Buddies

: first coyote

: second coyote

: there you are!

: curled up across the way

: howling with the sirens

: two asleep

I saw these two coyotes about one hour apart, wandering around different parts of the same park. I lost track of them both until I noticed one curled up on a hillside several hundred feet away from where I had deposited myself. Soon, and suddenly, the other coyote appeared on the hill where I was and looked around, taking in all the surroundings.

“Ah, there you are!” — I could almost hear it say to the coyote across the way. They had spotted each other. The one on my hill continued to look around for some time — sitting and standing and changing positions, and when it was done, it trotted off, soon to appear on the far hill with the other coyote. Within minutes, a fire engine siren started wailing, and these two joined in the chorus for a short howling session — the classical “baying at the moon” howls. When the singing was finished, they wandered to a more level part of the hillside, plopped themselves down on the grass, looked around, then sprawled out and went to sleep!

Some coyotes are absolute loners, and others tend to go about their lives in pairs. I’ve watched a family of three stick together for a couple of years until they dispersed. Coyotes, like humans, are very individualistic and do not follow a single set of behavior patterns.