Around 1920, coyotes began spreading across North America. Over the last hundred years or so, they have spread east, across the continent. In 2010, they crossed the Panama Canal, moving into Central America. Coyotes live over most of North America. This is the story of an animal that moved into new places, and the way it lives in them. Let's start with where coyotes have gone, and then look at how a coyote lives.
Coyotes live in forests, grasslands and deserts, and even in cities. They live in the big city of Los Angeles. Scientists call coyotes very adaptable animals, which means they can change to fit new places. Coyotes have adapted well to places that people have changed. Forests, grasslands, deserts and cities are very different from one another, so a coyote that lives in all of them has to be able to adapt. That is what scientists mean.
Picture a coyote standing beside you. From the nose to the tip of the tail, it is about four to five feet long. An adult weighs about 20 to 50 pounds. Look closely and you can see that its tail has a black tip and that its eyes are yellow. Now picture the coyote on the move. A coyote can run about 40 miles per hour for a short way. That short burst of speed is part of what a coyote is.
A coyote has a keen sense of hearing, and it makes many different sounds, such as howls, yips and barks. Coyotes howl to tell other coyotes where they are. Coyotes are most active at night, so that is when you would listen for them. In the Chicago area, coyotes are mostly active at night. They are also often heard around dawn and dusk. Dawn is the early morning, and dusk is the early evening. Those are the times of day to listen for a coyote.
How do scientists know where a coyote goes? They put GPS collars on coyotes to see where they go.
Coyotes mostly eat small animals such as rabbits and rodents. They eat fruit as well as meat, and they also eat birds and large insects. Coyotes are opportunistic eaters, which means they take the food that is easy to find. They also eat animals that are already dead, which is called carrion. City coyotes sometimes eat food that people leave out, such as trash. A coyote will eat almost anything it can find.
Coyotes often live in pairs or in family groups. They are less likely to form packs than wolves are. Coyotes hunt alone or in pairs.
Coyotes can also have pups with domestic dogs. That is called hybridizing, a word that means mixing kinds.
Coyotes mate in late winter. The pups are born about two months later, which puts their birth in spring. A coyote family often has five to seven pups at a time. Coyotes make dens in burrows, often ones that another animal dug first. So the story of a coyote family begins in late winter with a pair, and in spring there are pups in a den, in a burrow that may not even be their own work.
Words to know
- adaptable: able to change
- opportunistic: taking easy chances
- carrion: dead animals
- hybridizing: mixing kinds
- dusk: early evening
