelter under a tree, but it didn’t. I’ve waited for a coyote to get up and leave under these conditions, and was surprised that it stayed put — I watched it bask in the rain for a couple of hours. Apparently rain, at least one that isn’t a driving rain, does not interfere with a coyote’s life.

If a dog and its owners walk by, the coyote might get up from its lying down position to a standing or sitting position. Otherwise, I’ve seen it stay curled up on the ground as it gets wetter and wetter.  However, they don’t like having the rain in their eyes — but this inconvenience isn’t bad enough to make them get up and leave. Of course, a driving rain might produce totally different behavior — I have only observed coyotes stay out in moderate rain. I saw a coyote only once in a driving rain, and that was only for a second. You can see the rain coming down in the photographs — hopefully this will be apparent on this blog.

A young coyote was out, calmly and nonchalantly sitting on a path this morning. The coyote watched a couple of people and their dogs. The dogs just looked at the coyote — their attention was on the coyote, but it wasn’t a riveted attention. They were just watching, seemingly with no need to go after the coyote. Both dogs had had previous encounters with a coyote, and the owners felt their dogs thought the encounters were not fun. We have all noticed in the last two weeks that the dogs in this park have ceased chasing the coyotes to the extent that they used to. These two walked on. Another walker and her dog walked by, as did a man without a dog — everyone comments with amazement on having coyotes in the city, and we exchange information on keeping it a safe situation.

I settled down to take some photos at my allotted 75 feet — I always hope to see some new behavior. I was crouched down when a man walked by on an adjacent path higher up the hill with his three dogs. I don’t know if the dogs saw the coyote or not, but the man did, and he didn’t like it, even though the coyote was over 150 feet away and minding its own business. The man walked on, but at the last moment — unprovoked — tossed a single stone at the coyote. The coyote did not see where the stone had come from, but the coyote was aware that something unexpectedly had hit it. The coyote was startled: it flinched and jumped aside. Then the coyote started looking up and around for where this missile had come from. The coyote made sudden jumps and leaps to the side, as if trying to avoid the same thing from happening again — the first one came out of nowhere, so might the next one do the same? It pursued this activity for about 5 minutes. It then headed into the bushes because more dogs and people were coming down the path. As it headed off, the coyote continued to be jumpy and to look around itself, still trying to figure out if the sky was falling!!

When I see coyotes resting on hill slopes, I can’t help but think of the children’s story about Ferdinand the bull, who cared for nothing more than to sit peacefully in a field and smell the flowers. Be that as it may, Ferdinand was taken to the bullring to fight because he was seen as the most furious bull in Spain — his finders happened upon him right after he had been stung by a bee.

There is a lot that goes on in a coyote’s life, but I have found that predominantly they want to remain peaceful, be left alone, and live their lives. This is what we all would like for ourselves. The peacefulness can be seen in the photos I’ve taken, day after day, of one or another coyote that I’ve found on a hilltop somewhere: basking in the sun, napping, watching contentedly as the world goes by. Some coyotes engage in this type of activity for a couple of hours at a time. Although most coyotes do not lie around in the open during daylight hours, even if it is in the distance on a hill, some apparently do.

Of course, coyotes are more active than this. I have seen plenty of hunting, playing with other coyotes, walking home. These all are fairly calm activities. And then I saw a coyote yipping: this was totally different. The yipping is a very intense activity, and I have only seen it in the daytime after dogs have chased a coyote. I have since become aware that coyotes are much more alert and active when dogs are around. This is because dogs are their chief threat in the parks.

When dogs are around, the calm “resting” I had initially seen so often, became more of a “watchfulness and monitoring”.  Dogs walking or loping by with their owners produce little reaction from a coyote watching from a hill top. But I’ve noticed that small hyperactive dog types, or dogs running wild off-leash, or two dogs instigating a fight or something resembling a fight, will cause a coyote to sit up at attention: coyotes do not like commotion.

Coyotes feel intruded upon by dogs coming after them or chasing them. But coyotes are also alert to potential chasers — a coyote can read this by a dog’s activity level, body language and gaze. A relaxed coyote watching from a hilltop may sit straight up if it senses the possibility of a dog threat. A coyote might also react to this with a blatant antagonistic display: hackles up, scratching the ground, teeth displayed. This could be frightening to a dog owner who is not used to it. Keeping dogs leashed can prevent a problem.

And during pupping season — May through October — the coyote’s alertness increases many times over, especially for coyote mothers: they are no longer just looking out for themselves, but during this time frame they are also watching out for their den areas and the pups themselves.

A coyote assesses, monitors, patrols for its own security. I’ve now seen coyotes do this in the early morning until dogs and their walkers leave the park. Ahhh, we do this too. To maintain our peaceful existence, we have our patrol cars to keep an eye on things: it’s a precautionary measure. When threats or possible threats are gone, our coyotes like sitting up on their hill tops, smelling the flowers, like Ferdinand