Coyote

The coyote (/kaɪ(j)oʊt(i)/, KY-(y)oh-t(ee)) (Canis latrans) is a species of canine also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, and brush wolf.

Their fur color is predominantly light gray and red or fulvous interspersed with black and white, though it varies somewhat with geography.

The hunting of coyotes often results in grey wolves being shot in places where the two species still coexist, as a result of mistaken identity.

One study conducted in Yellowstone National Park, where both species coexist, concluded that the coyote population in the Lamar River Valley declined by 39% following the reintroduction of wolves in the 1990s, while coyote populations in wolf inhabited areas of the Grand Teton National Park are 33% lower than in areas where they are absent.

As long as it was not in direct competition with the wolf, the coyote ranged from the Sonoran Desert to the alpine regions of adjoining mountains or the plains and mountainous areas of Alberta.

The first major dispersal to the northeast came in the early 20th century from those coyotes living in the northern Great Plains.

Coyotes living at high elevations tend to have more black and gray shades than their desert-dwelling counterparts, which are more fulvous or whitish-gray.

Meriwether Lewis, writing on 5 May 1805, in northeastern Montana, described the coyote in these terms: The small wolf or burrowing dog of the prairies are the inhabitants almost invariably of the open plains; they usually associate in bands of ten or twelve sometimes more and burrow near some pass or place much frequented by game; not being able alone to take deer or goat they

Prior to the near extermination of wolves and cougars, the coyote was most numerous in grasslands inhabited by bison, pronghorn, elk, and other deer, doing particularly well in short-grass areas with prairie dogs, though it was just as much at home in semiarid areas with sagebrush and jackrabbits or in deserts inhabited by cactus, kangaroo rats, and rattlesnakes.

Primarily carnivorous, its diet consists mainly of deer, rabbits, hares, rodents, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, though it may also eat fruits and vegetables on occasion.

The coyote (/kaɪ(j)oʊt(i)/, KY-(y)oh-t(ee)) (Canis latrans) is a species of canine also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, and brush wolf.

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