Standard coyote toys in this area seem to include golfballs and pinecones. In the two photo sequences here, each of these items was chewed, pawed and rubbed over. After playing with the pinecone for less than a minute, it was urinated on, or “marked” — so that the next guy would know who had been there — and then abandoned when the coyote wandered off. The golf-ball appeared to be a more special find: it was played with for a much longer period of time and then guarded, rather proudly, before the coyote left it. I’ve noticed that golfballs have become particularly special as toys recently.
Delight With A Peeled Golf Ball
24 Oct 2010 Leave a comment
in coyote behavior, Toys Tags: coyote behavior: playing
This fellow was so happy playing with his peeled golf ball. He seemed to do so absolutely lovingly. He pounced on it, tossed it, caressed it with the side of his face, gnawed on it and rolled on it. One reason may be that the peeled golf ball actually responded — the center core of the golf ball consists of rubber bands stretched tightly around a center core! If you can imagine, the bits of rubber band wacked this guy in the face as he played with it — almost as if it were alive — and the coyote responded back!
As the young coyote played with his treasure, a dog and runner went by. They did not even notice the coyote who, just in case, got up and trotted over to where he could not be seen — with his ball of course — and then returned to the exact same place he had been (2nd and 3rd slide from the beginning).
He played with the shell of the ball to begin with, and then the rubber band inner core — these two objects were about 25 feet apart. He stretched before leaving the shell, and then noticed the inner core and ran delightedly toward that object. At another point he stopped his activity entirely to observe walkers in the distance — they did notice him — he did not resume his play until they were totally out of sight (third line down, second slide in) . And in the end, when he was all through playing, he yawned, stretched and then shook himself out before moving on (2nd and 3rd slides from the end).
