Compared to wolves though they are not as strict about how they build a pack, they have more fluid membership and killing one of the mating pair is not as detrimental to the survival of the pack as it is for wolves
Coyotes are worse…
A “pack” is always a family. And while with the parents, the kids don’t reproduce, even though the daughters have false pregnancies that feel like giving labor.
If one or both of the parents are killed, the pack splits, and now where there was just one mating pair, there’s 2-4x that.
It’s why literal centuries of “shoot as many coyotes as you can” hasn’t negatively effected the American coyote population.
Any attempt other than “spay and neuter” will result in exponentially more coyotes, evolutionarily speaking, its a great strategy for a non-alpha predator. If coyotes run into something that can kill a coyote, they just make a shit ton more coyotes.
But if they are “safe” they limit their own population so they don’t run out of food.
Yup. I realize my “fluid” comment could be seen as implying they build packs out of random strangers, which is not the case. The fluidity is that while older family members can and will disperse, they can also return without disrupting the hierarchy as needed, then just as quickly head out again.
Resource rich environments will also stimulate increased ovulation in females; we can boom as needed and weather the bust. We don’t need large territories, just patches here and there we can get to (like your backyard trail). Ungulates are tasty, but I’ll eat rats and garbage. Wolves are pretty cool and intense, but try as you might you can’t rid yourself of the coyote. Improvise, adapt, survive.
Coyotes are worse…
A “pack” is always a family. And while with the parents, the kids don’t reproduce, even though the daughters have false pregnancies that feel like giving labor.
If one or both of the parents are killed, the pack splits, and now where there was just one mating pair, there’s 2-4x that.
It’s why literal centuries of “shoot as many coyotes as you can” hasn’t negatively effected the American coyote population.
Any attempt other than “spay and neuter” will result in exponentially more coyotes, evolutionarily speaking, its a great strategy for a non-alpha predator. If coyotes run into something that can kill a coyote, they just make a shit ton more coyotes.
But if they are “safe” they limit their own population so they don’t run out of food.
Yup. I realize my “fluid” comment could be seen as implying they build packs out of random strangers, which is not the case. The fluidity is that while older family members can and will disperse, they can also return without disrupting the hierarchy as needed, then just as quickly head out again.
Resource rich environments will also stimulate increased ovulation in females; we can boom as needed and weather the bust. We don’t need large territories, just patches here and there we can get to (like your backyard trail). Ungulates are tasty, but I’ll eat rats and garbage. Wolves are pretty cool and intense, but try as you might you can’t rid yourself of the coyote. Improvise, adapt, survive.