Coyote Facts - Wisdom Panel™ Dog Breeds (2024)

The exact size of a Coyote varies depending on where exactly it lives and what time of year it is.

When prey is hard to find, for example, these animals primarily become vegetarian, which makes them much less muscular than they tend to be when they are hunting for meat. As with their size, Coyotes’ coats may look different depending on their habitat.

The Coyote is an intelligent, cunning and adaptable animal. They are incredibly fast and efficient hunters, and they are mostly nocturnal, doing the majority of their hunting in the dark at night.

The Coyote has plenty of competition when it comes to food sources—including lynx and bobcats—and larger animals, like wolves, do sometimes prey on coyotes themselves.

Coyotes are incredibly territorial and can live 13 to 15 years in captivity. In the wild, however, these animals tend to live between six and eight years.

The Coyote is primarily nocturnal, and their nightly yaps and yowls can be heard by those close enough when they find prey.

They are efficient, intelligent hunters with keen senses, and while they tend to be afraid of humans, there have been stories of meetings gone wrong. They are also very territorial.

The Coyote’s name is derived from the Aztec ‘coyotl,’ which dates back at least a thousand years. As Anglo-Americans started arriving in the Southwest from 1820-1840, they encountered an animal that the native people referred to as coyote.

Coyotes and humans have always had a storied past—in part due to the Coyote’s intelligence and predatory nature with human domestic or game animals—and it hasn’t always been one that ended well for the Coyote. In fact, between 1947 and 1956, approximately 6.5 million coyotes were exterminated in the western United States through federal management programs.

The Coyote’s range now reaches across Canada and the United States, even within urban settings. Because of their adaptability, Coyote populations in North America are stronger than they’ve ever been.

Coyotes are intelligent and swift, sometimes capable of speeds up to 40 mph.

Their adaptability and speed has been their greatest attribute, bringing them back from near extinction to their strongest population numbers in North America.