Coyote Mating Behavior

28 Feb 2025 1 Comment

by yipps:janetkessler in coyote mating behavior

The behavior in this video lasted about five minutes. These two young adults chose each other as best buddies months before this. I’ve read where mating and the *tie* create the bond — I disagree. As I said the bond was created long before this. They expressed pure joy when greeting each other, with excited jumps, rubs, and falling all over each other. But the warm and caring pair-bond had been solidified way back in time.

Over the last week, it’s the female who has been initiating and soliciting sexual attention. She was excitedly running up to him, joyfully bumping and rubbing against his side and then turning and holding her tail to the side, inviting him to sniff and mount her. She was also communicating through direct eye contact, which happened frequently during the process. He hadn’t been following through with mating initially. This sequence continued for days.

And then I caught this video on February 24th. The process began as usual, but this time HE followed through and there was a *tie* at the end. When they finally separated — after a full five minutes — she excitedly bounced towards him and then did some intense twirling in an attempt to reach her vulva which was obviously distressing her. That soon dissipated and she ran off, with her guy following not far behind.

Fun

24 Feb 2025 Leave a comment

by yipps:janetkessler in caching toys and food for later, performing for human attention, playing Tags: ,

“To live like a coyote is to embrace both the joy and the sorrow of the journey.” Quote

This is a two year old male who recently lost his best buddy brother to a bullet. Traumas are accepted by coyotes and they move on.

Very aware his audience is watching
Re-burying his treasure
Leaving the golf course, within feet of his audience

Click on the first photo to scroll through larger versions of each photo

Two days ago, this coyote was on the golf course in his territory, on one of the non-mowed interstices between fairways. He was hunting. He pounced several times but came up with nothing. Then he walked over to a spot and stuck his nose deep into the thick and long grasses there. He pulled out something the size of a vole and he began *toying* with it, the way coyotes do with their prey.

It took my blowing up the photos when I got home to realize that what that coyote was toying with was not a vole at all, but a torn golfer’s glove, an obvious treasure. Since he seemed to know exactly where it was hidden deep under the grasses, I assume he had buried it there — a treasure whose location only he knew.

So he toyed with his treasure as though it was a vole: he pawed at it, chewed it, tossed it in the air, pounced on it, rolled on it, caressed it. He was joyfully *into it* as several golfers stopped to watch. Then, after about 5 minutes, he calmly sauntered over to where he had extracted the treasure from the ground, and with his snout, he moved the grasses aside, placed his treasure as deep down as he could, and then used his snout to move the grasses over it. It was now buried again and ready to be plucked up when the urge to play with it arose!!

The entire sequence of events — from retrieving what he had hidden, joyfully playing with it, and then carefully putting it back — was purposeful and remembered. I have seen coyote cache food and treasures before: https://coyoteyipps.com/2020/11/28/caching-and-burying/

Comfort in Communicating: Protecting

13 Feb 2025 1 Comment

by yipps:janetkessler in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

This is someone else’s post, but the information contained here is ever so relevant for us living with urban coyotes. Here Brittany talks about the behavior of a captive coyote: one who, through the circumstances of her life, regularly sees human beings.

This same behavior is very relevant for coyotes who live in highly dense urban areas: circumstances dictate that these coyotes also get used to humans simply by seeing them every single day. The two points I want folks to focus on are 1) the guarding behavior: this behavior is true of all coyotes. They might growl, or hiss, or try to escort a dog away from an area — often showing their teeth by raising their lip and wrinkling their nose — because there is something important there: maybe that item is a food source, maybe it’s a younger coyote, or maybe they feel defensive about their own space and boundaries. 2) Captive AND urban coyotes get used to seeing people and become comfortable around us: this is the definition of habituation. People believe coyotes should fear and flee humans, that this is their nature, but it is not. However, they seem to always retain their WARINESS of us — fear would be the wrong word to use. This is the communication they use towards dogs, even if a human is close by: they feel comfortable enough around us humans to do so.

This coyote in Brittany’s post is communicating her needs to Brittany. Although there is a fence between them, the coyote wants her to keep away. In a sanctuary situation, there is a need to get closer to the animals to care for them, but this is not the case in urban settings, where it should be everyone’s job to never approach them, especially if they have a dog. I’m hoping more people can start understanding this which is so well captured by Brittany’s video and her text — the two points about captive coyotes which also apply to urban coyotes.

To Dream the Impossible Dream

02 Feb 2025 Leave a comment

by yipps:janetkessler in Uncategorized

“’To dream the impossible dream’ is a fitting sentiment to the bravery and trust you must have in your heart, artistry, and self, to achieve anything.”

Grace VanderWaal, a young, 20-year old singer and songwriter, has delivered a beautiful and moving rendition AND presentation of the song, with its powerful message to all of us, to fight for the right, without question or pause, to dream the impossible dream, and to reach for the impossible star.

Let’s make the world right for our animals. It might seem like an impossible fight, but we’ll win if we keep at it!