The Eastern Coyote

The Eastern Coyote or Coywolf as it’s starting to be called, is a variant of the western coyote (Canis latrans) that hybridized with eastern (Canis lycaon) and red (Canis rufus) wolves when coyotes migrated east during the early and mid-twentieth century. Eastern coyotes/coywolves are the large canine species that now resides in the northeastern US in almost all habitats.

Eastern Coyote Information:

I find coyotes completely fascinating. They are smart, beautiful and clever and have lived up to their monikers of ‘trickster’ and ‘wiley’ over many decades of scientific and casual observations. I can’t put my finger on the moment my intrigue and respect for them really took off, but I know that by the time I had finished Hope Ryden’s book God’s Dog in 1998, I was hooked. When I entered Antioch University at New England to pursue a Master’s of Science degree in Conservation Biology, I knew that I wanted this animal to be the focus of my independent studies, and worked over the next few years to learn as much about them as I could. After several seasons of tracking their movements in northern Massachusetts, scouring scientific journals and a trip to Yellowstone National Park to study them and their larger cousins the gray wolf, I felt like I had made some inroads into understanding coyotes.

When I present eastern coyote information to audiences at talks, students in school & scout groups, or individuals accompanying me on tracking or other natural history programs I try to remain scientifically objective despite my partiality. That holds true for the information on the following pages. What I have assembled here was obtained through my years studying coyotes directly and indirectly, and includes data from outside sources, which is cited where present.

As a caveat to the above statement however, I will say that it is hard to remain completely objective towards a creature I am not only passionate about, but which still continues to receive so much negative press. As a naturalist I believe it is important to share the factual information I have acquired about coyotes – both to counter the sometimes overblown and negative misconceptions people have about them, and to give people a view into a small but detailed part of the natural world. It is my hope that through teaching about them, my passion for coyotes will eventually be shared by others.

For in the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.

- Baba Dioum

Coyotes

Coyotes outside our window tonight;

a yip, a howl, in the veiled moonlight.

The sound of a few then the chorus of more;

my dog unnoticing, asleep on the floor.

The harmony fades, the pack moves on;

a memory paled in the light of the sun.

– C. Menard