Introduction to Coyotes
Historically, coyotes lived in open grasslands and prairies of the western
United States and as far north as southwestern Canada.
Although many wildlife species, including the wolf, disappeared as people
settled the land, coyotes found conditions favorable and flourished. Until the
first half of the 1900s, coyotes lived mostly in the prairie region of the
northern and western parts of Missouri. Responding to losses of livestock from
farmers and ranchers, the Missouri legislature passed a bounty law on coyotes
and wolves in 1825.
Bounties were paid with state funds until the end of 1968. Some counties
continued to pay a small bounty for several more years.
Bounties, however, had little effect on the adaptable coyote. Starting in the
1950s, coyote populations increased dramatically and spread to the southern and
eastern parts of Missouri. By the end of the 1970s, coyotes extended their range
to all parts of Missouri, including the Bootheel.
Today coyotes can be found in North and Central America – from Alaska to central
Mexico and from Newfoundland to Florida. Coyotes also are well populated
throughout Missouri, including the outskirts of the major metropolitan areas of
Kansas City, Springfield and St. Louis.
A bounty on coyotes provided financial opportunities for hunters and trappers
but had little effect on coyote populations.
Persons living in urban or rural areas may see coyotes close to home. Many
people welcome these valuable members of the wildlife community for the
important role they play in reducing the rodent population.
Because of their close proximity to coyotes, many Missourians want to learn more
about these “little prairie wolves,” as members of the Lewis and Clark
expedition called them – either to enjoy watching them, hear them howl or to
learn how to take preventive measures to protect their property.
The first step in resolving conflicts between people and wildlife is an
understanding of the wildlife species involved. This booklet is designed to help
readers understand coyote behavior. It also offers preventative methods and
nonlethal solutions to coyote problems. Lethal methods, which are often the best
short-term control options, also are included.
Life History of the Coyote
Coyotes are not large animals. Males weigh up to 35 pounds, and females weigh
an average of 5 to 6 pounds less. Coyotes weighing 40 pounds or more are rare.
Color varies with individual coyotes, but reddish gray is most common. Some
animals, however, may be darker and others more red. Older animals tend to be
darker and more reddish, and younger animals are more gray. Coyotes are mostly
nocturnal, but they sometimes are active in the daylight hours, especially in
cool, cloudy weather. During winter, they can be spotted in the early morning
and evening.
Coyotes howl to let other family groups know where their territory lies.
Habitat
In Missouri, coyotes are found in all types of habitat from the Ozark forests to
the northern crop fields and from the southeast lowlands to the populated
subdivisions of major metropolitan areas.
In spite of their varied habitat, coyotes are basically prairie animals. They
prefer open pastures and fields with some brush and weeds where they can hunt
for prey, such as mice, rabbits and other small mammals.
Even in the Ozarks, coyotes choose open fields, glades and trails over dense
forest. Coyotes may travel the logging trails in the forests, but their main
food source comes from the open fields and pastures.
The size of their home range varies from one coyote family to another. Home
ranges are larger in late winter during the mating season, and smaller in the
spring when food is plentiful and the mated pairs are raising pups. Three or
four square miles is probably as large an area as most mated pairs cover. While
feeding pups, coyotes in Missouri usually hunt no more than a mile from their
den. This contrasts greatly with coyotes in the arid western states where mated
coyotes may hunt more than six miles from their denning area.
Like dogs, wolves and other canines, coyotes mark their territories with urine
and droppings. Howling is another way that family groups identify their
territory.
Mated pairs defend these territories when they have pups. At other times,
territories often overlap. Encounters between mated pairs and other coyotes for
territories aren’t violent and deadly like those between larger canines, such as
wolves.
Feeding habits
Although primarily carnivores, coyotes are opportunists and will eat what is
readily available. Mice, rats, ground squirrels, rabbits, carrion and a wide
assortment of other mammals make up the bulk of their diet. Snakes and birds, as
well as an occasional wild turkey or white-tailed deer fawn, also are preyed
upon by coyotes.
During the summer and fall, coyotes are more omnivorous. Pups often eat a steady
diet of grasshoppers in the late summer when they begin hunting their own food.
Crickets, beetles and other insects are eaten by coyotes of all ages.
Coyotes also like fruits and berries, such as mulberries, blackberries, wild
strawberries and wild cherries. A thicket of ripening wild plums or a persimmon
tree may be visited by coyotes regularly. Many truck farmers know that coyotes
also enjoy watermelons.
Coyotes are scavengers, too. In rural areas, coyotes eat table scraps, including
vegetables, thrown out by farm families. In urban areas or around campgrounds,
coyotes sometimes raid garbage cans for discarded scraps. Although coyotes do
not cause a large problem to sweet corn growers, they sometimes pull down a
stalk or two and nibble on the ears of corn.
Coyotes also feed on carrion. Following deer season, coyote droppings often are
full of deer The male coyote is a good provider and does a large share of the
hunting while the female stays closer to the pups. hair, indicating that coyotes
have cleaned up the remains from field-dressed deer or eaten wounded deer not
recovered by hunters. Coyotes sometimes feed on road-killed deer along rural
highways. Coyotes seem to prefer the carrion of deer and hogs over other
animals.
Although coyotes may kill sheep and sometimes small calves and feed on them
later, they do not seem to prefer the carrion of these animals if they did not
kill them. They may, however, roll in decaying carcasses of livestock and other
animals, including other coyotes, then leave their urine and droppings nearby.
Reproduction
In Missouri, coyotes breed from mid February into the first few days of March.
Male coyotes do not breed their first year, but some females do. Gestation is
about 63 days. Most coyote pups in Missouri are born from mid April through the
first week of May. Litter size varies from two to 11 or more.
Coyote pups, blind and helpless at birth, are covered with a wooly,
brownish-gray fur. Their eyes open when they are about 10 days old. At about 3
weeks of age, the young come out of the den and by fall are out on their own.
Care of young
The male coyote is a good provider and does a large share of the hunting while
the female stays closer to the pups.
Female coyotes prefer a dry, safe place to have their pups. A common den site is
a bulldozed brush and tree pile. The female will crawl into the bulldozed pile
and dig out a den under the root wad of a large tree.
Another popular den site is under the base of a large, standing tree that has an
opening at ground level. Coyote pups sometimes are raised in hollow logs and
under rock ledges. Other times, female coyotes may enlarge an abandoned badger
or woodchuck burrow.
A female often prepares more than one den in the same area. If there is human
disturbance or if the den becomes lice-infested or wet, she will move the pups
to another location. Most coyote pups have been moved several times by the time
they are old enough to leave the den on their own. If the pups are too small to
follow their mother, she carries them one at a time by the nape of the neck to
the new den site.
To keep watch over the area, the female may find an elevated place a hundred
yards or more away from the den. There she will dig a bed in a grassy, weedy
area.
In Missouri, coyote pups are weaned when they are about 6 weeks old. From this
time on, they usually do not stay in a den. Instead they live in a brushy, weedy
area. Coyotes do not use dens until the following spring when the female has a
new litter. The rest of the year, they sleep in a protected place on top of the
ground.
In the early stages of feeding the pups, the parents eat their fill of a kill
and regurgitate their stomach contents at the den for the pups to eat. As the
pups develop, the parents bring them pieces of meat that the pups must chew
themselves. The male coyote is a good provider and does a large share of the
hunting while the female stays closer to the pups.
As the summer advances, coyote pups require more and more food, and the parents
sometimes are hard pressed to keep them fed. To supplement their diet, coyote
pups begin to catch crickets, June bugs, grasshoppers, frogs and other small
animals.
As the pups develop, they move over a larger area until they expand their
territory from what was less than an acre in June to several acres by late
August. During this period, a disturbance, such as mowing or planting, may cause
the family to move to a safer place, which could be a mile or more away.
By late October, the pups begin to hunt for themselves and cover more ground.
The litter may stay together as a loose family group as the pups begin to
disperse in the winter. By spring the family unit usually is dissolved.
Effects on game and other wildlife
Coyotes prey upon mice and rats, thus helping to keep the rodent population in
check. Their effect on game species is minimal.
Occasionally hunters think coyotes have an adverse impact on wild game. This is
rarely the case in Missouri. Small game populations, such as rabbits and quail,
can thrive in areas of high coyote populations if adequate food and cover are
available. Coyotes are not serious wild turkey predators.
Coyotes sometimes kill white-tailed deer fawns, but not enough to have an impact
on the deer population in Missouri. Researchers found that free-roving dogs have
more impact on young deer than coyotes in many areas in Missouri.