This week for Flora and Fauna Friday we have a contentious critter of the Canid kind, the Coyote (Canis latrans).
The Coyote is a medium-sized member of the family Canidae and belongs to the same genus as wolves and dogs. They’re larger than both our Red and Gray Foxes but smaller than most dog breeds. Coyotes are a tall, lanky predator with large triangular ears and a long, pointed snout. This gives them an overall scrawny appearance. Their fur is short and blended with tans, reds, blacks, browns, grays, and whites throughout down to their fuzzy black-tipped tail. They’re mainly nocturnal, spending their nights patrolling their territory on the hunt for rodents, roosting birds, and meso-mammals. During the day they sleep it away in dens they’ve made or appropriated from another critter.
Coyotes are an adaptable species. They’ve adjusted to life in the swamps, suburbs, and sandy shores of South Carolina. Locales quite unlike the prairies and deserts from whence they hail. In fact, they’re a little too adaptable for most people’s liking. As Coyotes have moved east, they’ve not only gotten bolder but bigger, owing to hybridization with dogs. The scrawny and cowardly coyote of old is coming into its own, filling the niches the Eastern Gray Wolf and Red Wolf once held. This is where they get into trouble. Without that fear of the big bad wolf bearing down on them, the Coyote has taken up the mantle of their former bullies. Although they’re far from forming packs and cornering cattle, Coyotes will prey upon small livestock and newborn calves. They’re also notorious for hunting outdoor cats and they’ll occasionally harass dogs. However, given that a typical hound-dog or retriever is two or three times the weight of our svelte southern Coyotes, they usually avoid such confrontations.
Just like the Nine-banded Armadillo, the Coyote has had a recent relocation to the Lowcountry. Only in the last 80 years has the Coyote crossed the Mississippi; only in recent memory has it become thoroughly established in the Lowcountry. Coyotes are one of those creatures humans have unwittingly rolled out the red carpet for, paving their way across a new frontier. Just like with Mockingbirds and Cattle Egrets, we opened the door wide open for them without even knowing it. When Europeans colonized North America, they proceeded to extirpate wolves, bears, and cougars from everywhere they could. They were particularly adept at removing wolves. In this wake of wolflessness, the Coyote seized its opportunity and washed across the Eastern US. You see, not only are Coyotes smaller than wolves, they’re less socially complex. They operate more like a fox, rolling solo and eating smaller game. They don’t have complex hierarchical social structures either. This type of lifestyle makes them warier of threats and less susceptible to ecosystem alterations. Thus, humans have had a devil of a time trying to get rid of Coyotes and the Coyotes have only gotten savvier in the process. Now they’re found across the entire United States and they won’t be going without a fight.
