Within the past couple of weeks, coyote pups were born here in San Francisco. Whatever defensive patterns coyotes had before the pups were born have now been compounded. Especially if you have a dog, you need to know and understand them for what they are. I wrote this three years ago: what I say and how I say it can’t be improved upon, so here it is again for you. Janet
Coyote Communication: An Example
07 Nov 2018 2 Comments
in blatant visual message, communication, coyote behavior Tags: coyote communication
Coyotes communicate constantly through eye-contact, as I’ve written about many times. The communication can become stronger with an intense gaze or stare, and the communication can turn physical, for emphasis. I’ve seen females prod or poke their mates either with a paw or their snouts, or even push with their forelegs and entire bodies, to get the other coyote to do something. I’ve given some “proding” examples previously in Intruder: Territorial Fighting (slide #30), and Pestering.
The injured male insisted on remaining out in the open and visible (he has been primed by human feeders and befrienders to hang around — note we are working on eliminating this human behavior), whereas it appears that his mate’s instincts were telling her that being exposed out in the open wasn’t such a good idea. Coyotes do watch out for each other. HE did not seem to agree with her wisdom and resisted her. She persisted in upping her communication intensity, causing him a lot of anguish and uneasiness which can be read in his tense body stance and movements.
This series of photos shows a progression in intensity of communication between a protective female mate and her resistant, injured male “better-half”.
[Click on each series-of-four to enlarge and run through them as a slide-show]
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- He just wants to bask in human attention
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- His mate focuses on him
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- He bolts up when he knows she’s coming
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- Here she’s coming at him
The female begins her communication to the injured male (above) by simply making him aware that she’s there: she walks over and lies down close by under the bushes where she is somewhat hidden but “present”. He must have sensed her gaze from that distance. I missed the signal, but before she even gets up to approach him, he bolts up guardedly and looks in her direction: has she emitted a sound that has alerted him to her intentions?
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- Eye to eye glare
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- Eye to eye glare with a lick
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- Eye to eye glare with a nose-nip
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- She has his full attention now
Next (above) she approaches him decisively, places herself directly in front of him, only inches away, and looks at him razor-sharply in the eye. She holds that gaze for many seconds. The gaze breaks for a second, but then recommences closer and more intense than before, and she gives him a little tweak of the nose — first with a nose-lick and then a nose-nip. He squeals in pain and moves away from her mouth, standing erectly and guardedly.
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- She growls at him
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- He prepares for her next move
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- He flinches and side-steps when she turns to face him
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- His look and stance reveal his annoyance
When she begins turning her head in his direction again, he lunges away. When she looks at him again he returns a pained and uneasy look — it’s his muzzle that has been injured (above).
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- She now pokes him with a paw
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- She now pushes as he tries to stop her
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- He distances himself
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- But she again places herself in his path and in his face
She seems to understand and now uses her paws to push/prod him to get going, and then gives him a whole body push. He responds by distancing himself from her. She approaches him again (above).
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- She stands in front of him to direct his movement
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- He becomes resigned
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- Once more, nose touches
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- He walks off with her obediently.
After more of the same, he relents, and she finally is able to lead him away, reluctantly at first, but he does follow, tarrying a little and resisting by sniffing as they move along, and eventually stepping in line with her, until they both disappear into the underbrush.
[I spend my time observing and documenting coyote behavior and then writing and posting about them, in order to show people what they are really like. Mine are all first-hand observations, made on my own, usually about family life, which you can’t find much about beyond a few photos of pups on the internet. I get into what is actually going on. I’m a self-taught naturalist who is in the field many hours every day. I don’t know of any academics who are doing this, so this information is not available elsewhere. Hope you enjoy it, learn from it, and then embrace coyotes for who they really are! Janet]
Messaging: Challenging Displays Are Warnings
17 Apr 2017 4 Comments
in anthropomophizing, blatant visual message, coyote "messaging" behavior, coyote reactions to dogs
[*Note corrected title from mailing]
This is a clear *message*. It’s so easy to abide by it to avoid escalation. Simply tighten your leash and walk away.
If the message is ignored, as seen below, a coyote could up the ante by attempting to nip the haunches. In this case, the coyote pinched the dog’s ankle which made the dog wince and move on. The owner could easily have prevented this by leashing and moving away from the coyote.
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- Clear *messaging*
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- Dog ignores message
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- Maybe a *nip* is in order to clarify the message?
In one of our parks, folks have been worried recently about the sudden change in behavior of their neighborhood coyote from fairly mellow and chilled to snarly faced with bared teeth, high arched back, tail tucked under and sometimes walking on tip-toes. I call it a halloween cat pose. Please know that this is an challenging display that may not need to lead to an attack if the dog and owner understand it. This is *messaging* in the only way this coyote knows how.
This stance is taken towards dogs that come too close, leashed or not — it’s a classic posture. Please keep dogs as far away as possible from the coyote so that dogs and coyote may feel safe. It’s pupping season, and whether or not any coyote is having pups, during this time of year it will display more defensiveness for its self and its space. If the coyote ever comes in your dog’s direction, simply leash and walk away. There’s no point in challenging it simply because it wants to defend itself and defend the only space it has.
Here is what has been experienced in one of our parks: 1) One individual suggested that he thought it might not be a good idea to give-in to the coyote’s demands by leaving — he thought this might be teaching the coyote the wrong *lesson* — that it might be best to *push your way through*. He has had good results with scaring the coyote off, but the coyote continues to habitually follow him and his dogs. 2) Someone else said that the scaring tactic didn’t do a thing, and that the coyote followed several hundred feet, even though there was no dog involved here. 3) In another instance, a dog-walker saw the coyote on the path, stopped and waited for it to run away, but it wouldn’t. The result was a standoff — each waiting for the other to leave. The coyote arched its back, ears back, tail down, and showing teeth. Continuing on their walk caused the coyote run away, but one time it came back and followed a little.
I’d like to comment on these experiences. We’re learning that coyotes, over time, just get used to “hazing” and eventually stop responding — then, when you really need a tool to get the coyote away from your dog, you won’t have one. The better tactic is avoidance.
It’s probably not a good idea to *push your way through* or walk in the coyote’s direction. By doing so, you aren’t *teaching* the coyote anything except that your dog is a threat. *Backing down and leaving* teaches the coyote that your dog isn’t a threat. A *standoff* is a challenge. Over time, the coyote could even become more reactive — upping the ante to get his message across. You wouldn’t have a standoff with a bear or even a skunk! Instead, be wary of the animal and keep away from it. Best to turn around and leave, and then come back a few minutes later. The coyote could be protecting something of value, be it a food source or maybe even a den.
As a rule, coyotes don’t go up to humans, but they can become food-conditioned to do so. So if a coyote follows you, there’s a possibility that the coyote may be hoping for food which he/she has received from walkers in the past. All of us need to be ambassadors for the coyotes, spreading the word to not feed and not engage in any way with this coyote. MOST following is out of simple curiosity, or because they want to find out why they have become an object of interest to you. If they feel threatened by your dog, the coyote may follow to assure itself that you and dog are leaving: the coyote is just being cautiously vigilant and protective of its space. This is a manifestation of their *wariness*. Sometimes a close chance-encounter can’t be avoided, in which case both you and the coyote may become startled. Here again, the coyote may follow you.
My advice is to just keep walking away. Don’t engage, and walk away. Avoidance is always the best policy: Avoid, Avoid. Any type of foot-stamping or scaring should really be done only as a last resort, and always as you are walking away. You don’t need to *teach* the coyote anything — just walk (don’t run) away from it. Walking away shows you are not interested in him — and this is what the coyote wants to know. By the way, turning around and facing the coyote — gazing at it — as you walk off is often enough to prevent it from advancing further. Feeding and friendly engagement of any kind is what will teach a coyote the wrong lessons — they are hard to unteach. Avoidance, as I’ve seen over many years of observing urban coyote interactions with dogs and people, is your most effective option, resulting in a win-win-win solution for everyone: dogs, people, coyotes.
Leg Injury Impedes Interactions
14 Aug 2014 Leave a comment
in blatant visual message, coyote behavior, family interactions, self-medication, siblings, social behavior, social interactions
The little guy to the right ran circles around the gal to the left in an attempt to get her to play: they are siblings and BFFs, but she couldn’t uphold her end of the deal. She just sat there and watched him. He eventually gave up and walked on with their dad, but he turned around to look at her as he walked off. She watched him go and, in my eyes, she looked sad.
When she got up to go — to follow them — I finally could see what the problem was. She was limping. She held her left front leg out in front of herself awkwardly as she limped. She could keep up with the two others, but she preferred lagging behind them, possibly to avoid the rough play she was accustomed to.
It was dusk and I couldn’t see much — the camera could see better than I could. When I reviewed the photos later at home, I could see that she had been holding that left front leg up in front of herself the entire time. These animals are very astute. I’m pretty sure her sibling and fellow playmate knew that she was hurt and in pain. He probably was trying to raise her spirits by inviting her to play. She could not. Hopefully it will be short-lived injury.
Goodwill Teasing!
20 Jun 2014 1 Comment
in affection, blatant visual message, coexisting with coyotes, communication, coyote behavior, family interactions, feelings & emotions, group activity, personality, playing, reunion, social behavior, social interactions
There was almost no light, and there were tall grasses between the camera and the coyotes, so these photos are totally washed out and blurry. However, the behavior depicted in them is absolutely fabulous: I decided it was worth it to post them, so I enhanced them as best I could.
A little female yearling coyote “teases” her dad and then her brother by affectionately stretching herself on top of them, and either nuzzling their legs as in the case of her father, or nuzzling their ears, as in the case of her brother! Her behavior was good-willed fun. It was not meant to provoke any kind of reaction — it was simply a display of her affectionate teasing. It looks like this little gal has two BFFs!!
She had been out alone, whiling away the time until the daily family get-together/rendezvous time.
Then her brother appeared and he was absolutely ecstatic to see her. He seemed to “jump for joy” as she and their dad approached him: first he performed one bounce, then one squiggle sitting down, and finally a jump, squiggle and bounce all at the same time!
Then they all piled up together where there were the usual kisses/nose-touches and wiggly-squiggly movements which are a dead giveaway for the excitement and joy they were feeling.
After the general excitement of the initial encounter and greeting died down, the female youngster “hopped on Pop”. It was affectionate contact that they both soaked up. She then twisted her head down and around him and gave him little love nuzzles and bites on his legs. Wow!
The three then broke out into an intense play session: they chased each other wildly, they wrestled, they groomed each other — no photos because the movement in tall grasses with no light just shows blurs. These are all activities which regularly follow the initial rendezvous greetings after spending the day apart sleeping.
During the intensive play period, the female youngster jumped on her brother, as she had done to her dad earlier. Only this time she tugged at one of his ears and then the other, teasing him affectionately.
They played intensively some more and then ran off and out of sight. They would spend the night trekking!
photos 6-17pm
Mister Tries, by Charles Wood
11 Aug 2011 Leave a comment
in blatant visual message, coyote behavior Tags: coyote behavior, coyotes, urban coyotes
Mister Scrapes
My dog Holtz and I ran into Mister Wednesday while walking in my Los Angeles area coyotes’ field. I was glad to see him ahead of us, he going down a path on which we were going up.
The photographs show that Mister looked, scraped, evaluated and fled. In contrast, Dad’s scraping display signals that next he will approach.
It took me some time to notice body language in the photographs that Holtz probably instinctively knows how to interpret. The photographs show that Mister’s feet are pointed away from us before, during and after the scraping display. In comparison, Dad stands on a perpendicular to us when he scrapes. Dad’s perpendicular stance doesn’t suggest fight or flight. Mister’s angled away stance suggests flight. I wonder if a perpendicular stance creates more stress in the observer for being ambiguously not fight, not flight. In any case, the perpendicular stance Dad uses shows his full length and a better view of his raised hackles, an awesome side view of a coyote’s power.
Mister fled. Holtz and I continued along out of the field and Mister was nowhere to be seen. (Dad would have visibly followed Holtz and me). Near the exit, on the other side of a chain link fence, Dad appeared and began scraping, positioned on the perpendicular. Not needing to see more, we left and so did Dad.
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- Mister looks
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- Mister Scrapes
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- Mister Evaluates
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- Mister leaves
Posting written by Charles Wood. Visit Charles Wood’s website for these and more coyote photos: Charles Wood. His work is copyrighted and may only be used with his explicit permission.
“Mom Intensifies”, by Charles Wood
28 Aug 2010 Leave a comment
in blatant visual message, care for the young, coexisting with coyotes, coyote behavior, coyote reactions to dogs, dog reactions to coyotes
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- Mommark
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- Momscrape
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- Momyawn
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- Momwatch
Friday evening I watched from the river bank looking east. I stood at the chain link fence that separates their field from the bike path that runs the length of their field. With me was my dog, Holtz. We watched a dirt road about 130 yards from us, a road often used by my coyotes. I hoped to see youngsters. Instead I had an encounter with Mom.
I watched for a while and saw no coyotes. Suddenly Mom was at the chain link fence, confronting us. Holtz slipped his leash. He barked and chased Mom south along the fence. I ran and retrieved him. Mom returned to face us.
I have observed her for a little more than a year. Upon seeing me last Sunday she was content to mark and perform a short mock charge, the first aggression she had shown towards us. Friday evening her display was intense.
My past impressions of her were of a timid coyote. Her display this evening differed little from the Dad’s aggression. She didn’t vocalize where Dad often does. The fur on her back was raised, yet not as extremely as Dad’s. She urinated whereas Dad usually drops scat. Like Dad, she scraped dirt repeatedly, prowled back and forth and included a yawn in her performance. She then withdrew to watch us. What she saw was Holtz and me retreat north.
It was too dark to see if she stayed put or followed. I took the bike path under the east-west main street. As I emerged on the north side a bicyclist called to me that I was being followed by a coyote. She had gone under the bridge, though it was too dark there for me to see her. I reached for my flashlight and found I had lost it.
This evening was the first time Mom was out of her field on the bike path. The bicyclist kept me appraised of her position. He soon said she was looking at him from the top of the southern embankment of the east-west street. By the time I reached him she was gone, presumably back to her field. I went to my car and left.
It is important to remember that my coyotes specifically direct their aggression towards my dog and me. Many travel the bike path on foot or bicycle and never see my coyotes. A few people visit their field and are not bothered by the coyotes. In contrast, the coyotes recognize me as an individual who, with his dog, while frequenting their field, got too close to their pups. Until that event, I was able to visit their field and rarely saw coyotes. When I did see them, they saw me and avoided me. Clearly I transgressed and am singled out for negative treatment. Perhaps the value of my experience with them is as an example of how to not behave towards coyotes. Don’t, as I have done, continually bother a wild animal with its young. Doing so brings risks that are difficult to manage. My primary motive was to photograph them. To do so, I ignored the best advice and the best advice is that when you see a coyote, avoid it and let it avoid you.
Posting written by Charles Wood. Visit Charles Wood’s website for these and more coyote photos: Charles Wood. His work is copyrighted and may only be used with his explicit permission.
More Dominant Male/Father Coyote Behavior
07 Jul 2010 1 Comment
in blatant visual message, care for the young, communication, coyote behavior, family interactions
Charles Wood has written more about his encounters with a coyote family which includes a dominant male as the father. Please click here to read what he has written in the comments section: Dominant Male/Father Coyote Behavior. These photos are copyrighted by Charles Wood and may be used only with his explicit permission. He has generously allowed me to use them on my blog.
“Papa discipline photos. I like that the pup’s eyes are open in the first one, and then boy does he close them fast! He looks like he initially thought a chin lick would disarm papa, but boy was he wrong about that! He stumbles around as he gets the idea he had better hit the ground. My guess is that the pup was being disciplined for getting away from the group. I had observed them earlier in another area, so papa knew I was around and of course could see me as I took the discipline pictures.”
Posting written by Charles Wood. Visit Charles Wood’s website for these and more coyote photos: Charles Wood. His work is copyrighted and may only be used with his explicit permission.
A Dominant Coyote’s Awareness of Everything
01 Jul 2010 Leave a comment
in avoiding humans, blatant visual message, coyote barking, coyote behavior, family interactions, group activity, hunting
[NOTE: In a coyote family, the designation of “dominant” “alpha” or “parent” are interchangeable. Coyote “packs” are actually not packs, but families — there really are no “packs” as there are packs of dogs, which where the members are mostly unrelated to one another, and which operate more as marauding gangsters or thugs. Coyote “families” are more like yours and mine, with parents and offspring. So, within the family, there will be parents who are in charge, and often one parent is more aware than the other.]
I zeroed in on a dominant mother coyote’s awareness and staying in control of her territory today. The day began with the coyote walking towards a dog which was trotting down the path — with one of the coyote’s year-old pups sauntering along behind the dog as if they were out on a hike together! The dominant coyote gave her bouncing warning display — thereby communicating what she wanted to communicate — and then marched off with the pup following her. It was the same display as in my posting of: Keep Away From Me.
The walker and dog continued their walk out of the area, the coyote pup disappeared, and I stayed to watch the dominant coyote perch high on a ledge where she kept a lookout on a place way across into the distance. After only about five minutes, the coyote leaped down and was off. I lost visual contact with her, but decided to head to the spot where she had been looking. Sure enough, that is where she had gone — she had followed her pups there, probably having seen them from the distance.
From here, she appeared to lead them all to another distant spot where they all stayed for a while. She kept an eye on the others who played and hunted. She did not participate, but sat down to watch. She watched the younger coyotes, and she watched a couple of dogs and walkers in the far distance. After about 15 minutes, she got up and began trotting back. She trotted in front of the other two — it was probably a signal to them — and they followed her to yet another area. At this point she curled up on a rock while one of the younger coyotes hunted for a few minutes and then disappeared as the other had.
Within a short time she got up, stretched, caught a couple of voles, then headed up to a bluff where she spent the next hour. She watched a few dogs on a trail below. As the morning wore on, several walkers and their dogs walked in the direct vicinity of the bluff, but on the path below it. When this happened, she sat up, or stood, to get a better view over the rocks. At a certain point, she began very soft, barely audible to me, but continuous “grunts” — as if she were preparing to bark. She was reacting to dogs, however distant they were from her; dogs which bothered her on some level.
This continued for some time, so I left to take photos of other wildlife close by. I was only about 300 feet away when she began an intense barking session, so I immediately returned. I could see a dog and walker on the path, but I had not seen what about them had provoked the coyote. The coyote barked for close to 20 minutes, then hopped down off her ledge and headed out of the picture for me. I had been watching her for almost four hours: I suppose she was “making her rounds.”
The picture I got was of a dominant mother coyote’s being very in charge of her life and very purposeful in her behaviors. She warded off a possible dog threat (not really a threat, but she was doing her job), she monitored the area from a high perch and kept her eyes on her pups who were far, far off in the distance. She ran hopped down and ran the distance to join them and then led them to an area for further hunting and playing. When she was ready to return she did so in such a way as to cause the pups to follow. She curled up in another area, always keeping vigilant of what was happening around her as the pups finished their hunting and then disappeared. Then she went up to another high ledge where she again, this time without the encumbrance of her pups, monitored dog activity, grunted when she became distressed, and then went into a full mode barking session as a statement of her presence and possibly a claim to her territoriality in that area. Then she hopped down and disappeared into the underbrush!
Narrowed-Eyes
31 May 2010 Leave a comment
in blatant visual message, communication, coyote behavior, feelings & emotions Tags: coyote anger
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- narrowed eyes
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- narrowed eyes
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- narrowed eyes
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- same as above but no narrowed eyes
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- same as above but no narrowed eyes
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- same as above but no narrowed eyes
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- lips pulled back showing teeth
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- lips set to pull back
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- set to start barking
A slight narrowing of the eyes is an instinctual, universal expression of anger across various species in the animal world. Today I noticed a coyote narrow its eyes a number of times. I was also able to take a photo of the eyes not-narrowed each time, so you can see the difference. The three photos on the first line show the narrowed eyes, the second line shows normal eyes. The other expression that a coyote uses when it feels displeasure is tightening of the lips so that the teeth show. This is not always meant as a communication, because in these cases sometimes it did not occur when another animal was close enough to have noticed. So it also is an expression of the coyote’s inner emotional state. The 7th photo shows this clearly. The 8th and 9th photos are of a coyote grunting in disapproval — actually preparing to bark. The barking did not begin in these instances.
When did these expressions occur? When dogs were coming towards the coyote, OR when the coyote saw dogs that have intruded upon it in the past! As you can see, our urban coyotes have strong feelings based on their own past experiences and on feeling themselves threatened. I have only seen this in dominant female coyotes.
Coyote Yipps 