Coyotes in Yellowstone National Park
The coyotes of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem are amongst the largest coyotes in the United States, adults can reach 30 pounds. and some weigh around 40 pounds. Unlike its cousin, the Grey Wolf, the coyote evolved in North America and ranges as far north as Alaska and south into Central America.
Coyotes can be seen almost anyplace in the park from the forests to the thermal areas to the wide open valleys. Areas where they are most visible are along the Madison, Firehole and Gibbon rivers. The Lamar and Hayden Valleys are also a good place to catch a glimpse of a coyote.
Coyotes (Canis Latrans)
The coyote is a member of the dog family. They stand less than two feet tall and they vary in color from gray to tan with sometimes a reddish tint to their coat. Coyotes have a white underbelly, a bushy tail, a long pointed nose and ears. An adult coyote can weigh 30-40 pounds and can usually be distinguished from its similar looking relative, the gray wolf by comparing the size of the two types of dog. The much larger gray wolf can weigh between 75-125 pounds.
The coyote is a common predator in the park, often seen alone or in packs. They are formidable hunters in the field where they enjoy keen vision and a strong sense of smell. They can run up to 40 miles an hour and jump as much as 13 feet! They may hunt rabbits, rodents, fish, frogs, insects and snakes. Being omnivorous they will also eat fruit, grass and carrion.
When coyotes form packs in the fall and winter they are effective hunters of larger mammals such as young, sick or injured elk or deer. Typical packs consist of six closely related adults, yearlings and young.
Coyotes are capable of digging their own burrows, though they often appropriate the burrows of woodchucks or American badgers. A coyote’s territorial range can be as much as five miles in diameter around the den and travel occurs along fixed trails.
During the spring mating season, from January to March, a female coyote will choose a partner and they may remain monogamous for a number of years. The females descend into their den for the gestation period, which lasts from 60 to 63 days. Litter size ranges from one to 19 pups; though the average is six. The pups weigh about half a pound at birth but they grow quickly and by the fall are able to hunt on their own. Both parents feed and protect their young and their territory.
Hearing a coyote is much more common than seeing one. The calls a coyote makes are high-pitched howls, yips, yelps and barks. These calls may be a long rising and falling note (a howl) or a series of short notes (yips). Coyote calls are most often heard at dusk or night, but may be heard in the day and are most common during the spring mating season and in the fall when the pups leave their families to establish new territories.
Coyotes live an average of about six years, although one Yellowstone coyote lived to be more than 13 before she was killed and eaten by a cougar.
Coyotes in Native American Myths
Coyote myths are some of the most popular among the Native Americans. Coyote is seen in many roles: as the Creator himself, as the messenger, the cultural hero, the trickster, the fool. In some traditions Coyote can change the ways of rivers, the standing of the mountains, the creation of new landscapes and he can also get sacred things for people. Coyote has also the ability to transform: in some stories he is a handsome young man; in others he is an animal; yet others present him as a sacred power.
According to Crow (and other Plains) traditions Old Man Coyote impersonates the Creator, when he took up a handful of mud and out of it made people. Old Man Coyote named buffalo, deer, elk, antelope, and bear and then all of these animals came into being. In such myths, the Coyote-Creator is never mentioned as an animal. When the creator meets his animal counterpart, they address each other as "elder brother" and "younger brother", and they walk and talk together.
More often than not Coyote is a trickster, but he is always different. There are stories where Coyote is a noble trickster and takes water from the Frog People because it is not right for one people to have all of the water. In others myths, he is mean: Coyote was determined to bring harm to Duck so he took Duck's wife and children, whom he treated badly. Coyote is also commonly a character in Just So stories, in which he tries to hunt prey or compete with other predators. In the process phenomena such as why rabbits have long ears are explained.
Yellowstone Coyotes: Past and Present
Coyotes have survived the same extermination campaigns that eliminated wolves from the park between 1910 and 1930, and had become the predominant canine predator in Yellowstone Park. Since the Yellowstone Gray Wolf Reintroduction in 1995 and 1996 the coyote’s status has been changing. Wolves are a significant predator of the coyote where their ranges overlap.
Yellowstone coyotes have had to shift their territories from meadows to steep terrain to avoid wolf predation. Carcasses in the open no longer attract coyotes; when a coyote is chased on flat terrain, it is often killed. They feel more secure on steep terrain where they will often lead a pursuing wolf downhill. As the wolf comes after it, the coyote will turn around and run uphill. Wolves, being heavier, cannot stop and the coyote gets a huge lead. Though physical confrontations between the two species are usually dominated by the larger wolves, coyotes have been known to attack wolves if they outnumber them.
Coyote numbers have declined, although the species is still abundant and well-distributed throughout the park. It is expected that the coyote and wolf species will settle into a pattern of coexistence such as existed prior to the establishment of Yellowstone National Park.
Coyotes occasionally lose their wariness of humans and frequent roadsides or developed areas within the park. They have become conditioned to human food by receiving handouts or picking up food scraps. Coyotes can quickly learn bad habits like roadside begging behavior which can lead to potential dangers for both humans and coyotes.
For many years park staff has monitored coyotes along park roadsides. Experiments with scaring unwary coyotes from visitor use areas with cracker shell rounds, bear repellent spray, or other negative stimuli, have been tried but there is little indication that such techniques have caused long-term changes in individual coyote behavior.
Animals that continue to pose a threat to themselves or to humans may be re-located to other areas of the park, or even removed from the park ecosystem. Signs, interpretive brochures, and park staff continue to remind visitors that coyotes and other park wildlife are wild and potentially dangerous. They should never be fed or approached too closely, for the protection of humans and the animals.
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