Status: Least Concern
Scientific Name for My Nerds: Canis latrans
Description:
Coyotes are so smart, adaptable, and capable physically that they are able to habituate most any type of ecosystem in North America and down into Mexico. Their cunning allows them to adapt to grasslands, prairies, forests, mountains, tundra, deserts, and even inside a metropolis. Their size ranges from 20-45 pounds, and just like many of our domestic companions who come equip with a variety of biological adaptions, they can eat anything as small as a grasshopper to prey as big as a deer. Coyotes have strong binocular vision, a robust sense of smell, and can run up to 40 mph. Like wolves, howling is a great way to strengthen family bonds while also creating a fence of sound that reveals their territory.
Conservation:
Coyote conservation and management... were do I even start? Coyotes are brilliant animals yet are considered by many to be nuisance animals. Whether growing up hearing fear-oriented stories about their horrible nature or personally experiencing the loss of a pet, their reputations proceed them wherever they go. Naturally, their myths are always more terrifying than they actually are. Coyotes and other predators are blamed constantly for the deaths of ranching animals, but the reality is that all predators account for less than one percent of all ranch animal deaths. And despite coyotes living alongside humans in some of the most populated cities in North America, only one in every seven hundred coyotes eats a pet, which then definitely becomes a nuisance animal. But labeling all coyotes as "nuisance animals" because one of them killed a cat, is like labeling all humans as "bad" because there is one murderer in every 25,000 people. I think it's pretty clear that that kind of mentality is unwarranted.
The fear of coyotes has led to horrendous human acts like wildlife killing contests and government agencies spending millions of dollars to shoot down millions of wild animals every year, the vast majority of which have nothing to do with "nuisance" animals. One of the most brilliant adaptions that coyotes have though, is that when most of the coyotes are killed in one area, a genetic response kicks in where the females suddenly have bigger litters. Bigger families spread faster and fill those empty territories quickly. Coyotes mature as fast as they reproduce. So the more we kill them, the more we actually allow them to spread. Now, it's likely that there are more coyotes than in any other time in history. This topic is steeped in rich drama and controversy and I personally can't scratch that surface here. Please visit my friend Jaymi Heimbuch's Urban Coyote Project for more info and downloadable resources!
Scientific Name for My Nerds: Canis latrans
Description:
Coyotes are so smart, adaptable, and capable physically that they are able to habituate most any type of ecosystem in North America and down into Mexico. Their cunning allows them to adapt to grasslands, prairies, forests, mountains, tundra, deserts, and even inside a metropolis. Their size ranges from 20-45 pounds, and just like many of our domestic companions who come equip with a variety of biological adaptions, they can eat anything as small as a grasshopper to prey as big as a deer. Coyotes have strong binocular vision, a robust sense of smell, and can run up to 40 mph. Like wolves, howling is a great way to strengthen family bonds while also creating a fence of sound that reveals their territory.
Conservation:
Coyote conservation and management... were do I even start? Coyotes are brilliant animals yet are considered by many to be nuisance animals. Whether growing up hearing fear-oriented stories about their horrible nature or personally experiencing the loss of a pet, their reputations proceed them wherever they go. Naturally, their myths are always more terrifying than they actually are. Coyotes and other predators are blamed constantly for the deaths of ranching animals, but the reality is that all predators account for less than one percent of all ranch animal deaths. And despite coyotes living alongside humans in some of the most populated cities in North America, only one in every seven hundred coyotes eats a pet, which then definitely becomes a nuisance animal. But labeling all coyotes as "nuisance animals" because one of them killed a cat, is like labeling all humans as "bad" because there is one murderer in every 25,000 people. I think it's pretty clear that that kind of mentality is unwarranted.
The fear of coyotes has led to horrendous human acts like wildlife killing contests and government agencies spending millions of dollars to shoot down millions of wild animals every year, the vast majority of which have nothing to do with "nuisance" animals. One of the most brilliant adaptions that coyotes have though, is that when most of the coyotes are killed in one area, a genetic response kicks in where the females suddenly have bigger litters. Bigger families spread faster and fill those empty territories quickly. Coyotes mature as fast as they reproduce. So the more we kill them, the more we actually allow them to spread. Now, it's likely that there are more coyotes than in any other time in history. This topic is steeped in rich drama and controversy and I personally can't scratch that surface here. Please visit my friend Jaymi Heimbuch's Urban Coyote Project for more info and downloadable resources!