Few things send a shiver up your spine like the lonesome howl of a coyote. Lake County is home to hundreds of wild coyotes and many can be found on the outskirts of Lakeport and Clearlake. Actually, coyotes are common around many of the homes in the county and while they are often heard howling it’s rare to see one.
Coyotes spend most of the daylight hours in their dens and sleeping and are most active between the hours of midnight to 5 a.m. Howls are used to keep in touch with other coyotes in the area. Sometimes, when first heard, the howl of the coyote may give listeners a tingling fear of primitive danger. To the seasoned outdoorsman, the howl of the coyote is truly a song of the West. The coyote is a member of the dog family. In size and shape, the coyote is like a medium-sized Collie only its tail is round and bushy and is carried straight out below the level of its back. Biologists consider the coyote to be the smartest of the canine family.
It is one of the most adaptable creatures in the wild. It will eat just about anything and often lives in people’s backyards. Although the coyote usually digs its own den, it will sometimes enlarge an old badger hole or perhaps fix up a natural hole in a rocky ledge to suit its own needs. Dens are usually hidden from view but they are fairly easy to locate because of the trails that lead away from them. The coyote uses the den to birth its young and to sleep. The coyote does not hibernate.
Coyotes possess a good sense of smell, vision and hearing. Coupled with their evasiveness, they can survive both in the wild and occasionally in the suburban areas of large cities. They are common in most rural areas although few are seen because of their evasive nature. Efforts to control or exterminate the coyote by predator control agents has produced an animal that is extremely alert and wary and well able to maintain itself.
A coyote travels over its range and hunts both day and night, running swiftly and catching prey easily. It has a varied diet and seems able to exist on whatever the area offers in the way of food. Coyotes eat meat and fish, either fresh or spoiled, and at times eat fruit and vegetable matter. They have even been known to raid melon patches. Although the coyote has been observed killing sheep, poultry and other livestock, it does not subsist on domestic animals. Food habit studies reveal its principle diet is composed of mice, rabbits, ground squirrels, other small rodents, insects, reptiles and fruits and berries from wild plants. Urban coyotes will take advantage of swimming pools, dog water dishes, ponds and water hazards at golf courses and other water-bearing human artifacts as a source of water. However, the majority of coyotes never see people.
The coyote breeding season runs from January to early March. Several lone male coyotes often gather around a female to court her, but she will form a relationship with only one of them. The pups are born blind in a den. Their eyes open after about 14 days and they emerge from the den a few days later. Pups suckle for five to seven weeks and start eating semi-solid food after three weeks. The pups live and play in the den until they are six to 10 weeks old. That’s when the mother starts taking them out hunting in a group. The family gradually disbands and by fall the pups are usually hunting alone. Within a year they go their own way, staking out their own territory, marked with the scent of their urine.
Coyotes have been known to attack people. According to the Department of Fish and Wildlife (DWF) there were 48 verified attacks on humans in California during the period from 1998 through 2003. There were no deaths. Some of those attacks were on children. Since the ban on trapping, the number of coyotes in Lake County has increased. At one time local sheep ranchers kept the coyote population in check, but few sheep are now raised the county. Many local hunters blame the coyote for the low deer population. Studies have shown that coyotes do kill a number of fawns every year. Whether you love or hate them, coyotes will be around long after we are all gone and their nighttime howls will echo across the countryside.
