Two Coyotes and A Catch-Of-The-Day

: 1 bringing home prey

: 2 into the bushes to hide the prey

: 3 eyeing me in case I might take his hidden prey

: 4 foraging after bringing home prey

It was foggy, so I couldn’t tell who was who until I got home and looked at my photos, but I observed a coyote bringing in some large prey — too foggy to tell what, taking it into the bushes to deposit it and possibly hide it from other coyotes, and then coming out to either explore or to make sure no one had seen him hide it.

: 5 another coyote comes along

: 6 first coyote glares at the second coyote unwelcomingly

: 7 new coyote stops because of being glared at

: 8 the new coyote heads into bushes

Another coyote soon appeared on the scene and these two, who normally would have approached each other with happy greetings or just to be together, stood frozen about 100 feet apart, glaring distrustfully at each other: “Yeah, what do you want,” and “Yeah, what are you up to!” The new coyote disappeared into the brushes — no point in dealing with that kind of welcome from the first coyote. The first coyote then went to where the new one entered the bushes to check out what he might be up to, then he himself descended into the bushes.

: 9 running up to where new coyote went

: 10 watching new coyote in bushes

: 11 going into the bushes himself in a different location

Shortly thereafter, a coyote came out of those same bushes carrying the same prey that was taken in, and began a long journey all the way across the park with it and then disappeared into a distant thicket.

: 12 coyote again with the prey

: 13 taking off with prey

: 14 going off FAR with the prey

When I got home I blew up the photos and increased the contrast. I could now see much more than I could see when I took the photos. The prey had been a small raccoon. Most interesting was that it was “Dad” who had brought in the prey and hidden it. Then “Daughter” came into the scene at which point Dad looked at her glaringly and suspiciously. She went into the bushes and Dad ran over to keep an eye on her activities. Then he, too, went into the bushes at a slightly different location. I didn’t see him again.

Then Daughter came out of the bushes and looked around — the coast was clear, so she went back into the bushes, picked up the prey, and carried it off to a distant part of the park.

So Dad brought the prey to this location where he hid it, and when he was no longer around, Daughter grabbed the prey and ran off with it. Note that the amazingly similar photos #1 and #12 are different coyotes carrying the same prey, and you can only tell this by zooming in closely on the original large file!

Did she steal Dad’s prey?