I’m sure you’ve heard of the beautiful canine, named the wolf, but have you heard of their close relatives? So close to a point where they can produce hybrid offspring? Coyotes are some of the most majestic creatures within the Canidae family, excluding the rich people that have their dogs or exotic creatures bathed seventeen times a day. Coyotes can be found in a variety of places, including grasslands/prairies, forests, deserts, and more, which means if you’ve seen a furry dog-looking animal with a bushy tail, chances are you might have found a coyote for yourself. But what is a coyote? How do they group? How do they act? How do they even survive? All are good questions, to which you’ll find the answers very soon.

Coyotes are actually very social animals. Although preferring to travel and hunt alone, they, on some occasions, hunt in small groups or family groups and have even adapted to hunt with other species. Contributing to their social lives, they are also extremely vocal. According to treehugger.com, “Researchers have identified 11 different vocalizations: growl, huff, woof, bark, bark-howl, lone howl, group yip-howl, whine, group howl, greeting songs, yelps.” They make a variety of different sounds, typically at dusk, during the night, or at dawn.

So, if they stay alone, how do they even pack together? Well, although they are usually alone or in small groups, they do, in some cases, have small family groups consisting of a pair of non-related male and female coyotes and all the others being their offspring. Coyotes will group to hunt or even just scavenge for food as they’ll eat just about anything they find. Not only that, but they’ll also hunt with other animals such as badgers or crows (using the crow’s calls to find carcasses).

When it comes to eating, coyotes are both hunters and scavengers. They eat things such as animal carcasses, consisting of hares, mice/rats, beavers, shrews, squirrels, birds, frogs, fish, and even things such as grass and berries. During winter, due to the snow, animals such as deer are slowed which causes them to become a larger part of a coyote’s diet. Coyotes typically do their hunting during the night, though if need be they’ll hunt during daylight hours and may even follow farmers’ machinery to get to livestock. Based on their area they adapt to become nocturnal or diurnal. When around farmland they’re nocturnal to avoid conflicts, and the opposite in the forest as there are no extreme predators.

Overall, these creatures are very unique. From how extremely social they are to how they adapt to be nocturnal or diurnal based on their environment, there are so many wondrous things about these animals. Recognizable by their medium-sized bodies and their bushy tail, these animals are truly extraordinary. If you’d like to learn more about coyotes, check out links such as urbancoyoteresearch.com for more information!