Coyote Yipps

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.