Coyote Yipps

This coyote was sitting in the pouring rain — just taking it all in, so to speak. The rain did not let up the entire time I watched. When he finally stood up to go, he must have had several cups of water sponged into both his under and outer coats. But not for long. The shake-off began — shwoosh — causing a shower of water to fly in all directions in a three-foot circumference. And then he was ready to trot off — at least one pound lighter and very much drier than before.

Here is another instance of a coyote not being bothered very much by a torrential downpour.

This little coyote was relaxing on a rock, sitting upright and looking around, when I first saw him. Soon, he started gagging uncontrollably: whatever was not right had to be fixed.

First the coyote tried manipulating its jaw and tongue in an attempt to dislodge whatever was there. This didn’t seem to get very far — fixing the problem was going to require more effort than this. He then stood up in order to reach a grassy area where he began chewing the grass and ingesting it. Grass is eaten by dogs and coyotes to help with feelings of discomfort in the gut. But this, too, did not seem to solve the problem, because suddenly the coyote took off down the path, trotting very quickly and purposefully.

He trotted directly over to a rock about 100 feet away, where he must have known there was a puddle of water. And here, the coyote slowly sipped from the puddle of rain water held in the rock:  he looked relieved as he looked up between sips. That, apparently, was the remedy which was needed. When the coyote was comfortable again, curling up on a rock became the order of the day, and that is what the coyote did.

This coyote was walking, very cautiously and slowly, when it spotted a junk food wrapper in the middle of the road. He approached the bag and sniffed it, but then walked on a little further to a bit of food a few feet away, sniffing it carefully. I was a little disappointed when he picked up the bit of food — junk food is not good for coyotes. It must have been a potato chip or something similar.

I thought he had eaten it by the time he got to the curb. But no. He deliberately dropped it and then urinated on it! He must have deemed it unfit to eat! And the urinating on it was a message to other coyotes who might find the same piece of food! I don’t know if the food had gone bad, or if the coyote could recognize the worthlessness of junk food as a nutrition source!

I don’t get the impression that coyotes go specifically looking for something stinky to wallow on. Instead, something they “happen upon” elicits this response in them.  And almost all of these “somethings” are dead animals. Lizards, snakes, voles, a skunk, or cooked fish bones tossed by a human.

This coyote was sitting, standing and walking about on a large rocky knoll, in the rain, and ducking off whenever a person approached up a nearby path. He was successful at not being detected by anyone. But one of these “duckings off” took him over to a rock with a dead snake on it. Ahh. This immediately caught his attention. More than likely, this coyote had left the snake there himself. Snakes are prey to a number of animals in the area:  hawks, owls, raccoons, skunks and even cats. Dogs, too, in their inquisitiveness and playfulness might grab a snake and kill it. Snakes are consumed by all of these creatures except the dogs, I think.

And, I have never seen a coyote eat a snake — nor lizards nor moles. That these animals are particularly smelly is an important factor. Coyotes use them to wallow on in order to absorb their odor. And this is what happened here, in the rain. I have not seen rain be much of a barrier to coyote activity of any kind, but this is the first time I’ve seen wallowing in the rain. I would have thought that the rain might have diluted the strong smell, and maybe it did, but the coyote couldn’t resist what he would have done had it not been raining.

The coyote lowered its neck and shoulder first and then rubbed itself on the snake by scooting over it. He got up and placed the snake in a better position, and then repeated what he had done before, starting with his neck and shoulder again. Before leaving, he marked the spot with urine, and then trotted off.

As I watched, this coyote came purposefully trotting down a trail. She knew exactly where she was headed — to one of her favorite lookout posts, one that gave a birds-eye view of a large portion of her territory. She got to her post and just stood there, looked around, calmly, but carefully, looking in all directions. It was quiet and still. There might have been a dog walker — from my vantage point I could not see this, but from her gaze, I would guess it. One has to admire the purposefulness and the patience of this intelligent animal.

The survey continued for about twenty minutes, and then ended with a scratching session, after which the coyote descended rocks and a cliff to a dense thicket and disappeared therein. I have seen this same behavior before, with slight variations, though it is not routine.

This doesn’t look like a skunk, but it sure smelled like one — strongly!  The smell overtook everything in all directions as I followed far behind this hiker. History be told! Interestingly, I had just met someone an hour before who told me his dog had found a dead skunk a few days earlier, and that the odor remained incredibly strong on the dog’s muzzle, even though the dog had not been sprayed. I wonder if it was the same skunk.

Actually, it is just as likely that this coyote rolled on the odor pouch or gland of a dead skunk as it is that it was sprayed. Coyotes tend to love perfume — the smellier, the better. Dogs, too, engage in this activity — wallowing on smelly carcasses, or even grasses that have been fertilized with smelly substances such as fish emulsion.

Interestingly, I read that skunks do not spray each other — they reserve this defense technique to ward off possible predators.