WEBVTT - How Coyotes Work 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.560 Hello Vancouver, Hello Portland's we're going to be in your 0:00:03.560 --> 0:00:09.200 city's Sunday, March twenty nine, Monday, March Chuck, that's right, 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:12.280 and this is Portland, Oregon. Since we've been to Portland, Maine. 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:14.240 We need to specify now, Oh yeah, that's right. But 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:16.320 they'd be weird to go from Vancouver to Portland, Maine. 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:19.360 But yeah, we can't wait. We've been to both these towns. 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:21.560 They've always been kind to us, but we are performing 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:24.119 in larger venues this time, so we need you to 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:26.279 come out and support us so we don't feel like 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:29.120 dumb dumbs. And you can find out all the information, 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:31.680 including where to buy tickets at s y s K 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.400 live dot com. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:44.000 production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, and 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:47.120 welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark and there's your 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:50.800 other host, Charles W. Chuck Bryant. There, there's Jerry Roland 0:00:50.800 --> 0:00:55.320 and our producer. This is Stuff you Should Know Coyote edition. 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:57.920 So how are we going to pronounce it? I mean, 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.240 it's coyote, but coyote's kind of fun, but you could 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:04.880 also pronounce it coyote coyote. There's a lot of ways. Yeah, 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.520 so I say coyote, but I don't think that that's 0:01:08.640 --> 0:01:14.440 technically correct eating it's coyote. Maybe yet I think it's 0:01:14.440 --> 0:01:18.560 just swallowed my tongue. Uh. There's a lot of good 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.280 band names in here, by the way, I noticed. Oh yeah, 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:23.840 i'll call them all out. Well, I'll call out the 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:29.080 first one right away. Genus Canus. It's pretty good, okay. Uh, 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:34.319 that is the where coyotes are members of the genus Canus. Yeah, 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:39.560 and Canus includes all dogs, Yeah, jackals, dogs, wolves, uh, 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:42.560 and dogs. That's why I said dogs. I know, but 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.280 there's so many great dogs that you just gotta say 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:47.360 it twice. Well, I don't want to short change the 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:50.720 jackals of the world. Who likes jackals? Nobody likes jackals. 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.720 That's right, you know, screw them right, say them once. 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:56.680 As a matter of fact, let's go back and beep 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:00.000 out the second time we said that name. But hey, 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:05.080 one thing about this about family candidate, which all dogs 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:11.120 belong to. It's a really old um family and it's 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:15.799 native to North America. So like all those jackals, if 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:18.520 you want to talk about them some more, that made 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:22.880 it outside of North America. They started here they didn't 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:26.560 come from anywhere else, started in North America. Coyotes as 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:31.040 North American as apple Pie and Granny and Baseball and 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.200 dogs and Dogs. We've done a lot of episodes that 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:36.880 are dog related over the years, and I still haven't 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:39.120 knocked out the one that I really want to do, 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:43.200 which is the the first Dog, like the first domesticated dog. 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:45.480 That'd be a good one. They made that movie, but 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:48.960 I'm not sure if it had any truth to it whatsoever. 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:54.440 Train Spotty. When that stuff happens, do you just say 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:56.160 the first thing that came into your head? No, the 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:58.600 first thing that came into my head was never cry Wolf. 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:00.680 But I was like, that makes too much. I remember 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:03.560 that movie that, Yeah, that was a good one. That 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.960 was when we were kids, right Disney. It was a 0:03:07.000 --> 0:03:09.960 Disney jam, but I think it was like a little 0:03:10.760 --> 0:03:13.680 but it's scarier. Is there's something about it that made 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:16.320 it like groundbreaking for Disney. I don't remember what it was, Yeah, 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.799 I remember too. Uh. And then that that terrible looking 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:23.239 Call of the Wild Thing is out? Now, why can't 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:28.839 anybody stuff? Man? It's driving me crazy. Have you seen 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:33.160 these spectrum ads with Ellen degenerous on them? Apparently they're 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:36.720 just using c G I, Ellen, Because Ellen, if if 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:39.280 it's not, I was making a joke. It's the weirdest 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.000 makeup I've ever seen that actually makes her look c 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:44.200 G I. But it looks so much like that, it's 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:47.680 it seems likelier to me that it's a c G I. Ellen, 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:54.119 And I don't understand why. Surely not proved me wrong? World. Well, 0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:56.760 I'm thinking now, if I'm Ellen and they say, hey, 0:03:56.800 --> 0:03:58.400 we want to choot a bunch of spots with you, 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:02.400 we'll pay five million dollars, or we'll pay you three 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:06.000 and a half million for your image likeness, you could 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.760 stay at home. I would stay at home. I would travel, 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:13.360 you would, sure, that's true? A million a half bucks? Yeah, 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:15.880 it's a lot of dough how would travel? Plus? Also, 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:18.640 I mean, like curse spots in these spectrum commercials are 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:23.920 so small and limited that it couldn't possibly take more 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:26.480 than half of a day per spot. Yeah, and they 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:28.240 and when you're a big star like that, you can 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:30.280 dictate it. You can be like, sure, I'll do it. 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:32.320 You've got me for two hours, right, you have to 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:35.960 pay for the teleportation, that's right, you know, But it's 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:39.560 so Yes, they called the wild thing to stop. Stop, 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:43.200 everybody stop. Yeah. Of course maybe Harrison Ford was so 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:46.200 stoned he didn't even realize it wasn't a real dog. 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:51.040 God bless him. All right, So back to coyotes. There 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:58.320 are they are. The scientific name is Canis Latran's barking dog. Sure, boy, 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:00.400 they make a lot of noise. We'll get to at 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:04.479 their nineteen. Subspecies generally has to do with their range, 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:07.240 but sometimes it can be bigger or smaller, different kind 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:11.960 of coats um and they. One thing we will learn 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:14.800 throughout this whole thing is and we need a T 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.840 shirt that says this is dang it to the coyote 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:22.479 cannot be stopped. Boy do they persevere. There's probably no 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:30.080 greater survivor maybe currently alive on Earth that's a mammal 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:32.880 at least than a coyote. Yeah, I mean we will see. 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:36.400 There have been efforts over the years to extinct them 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.240 on purpose, like a coyote holocaust. Yeah. And the and 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:43.640 the coyote just trots away with that signature bounce and 0:05:43.680 --> 0:05:46.360 gives the finger and and it's actually good luck. Yeah, 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:51.080 and has actually expanded the range and swollen in population 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:55.800 despite an effort to to drive them purposefully to extinction 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:00.920 a well funded really yeah at different times. Yeah, it's 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:03.960 pretty amazing, Yeah, it really is. I mean I feel 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:07.400 very bad for coyotes. I do to Um. One reason 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:11.920 I wanted to do this one is because there's coyotes 0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:15.599 in in Atlanta, is in every major city in America 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:21.240 almost yea. And there's coyotes around humans in my neighborhood 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.960 and that means it's Momo's neighborhood too, And so you 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:27.520 me went off on this, like she found out about 0:06:27.560 --> 0:06:30.240 that and just started learning everything she could about coyotes, Like, 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:32.039 we need a new fence. We got to get a 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:36.400 coyote vest for Momo, which she now has. Yeah, she 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:39.839 looks adorable in it. They work for hawks and things too, right, Yeah, 0:06:39.839 --> 0:06:42.800 it's I think they're one and the same predate predator vest. 0:06:43.480 --> 0:06:45.560 But I think it's called like the brand name as 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:49.080 a coyote vest. I think I think, Um, like, we 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:52.760 know a lot about coyotes because they're in our neighborhood, 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:54.280 and like the more we learn about it, the more 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:58.120 it's like I hate them in that they would take 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.360 Momo if they had a chance. Um, but I also 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:04.280 do feel bad for them too, because they are uh, 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:06.640 just trying to make their own way and live there. 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:09.159 You know, they're just being a coyote, right exactly. I 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:11.880 mean Emily and I saw coyotes in our neighborhood in 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:16.440 l a and Igorrock on walks and we saw, uh, 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:18.680 we've seen them in Atlanta. We saw one a few 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:23.280 months ago at night that looks very sick and was alone. Um. 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:25.600 But we will dispel some myths. Not every coyote you 0:07:25.600 --> 0:07:28.640 see alone as rabid. Not every coyote see during the 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:31.600 day as rabid um. And we'll get more into this, 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.280 but they if it weren't for people, coyotes would be 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:36.720 out all the time during the day. Yeah. They're not 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:39.200 nocturnal by nature. No, they're not. They're diurnal and the 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:44.120 naught by nature. And well, they may be the ones that, um, 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:47.840 that that live closest to humans and urban areas or 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:52.200 suburban areas have actually adapted their behavior and become I 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:54.920 don't know what you call it. I guess they are nocturnal, 0:07:55.160 --> 0:07:57.760 but they're most active at dawn and dusk. But they're 0:07:57.800 --> 0:08:00.600 definitely not diurnal where they're active during the day and 0:08:00.600 --> 0:08:03.560 sleep at night like they normally are. They've actually altered 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:06.280 their behavior, and it's just one of the many coyotes 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:10.040 are like, fine, that's that's fine, will change, will change 0:08:10.840 --> 0:08:16.600 to stay alive. That's right. Uh. I think another Urban 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:18.680 County was another band name I thought was good and 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:20.720 I actually looked that up and of course there's an 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:26.000 urban County band. Uh. Speaking of urban counties, they actually 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.880 caught one in at Metro Atlanta recently, very very rare, 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:37.880 all black coyote named Carmine. They trapped the big reggoo. Interesting, 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.040 but I mentioned that trot. That's how you like if 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.680 you're out walking at night or walking your dogs and 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:45.720 you see what you think is a dog and it's 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:49.160 got this there's this little signature bouncy trot. You're like, 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:53.320 oh no, no, no no, that's no dog. All right. So 0:08:53.440 --> 0:08:57.440 back to counties in general, Uh, they are wolf like, 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.640 but they have narrow, more narrow snouts. Uh, they're not 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:04.840 quite as muscular. Um Ed Grabanowski helped us put this together. 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:06.720 He wanted to point out that they're bigger than foxes, 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:08.920 which I thought was funny. It seemed obvious to me 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.080 that they're bigger than foxes, but maybe not everyone knows that. Well. 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:17.080 The first Uh, coyote that was spotted by Anglo Americans, 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:22.280 which was the Lewis and Clark expedition. Um, they thought 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:24.160 it was a fox from Afar, and then when they 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:26.520 shot one and got up close, they're like, oh, it's 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:28.760 kind of wolfe. They don't look like foxes at all 0:09:28.800 --> 0:09:30.840 to me. No, but I guess it was like staying 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:33.520 far enough away that I couldn't tell. Who knows. People 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:36.360 were much dumber back then. They were all smoking opium 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:38.800 on that trip. I also like, I would like to 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:43.240 acknowledge a stuff you should know. First, we had a 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:48.200 mid show producer change. Jerry started out the show about 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.520 eight nine minutes ago. She said, to heck with this, 0:09:52.360 --> 0:09:56.200 She's had it. Jerry had to go. Jerry had to 0:09:56.200 --> 0:10:00.120 go do a call and said Josh, Josh, Josh. He 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:04.559 stepped in. Welcome Josh. Never happened before. Thanks for doing that. 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:06.320 I wonder who's going to finish up the show. I 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:11.640 don't know, our little pecking bird perhaps. Yeah, okay, you 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:13.920 acted like you didn't get the reference the dipping bird. Theah, 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:17.680 the dipping bird. Uh. So coyotes bigger than a fox, 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:22.160 smaller than an elephant. Uh, their tip nose to tail, 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:25.839 body length usually about two to five ft. Yeah. They 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:28.040 basically looked like somebody took a shrink ray on a 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:32.240 wolf and just dropped it by like, yeah, fifty pounds. 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:37.360 Their fur brown tan, kind of gray, kind of modeled. Uh, 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:41.319 and you know that's a coyote. Yeah. They eat mammals mostly, 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:44.440 but well also there are omnivores el eat berries. If 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:46.640 there's a lot of berries, Oh yeah, they'll eat They 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:50.720 love fruit. They love figs apparently, but they're diet as 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:53.840 mammals supposedly. Here's the thing. If you're just kind of 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:57.240 like coyotes, cool, whatever, they're related to dogs in there, 0:10:57.240 --> 0:10:59.679 you know, all over the place. I want you to just, 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:01.679 first of all, listen to this episode. But things just 0:11:01.760 --> 0:11:05.679 start like researching kyotes. You will be astounded and amazed 0:11:05.720 --> 0:11:09.000 at every turn. Coyotes like fruit. So do you know 0:11:09.040 --> 0:11:13.640 what coyotes do. They climb trees and balance on branches 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:15.720 so that they can get all the fruit that they want. 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:19.280 Look it up. Look up pictures of coyotes climbing trees. 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.240 They take small animals like dogs out of the backyard, 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:26.920 so coyotes can jump over fences six ft are under 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:31.679 and squeeze through slats of pickets three inches or wider. 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.920 They also dig under if they need to do all 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:39.439 sorts of crazy stuff. Coyote will say, hey, lizard, come 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:44.439 here your lunch. Yeah, they'll eat lizards, will so they'll 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:48.079 eat just about lead, insects, Yeah, they'll lead insects, they'll um. 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:53.200 They specialize in rodents, small mammals, rabbits, that kind of thing, 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:55.679 but they will eat just about anything. And one of 0:11:55.720 --> 0:11:58.040 the things that its sounded me the most is um. 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:00.120 And I know we're hopping all over the place here, 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:02.080 that's right, And I want this to just evolve into like, 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:05.160 here's a cool coyote effect, but it may That's all right. 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:10.600 They engage in the social behavior called fission fusion, where 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:14.440 they can be they're totally fine hunting alone, living alone, 0:12:15.120 --> 0:12:18.079 but they're also totally fine hunting and packs living in 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:22.120 packs depending on the kinds of resources available. So if 0:12:22.160 --> 0:12:25.160 there's like deer in an area, coyote can't take a 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:28.720 deer down on their own, but at coyote, if there's 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.559 deer available in the area, they'll get with other coyotes 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:35.679 in the area and hunt in a pack. But normally 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:37.920 they just hunt by themselves when there's like say, lots 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.600 of rabbits, because all it takes is one. But depending 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:43.360 on the food available and the resources available, and how 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:46.440 many other coyotes are in the area, they'll come into 0:12:46.600 --> 0:12:52.920 and out of these fluid packs, depending on basically the situation. 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.440 Like what you uh. Here's another thing, Like we said, 0:12:56.480 --> 0:13:01.439 they small rodents and mammals usually, But if you're an elk, 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:05.240 like with a head cold, watch your back because that 0:13:05.320 --> 0:13:08.400 coyote knows it, and he knows that you're not feeling well, 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:11.320 and he might come at you with a buddy or 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:15.199 two and feast on you for a few days because 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:17.320 of that fusion. They've entered that fusion mode and now 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:20.559 they're hunting impacts. Here's one thing you don't really need 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:26.319 to worry about, is coyote attack on yourself. It has happened, 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.240 but it's very rare. One of the most astounding things 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:35.120 I've ever seen is a coyote that was sneaking up 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:38.720 on a little kid playing in their driveway, must have 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:43.280 been in California or something like that, and the family 0:13:43.360 --> 0:13:48.240 cat comes tearing around the side of the house as 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:50.480 at the moment the coyote is about a pounce on 0:13:50.520 --> 0:13:55.000 the kid and jumps onto the coyote. That one pushes 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:57.720 off of the coyote, the coyote takes off. The cat 0:13:57.840 --> 0:14:01.480 saved the little kid's life. Yeah, the most amazing thing 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.880 I've ever seen. I saw him just from last night. Uh, 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:08.600 a group of a pack of coyotes was fended off 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:10.760 by a cat and they caught up. Someone caught it 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:14.160 all on their house camera. You don't mess with cats, man, No, 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.640 I know they're they're vicious. Yeah so so yeah in 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.520 that one, if you watch closely, you can show me 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:23.640 that one that one of the coyotes all over the caches. 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:28.080 She's basically watching animal snuff movies for a while. Researcher, 0:14:28.200 --> 0:14:30.760 I'm like, you have to stop. This can't be healthy 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:34.800 for you. But um, but like should just be sitting 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:37.000 in bed with her knees pull chest Like they're not 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:38.880 going to give home off, they're not gonna get up. 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:41.600 But one of those coyotes to get out of the way, 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:43.520 the cat just jumped right up on like this five 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:45.520 foot wall right next to it, like a vertical leap 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:47.960 up onto the wall. It's not even like it's nothing, 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:51.040 but but yes, cats still mess around. With coyotes, it's 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:55.600 pretty amazing. So uh, they live usually only about six 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:59.360 to eight years in the wild. Um, they have seen 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:02.000 them a oldest ten or fifteen. But I kind of 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:05.400 wondered about dogs and like just a dog in the 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:08.040 woods that never a feral dog that never was claimed, 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.160 Like if that really was a short lifespan as well, 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:18.120 probably kind of curious compared to a domestic dog for sure. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Uh. 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.280 If you are a coyote, you will choose your mate 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:25.920 for life, which is very very sweet. Yeah, unless that 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.360 mate dies and then they are allowed to go out 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:32.400 and find a new mate. Socially it's okay, yeah, but yeah, 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:37.280 they they mate for life. They raised their young together. Um, 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:40.120 and the the young grow up really quick. They usually 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:43.280 have about litters of I think I saw six on average, 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:45.920 but it can be as low as three. I'm sure 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:48.000 you can go even lower than that, but it can 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.800 get up into the teens. They need them. And this 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:56.080 is why coyotes have proven utterly impossible to exterminate. Thankfully, 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:58.400 we stopped trying to do that, but for a very 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:00.680 long time we tried to and we'll talk about more later. 0:16:00.920 --> 0:16:04.440 But the reason why it proved impossible is because coyote 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:10.840 mothers basically change the number of coyotes they have in 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:16.280 their litter depending on how the population is expanding or contracts. Amazing, 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:18.280 and they do this. One of the ways that they 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:21.280 figured out they do this is that coyote howell where 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:23.880 you hear coyote howling nearby, and then some other one 0:16:24.640 --> 0:16:26.800 is often the distance and another one even further off. 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:30.320 They figured out that they are basically taking a census 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:33.680 how many of you got, and the last response will 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:38.000 actually trigger a hormonal change in female coyotes who are 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.920 a reproductive age, and they will have more pups than 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:43.600 they would have if they got in a response to 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:47.640 their call. Unbelievable. Uh. They have their well talk about 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:49.640 their families in a sect, but they raise their young 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.520 in dens. Uh. Sometimes they will make their own den, 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:54.000 but a lot of times they will take over the 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:58.160 den of another animal and uh renovate it, make it 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:00.880 their own, usually expand it a little bigger, but a 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:04.800 little macromay. Yeah, maybe at a steam shower perhaps, Oh nice, 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:08.320 You never know. Uh. They returned to their dens if 0:17:08.359 --> 0:17:12.840 they can, uh, year after year, if it's available, and 0:17:13.520 --> 0:17:15.879 sometimes you will find them in weird places though, like 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:18.320 a drainage tunnel or in the cross space of a 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:23.000 house or something. But those are obviously urban coyotes. Yeah, 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:26.600 and so they're their territory actually is. It can be 0:17:26.680 --> 0:17:28.840 really big, it can be really small. It depends on 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:33.080 how dense their food sources are. Yeah, they're really uh 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:36.479 flexible yep, with with how they live their lives, like 0:17:36.520 --> 0:17:39.040 in every single way, shape or form, so so much so. 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:40.960 I mean we talked about the fission and the fusion 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:46.639 um social structure. It's just this fluid social structure um 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:50.160 in the pack. The basic unit of of coyote society 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:52.840 is the family, the mother and the father, the two 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:57.320 alpha's and then their offspring or betas this gets really interesting, 0:17:57.359 --> 0:17:59.919 and their offspring again, depending on the resources, they may 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:04.240 stick around and help raise another litter. Those are called helpers. 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:07.560 They may stick around and basically just mooch. They call 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:11.080 those slouches. Yes, slouches are the ones who come home 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:14.720 from Appalachian State spend a lot of time on the couch. 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:17.520 But they're they're they're in the pack. But it just 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:21.200 says here they're not contributing in any way basically. Yeah, um, 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:24.119 and then so some some beata's depending like if food 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.720 starts to get scarce or whatever, some alphaals will be 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:28.520 like you, you need to go. It's time for you 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:30.639 to go find your own territory, of your own range. 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:33.360 Go be a loner, Go find a mate, just get 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:37.320 out of the basement basically. Um. But other times they 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:39.640 might be allowed to stay, depending on the food sources. 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.280 And and that's where that fusion and fission kicks in. 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:46.520 That's right. Uh, all right, maybe we should take a 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:50.720 break here and we'll talk about loner coyotes right after this. 0:18:51.359 --> 0:19:13.080 M alright, we're back, and we were talking about the 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:17.160 pack size, how it can shift depending on the resources. Uh, 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:20.840 there are also lone or coyotes. Maybe their beta they 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:23.720 get kicked off the couch finally, or maybe they are 0:19:23.760 --> 0:19:26.959 an aged out alpha. Um. And like I said, if 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:29.960 you see a coyote by him or herself, that doesn't 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:33.520 mean maybe I should say itself doesn't necessarily mean they're rabid. 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.640 Because you get on these Facebook neighborhood pages and there's 0:19:36.680 --> 0:19:40.320 coyote sites sightings, and people lose their minds and give 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:42.760 out a lot of bad information. It goes both ways. 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:46.080 People are either like say kill them, kill it, kill 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:48.760 it with fire as fast as you can, or else. 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:50.840 Other people are like, well, I've been feeding it for 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:52.760 the last couple of weeks. It's nice. It likes to 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:55.120 come play with my dogs, right, Or it's out during 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:57.919 the day it's so it's rabid for sure, or it 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:01.080 was by itself, so it was rabid. There aren't There 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:04.600 haven't been big outbreaks of rabid cavities and many many, 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:08.159 many years. Yeah, apparently they made a concerted effort to 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:11.440 eradicate rabies among coyotes and so not just coyotes, but 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:14.159 I think mammals in the wild in general. And so 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:22.120 they started basically dropping vaccines bait basically but vaccinated. Would 0:20:22.160 --> 0:20:24.800 you say wolf bait? I don't think that's a widely 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:28.560 known term that My buddy Eddie, he's just say that 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.720 for farting, he's dropping wolf baite. He might have made 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:34.840 that up. So imagine if that was vaccinated, that's what 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.400 they were doing, and um, dropping wolf baite, that's that's 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:40.520 good stuff. I gotta say, it's nice, haven't Josh t 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:45.000 laughing over there? Not? Jerry's just permanent lack of care, 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.800 no idea, no idea. Um. So they actually managed to 0:20:51.320 --> 0:20:55.560 largely get rid of rabies among coyotes from what we understand. Yeah, 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:58.520 so maybe we should talk about the beginnings. Go ahead, 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.080 I was gonna say, but they do finally carry distemper, 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:03.760 and they can carry rabies. Is not to say like 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.600 there are rabbid coyotes. It's just not a big problem. 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:10.760 And one of those Facebook commenters I quoted saying that 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:13.119 it likes to come play with my dogs. That actually happens. 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:15.720 Coyotes are known to play with dogs. That's how Carmine, 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:20.040 the rare black um coyote was trapped. He made friends 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.520 with a Great Pyrenees in Smyrna and was playing around 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:25.600 and like they finally set up some traps in the 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:28.320 yard and he fell for one of them. Um. Those 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:32.480 Pyrenees are beautiful dogs, they really are. But um, that 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:36.560 pyrenees hopefully had distemper vaccine because just playing with the coyote, 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:39.000 it can be it can it can get distemper and 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:40.919 that's something you want your dog to have. No, not 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:44.520 at all. So uh, let's talk a little bit about 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:49.520 the beginnings of the coyotes. They were, or at least 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:54.480 what we think is that coyotes and wolves and then 0:21:55.040 --> 0:22:00.840 now extinct. Uh, other kind of dog basically were around, 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:02.760 and they were sort of the starting point for what 0:22:02.800 --> 0:22:05.760 are counties and wolves, but they were apparently much more 0:22:05.800 --> 0:22:09.280 like coyotes and wolves. So they generally think that counties 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:13.120 were sort of the the o G evolutionarily speaking, right right. 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:16.719 I saw also that, um, there's a line of thinking 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:21.239 that they descended from red wolves whose range still is 0:22:21.400 --> 0:22:24.679 over the southeast in Texas. I think there's still a 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:29.760 few around today. Um. But the the however they started 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:32.920 it happened anywhere from I think two million years ago 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:36.080 to three hundred thousand years ago. Coyotes evolved, and again 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:41.040 here in North America. This is there there um home continent. 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:45.639 But as they started to evolve, the ones that first 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:50.679 came along were bigger and um, heavier than the coyotes 0:22:50.720 --> 0:22:54.920 we know today. But the problem is is they were 0:22:55.000 --> 0:22:59.160 in direct competition be based on their size with wolves, 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:04.320 and wolves are and have always been much more aggressive hunters. 0:23:04.760 --> 0:23:08.919 They don't tolerate other aggressive predators in their range, so 0:23:08.960 --> 0:23:13.760 they'll go after a coyote. And so this is really interesting. 0:23:13.840 --> 0:23:17.160 Over over the years, um, just from living with wolves, 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.280 coyotes apparently started to shrink down in size so that 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:24.160 they could fill an ecological niche that had been left 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:28.240 open rodents and rabbits, which wolves don't care that much about. 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:30.200 Wolves want to take down like caribo and elk, and 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:33.239