territoriality | Coyote Yipps

These photos above show the wary interloper coyote carefully and quickly passing through.

Coyotes are territorial, and they guard and protect these territories. Seldom have I seen intruders — the coyotes I repeatedly see in different parks are resident coyotes who are very at home in their territories. Today I saw an intruder — but I wasn’t able to figure this out until I had gone home afterwards to blow up my photos — coyotes look quite different from each other once you get to know them, but when the lighting is bad and the distance is great, sometimes this isn’t immediately apparent. At the time I wondered why one of the coyotes was so on edge and tense, keeping a huge distance, tail down and wary, looking around and fixating into the distance, and finally hurrying off as if to avoid something. There were no dogs around, but the coyote was uneasy anyway. I followed it over the crest of a hill.

Here I caught up with the coyote, or so I thought, but its energy had changed drastically. Rather than being wary and skittish, the coyote was energized and exuberant, excited and enthusiastic, rushing this way and that, sniffing all over the place and obviously onto a scent. Within minutes I saw a buddy of this coyote’s in this same mode — these two are friends who spend most of their time together. These coyotes were absorbed and focused in a frantic sort of way. They were following the scent of something and often losing, jumping and running about, and then picking it up again. They covered quite a distance which baffled me, because any rodent or raccoon or even a domestic cat would not have been able to cover the distances that these coyotes were sniffing out and rushing through. It was not until I got home and examined my photos that I realized that the first coyote was an intruder, an outsider, and the other two coyotes were intent on finding it and flushing it out.

Once before I had seen a stranger coyote pass quickly through an established territory. When one of the resident coyotes appeared in the vicinity some time afterwards, it caught the scent and followed in this same manner. I’m wondering what might have happened if the resident coyotes had caught up with the interloper? As it was, I don’t think they ever did.

These photos below show two coyotes excited and enthusiastic, on the trail of the first.

A Furious Fight

I heard from a neighbor that there was a terrible coyote fight last night at one of my coyote observation areas. How did she know this, I asked? The fight occurred right outside her fenced yard; the racket was tremendous. She said it sounded like a very fierce dog fight, only she knew it was coyotes — she hears them often and knows the sounds of coyotes very well, though she has never heard coyotes fight before. Might the fight have something to do with a new female who we have seen recently who now might be claiming the territory that once belonged to others? We speculated about this. She told me that female fights can be furious.

Coyotes avoid all fighting — actual engagement — if they can. Most of the time if there is a dispute between them, the dominant animal need only assume his/her threatening stance. The subordinate animal will accept the other’s supremacy by assuming a submissive posture and will avoid making eye contact with the dominant animal. Hierarchy disputes within packs don’t last very long. However, when two dominant alphas from two different packs have a dispute, a fight could very well erupt. The winner gets his/her way.

The fight occurred in the dark at 9:30 at night — nothing was seen, everything was heard. The witness told me that she yelled out for the coyotes to stop, and they did for just a moment, but then they proceeded with their battle. We’ll have to see how important this fight was for determining the status quo or changes regarding these coyotes. I am worried about what I might find out.

I’ve inserted a children’s poem which I’ve always loved. It came to mind after hearing about the furious fight. Though it is whimsical and light hearted as a child’s poem should be — it depicts the fury that I imagine might have been involved between the coyotes as described by the woman I spoke to.

[Post Script: I saw the resident coyotes a few days after this incident. They acted as normal as could be — as if nothing at all ferocious had ever taken place. Maybe they “won” what was a territorial battle? Or maybe a coyote’s status was redefined or reconfirmed? I can only speculate. And, I wonder how often such battles occur?]