Meet Vulpes vulpes – the Red Fox. It is distinguished from the Gray Fox by a white-tipped tail visible in the photos. After taking a few years off the last handful of years they've been appearing more frequently on the trail cameras. I suppose the competing coyotes haven't succeeded in cleaning them out.
It is terrific to see them around here; such a beautiful canid the fox is.
They’re
omnivores that dine-upon everything from rabbits, small rodents, roadkill,
fruits and nuts and insects.
They
sometimes make their home in an enlarged woodchuck den, or hollow log, or
underneath a log or rock in a stream bank or side of a hill.A mated pair will defend their turf from
other foxes but this canine frequently is prey to the resident coyotes and
wolves.
A female is called a
vixen, a male is called a dog fox, newborns are called pups, kits or
cubs. And a group of foxes is called a skulk.
They're breeding this time of year.
Maybe I can expect to see more of them in the months and years ahead?
In the creation story of Idaho’s Nez Perce people it was Coyote who saved the creatures of Earth.
The monster Kamiah had stalked into the region and was gobbling up the animals one by one. The crafty Coyote evaded Kamiah but didn't want to lose his friends, so he let himself be swallowed. From inside the beast, Coyote severed Kamiah's heart and freed his fellow animals. Then he chopped up Kamiah and threw the pieces to the winds, where they gave birth to the peoples of the planet.
The scientific name for the coyote is Canis latrans – literally barking dog.
A diurnal or crepuscular creature (namely active during daylight hours or at dawn and dusk) coyotes that reside in closer proximity to people tend to be more nocturnal. Unless they become habituated to our presence wild coyotes will make every attempt to steer clear of people. If you were to inquire of a wildlife biologist they would tell you that there are nineteen subspecies of coyote that are exceedingly well-adapted to living in urban, rural and wild America.
Male coyotes tip the scales at about 44 pounds while females weigh-in slightly less. For scale our red-golden retriever, Ruby, weighs about the same.
Coyotes dine on large prey and also eat snakes, insects, rodents, fruit and other mast. As an opportunistic hunter coyotes have been known to prey-upon small pets and livestock. In an urban setting they will eat garbage and pet food left on a deck or patio.
The coyote is a gregarious animal - socially-inclined - like the wolf. This is likely a consequence of the need for a family unit or pack of animals combining to bring down large game.
Recent genetic studies suggest that coyotes are not native to the eastern United States - The implication is they largely evolved on the Great Plains. As the eastern old growth forests were cleared for settlement and agriculture coyotes adapted to the new environs. It is thought that coyotes dispersed to our neck of the woods early in the twentieth century. These canids are presumed to have come from the northern Great Plains and are unique in their genetic origins.
Additional coyotes dispersed from here to New England via the northern Great Lakes region and southern Canada meeting in the 1940s in New York and Pennsylvania. These coyotes have inter-bred with gray wolf and Eastern wolf populations adding to their own unique genetic diversity and further contributing to their hybrid vigor and ability to adapt to an ever changing environment. Coyotes here are known as the Northeastern coyote.
Jill and I hear coyote vocalizations rather frequently. A live sighting is rare as in rural America coyotes share the same natural aversion to people that other wildlife do.
They are scared-to-death of people.
Nevertheless, digital trail camera images are common. Ruby and I ran the trail camera trap line recently and she sez that judging from the quantity of images over a couple of weeks that coyotes “are cheap” around here.
These are all night IR images; not a single daylight photo. It’s mating season and maybe that has something to do with it?
From time to time I've had an opportunity to attend a woodland owner conference, compare notes with neighbors, chat with a wildlife biologist or simply ponder my own personal observations and encounters with the top predator in our neighborhood. Sure, we may occasionally encounter a gray wolf or a black bear around these parts but they're generally dispersing males and not found as breeding populations. And since we don't have large breeding populations of humans close to where I live; wildlife encounters around here are strictly from a rural perspective.
The purpose of this post is to draw attention to how Wiley Coyote has adapted to urban life and what, if anything, you might want to know about it or do about it.
The frantic animal in the photo below was
photographed on a motion-activated trail camera while being pursued by a
pack of trailing hounds belonging to some neighbors of mine a couple of
years ago. Around here, coyotes are universally wary of humans. This is a consequence of being hunted.
Meet Canis latrans....
The translation from Latin - barking dog. Coyotes are wild dogs and depending upon their location sport a grayish-brown coat that can vary from silver-gray to black. The tail uniformly has a black tip. Unlike the brown eyes of a domestic dog a coyote's eyes are yellow. Adults can tip the scales at roughly 25-35 pounds and occasionally a healthy, well-fed specimen might grow to 40-45 pounds.
Native to the Great Plains and deserts of Mexico coyotes have dispersed over the last several hundred years and now range from the arctic to Central America. An exceedingly adaptable predator its numbers have grown as settlement reduced the numbers of larger predators such as cougars, wolves and grizzly bears.
Coyotes are opportunistic hunters feeding mainly upon small rodents, fruit, rabbits and deer - all found in bountiful abundance in a city. Regrettably, a small dog or cat is the same as any other smaller prey animal that a coyote might seek as a food source.
In Wisconsin coyote numbers have steadily increased and their remarkable adaptability to the urban environment has given rise to coyote, pet and human conflicts.
Most of these encounters arise because coyotes become habituated to the presence of people and lose their natural fear of humans. It is the abundance of food resources at the root of this. If you have a bird feeder coyotes will both eat from the feeder and eat the animals attracted to the feeder. Feeding the family dog or cat from a pet bowl on the patio or deck is a singularly bad idea. And the common denominator found in coyote attacks upon family pets is typically a lack of supervision while outdoors. If you have to let your dog out to do their business stay outside with it - especially during the periods of dawn and dusk. Finally, don't let your cats wander. It is dangerous for the cat on too many levels to count and outdoor cats are the single largest predator of wild song birds.
Sure, I know someone reading this is going to think this is nonsense and a huge inconvenience. They're likely thinking: Why not trap the coyote and release it somewhere else? of kill the varmint?
While it may be legal to trap and relocate the animal doing so simply makes your nuisance coyote someone else's nuisance coyote. Besides, in the absence of altering the conditions of wildlife feeding and corralling your pets you may most assuredly rely-upon another coyote moving-in to claim the territory of the prior occupant.
Counterintuitively, if a community expects to solve the problem by employing large scale lethal means to reduce coyote numbers the Town Fathers are going to run-up against the Law of Unintended Consequences. The complex biological response of coyotes to large scale lethal control efforts is to have larger litters with more females per litter. They are adaptable after all.
So what to do?
Take steps to discourage coyotes. In addition to removing food and being vigilant about your pets if you see a coyote you should haze it relentlessly. If a coyote approaches you or a pet respond by throwing things at it, yelling at it, spray it with a garden hose, a super soaker or (with some restrictions) pepper spray. Make the encounter miserable for the animal. Be fearless. You are bigger and coyotes naturally avoid people. Moreover, there is not a single documented case of an attack upon a human by a coyote in the Midwest. If your response is to pick-up Fluffy the Dog and run in the opposite direction you've reinforced the message to the animal that he is Top Dog.
This time of year is breeding time for coyotes and as a consequence activity will increase with the arrival of pups in the months of May and June. If a person is attacked or you encounter an animal acting aggressively contact the Department of Natural Resources or local law enforcement.
A word about the Coywolf. A coywolf - the eastern coyote - is a hybrid wolf coyote species that emerged a long time ago after coyotes dispersed from the central plains and colonized the northeast United States and southeastern Canada. Contrary to any breathless report you might see on Facebook coywolves may possibly be found in the northernmost reaches of Wisconsin; but evidence is sketchy and sightings scarce. Furthermore, to an untrained eye coywolves look and behave no differently than the coyotes we know to be around here. So I suppose none of us would know one if we saw one. You may relax.
Chicago is not just home to the Bears it is also home to a resident population of several thousand coyotes. Chicago coyotes have been participants in a longitudinal study for more than two and a half decades. Started in 2000 this is the longest-running comprehensive study of its kind. Remarkably, researchers have documented den site locations near Soldier Field and Navy Pier. You can learn more about the Cook County Coyote Project here.
Meanwhile if you want to learn how to haze a coyote there is this...
Under ordinary circumstances our yard is a busy location if you enjoy bird watching. Five different feeders attracting juncos, finches, nuthatches, jays, cardinals, chickadees and every variety of year round woodpecker known to these parts.
Anyway, before I took doggo out for a romp it occurred to me that the yard had gone vacant and silent.
Not a bird in the neighborhood.
Once we were outside and inspected the snow in the yard there was this.
A couple of weekends ago Ruby and I set out for a walk and a circuit to swap out the SD cards on the trail cameras. Periodically, the dog would stop in her tracks on the trail, give a certain location a long and deliberate sniff followed by peeing on that specific spot. Having accomplished that task at various seemingly random locations we would continue on our way. I had my
suspicions about this scent marking behavior and after I uploaded the
photos from the memory cards onto the laptop sure enough; both red fox and our resident ditch tiger stopping to mark their spot on one of the trails.
Sorta like leaving a business card in someone's door jamb to let them know you've paid a call while you were out.
From time to time I have discussed the interactions of red fox and coyotes if their territories overlap and share the same turf. It's generally not collegial.
I cannot speak to the nature of their coexistence around here inasmuch as I have no evidence of it being good, bad or inconsequential.
Here are some coyote trail camera images and video retrieved from the most recent batch. This afternoon I'll publish fox imagery taken from the same batch and same time span.
Between you and me Old Wiley has probably robbed that loose cat around here of a couple of her lives....
Over the years this critter would show-up on a trail camera image sporadically and without any pattern. Then beginning with the spring of 2024 this species of canine began showing-up on the trail cameras quite regularly and never stopped. What is unusual is that coyotes persist and both species typically do not occupy the same neighborhood. As a consequence of competition for similar prey choices it is generally one or the other. Rarely both.
The Red Fox is distinguished from the Gray Fox by a white-tipped tail visible in the photos. They’re
omnivores that dine-upon everything from rabbits, small rodents, roadkill,
fruits and nuts and insects.They
sometimes make their home in an enlarged woodchuck den, or hollow log, or
underneath a log or rock in a stream bank or side of a hill.A mated pair will defend their turf from
other foxes but this canine frequently is prey to the resident coyotes and
wolves.
A female is called a
vixen, a male is called a dog fox, newborns are called pups, kits or
cubs. And a group of foxes is called a skulk.
Recent video and a photo. If you want to checkout the library use the Label tool on the left margin of the homepage and click of Red Fox.
That dang cat running around here is gonna get tangled-up with Mr. Red Fox one day and I won't be seeing the Ditch Tiger mooning for a photo-op anymore.
Taking the dog out for a bedtime potty call nowadays it is not unusual to hear the call of the call of the Great Horned Owl as dusk has settled upon the forest. The horned owl is common around here and it is quite distinctive.
This is one of the earliest nesting birds in Wisconsin; laying eggs in January and February. Mated pairs raise one brood per year in an abandoned cavity nest, nest of a great blue heron or crow or even in the stump end of a large broken branch.
The horned owl is particularly gutsy being one of the few birds of prey that will take
porcupines and skunks. Plucky bird the horned own is - which is why it
is sometimes called the Flying Tiger. This bird of prey sports silent wing feathers, hearing so acute it can hear a rodent beneath the snow, bright yellow eyes and cannot turn it's head completely around. Notably, it has a wingspan of up to four feet. Why is that important? This trail is groomed with a Rhino Bush Hog and a five foot wide cutting deck - at ground level. Tree branches make the actual trail a bit narrower.
Helping to identify the fleeting appearance and disappearance of this night stalker.
I want to preface my remarks this morning with this: I am an admirer of Felis catus - the genus name for the domestic cat and several other small wild cats. I've had a couple of cats in my life and they made for terrific companion animals. Clever and playful they made a positive contribution to the household and our family.
They were not allowed to roam freely outdoors. They did wear a harness and clipped to an overhead line by a length of parachute cord they could enjoy sunshine, shade and the outdoors to the extent of the patio's edge.
This was for their own safety, and knowing what I know about predator instincts.
It is difficult to know if the cat in these photos is a feral (wild) cat, or someone's barn cat, or a house cat that is allowed to roam at will. It is not wearing a collar and what is obvious is it has been showing-up frequently on the trail cameras lately. And these photos are only a small sampling.
Colloquially known around here as ditch tigers, feral cats are not fuzzy, cuddly pets. Hard-wired as predators they are
stone-cold killers who kill solely for the thrill of killing. Roaming cats are a scourge on ground-nesting game birds and song birds.
Very few things get
me grumpy as much as feral cats or cats that have been granted
permission to roam freely at large. Cats compete with other wild animals such as owls for small prey. And cats introduce rabies, feline leukemia and other diseases to native wildlife.
In the United States alone, cats like the one pictured above, kill billions upon billions of wild mammals, reptiles and birds
every year. Many, many-fold more than are killed by human-related causes such as
wind turbines, office building windows, power lines, farming practices, automobiles or habitat loss.
Cats
are predators of the highest order. Not native to North America they are introduced and thus an invasive species. And allowing them to
roam is not doing native wildlife any favors. If this cat is a member of a household or farmstead the risk to the cat itself is irresponsible.
I cannot think of a single socially redeeming element to tolerating feral and free-roaming domestic cats. Can you?
Recently, when I let out the dog before bedtime I heard the call of the Great Horned Owl as dusk settled upon the forest. The horned owl is common around here and its call is quite distinctive. And just a couple of days ago my cousin snapped this daylight photo in his backyard in Wauwatosa.
The horned owl
is particularly gutsy being one of the few birds of prey that will take
porcupines and skunks. Plucky bird the horned owl is - which is why it
is sometimes called the Flying Tiger.
Near the dawn of
time, the story goes; Coyote saved the creatures of Earth. According to the
mythology of Idaho's Nez Perce people, the monster Kamiah had stalked into the
region and was gobbling up the animals one by one. The crafty Coyote evaded
Kamiah but didn't want to lose his friends, so he let himself be swallowed.
From inside the beast, Coyote severed Kamiah's heart and freed his fellow
animals. Then he chopped up Kamiah and threw the pieces to the winds, where
they gave birth to the peoples of the planet.
– Nature
Yote - short for
coyote, Wile E. Coyote, Canis latrans.If
you were to inquire of a wildlife biologist they would tell you that there are
nineteen subspecies of coyote that are exceedingly well-adapted to living in
urban, rural and wild America.
Male coyotes top out at about 44 pounds while
females weigh-in slightly less. For scale When we had hunting dogs our Labs
are bulkier than the average coyote.Coyotes
are known for how well they adapt to different habitats. They are found living in and around large
cities, the central plains, farmland, and northern forest, in the desert scrub
of the Sonoran Desert, foothills and mountains as well as in populated ring suburbs.
Coyotes dine on large prey and also eat snakes,
insects, rodents, fruit and other mast. As an opportunistic hunter coyotes have been known to prey-upon small pets
and livestock.In an urban setting they
will eat garbage and pet food left on a deck or patio. The coyote is a gregarious animal - socially-inclined
- like the wolf. This is likely a
consequence of the need for a family unit or pack of animals combining to bring
down large game.
Recent genetic studies
suggest that coyotes are not native to the eastern United States - having largely evolved on the Great Plains.As the eastern old growth forests were cleared for
settlement and agriculture coyotes adapted to the new environs.It is thought that coyotes dispersed to our
neck of the woods early in the twentieth century.These canids are presumed to have come from the
northern Great Plains and are unique in their genetic origins.Additional coyotes dispersed from here to New England
via the northern Great Lakes region and southern Canada meeting in the 1940s in New
York and Pennsylvania. These coyotes
have inter-bred with gray wolf and
Eastern wolf populations adding to their own unique genetic diversity and further
contributing to their hybrid vigor and ability to adapt to an ever changing
environment.Coyotes here are known as
the Northeastern coyote.
More frequently
Jill and I hear coyote vocalizations than we see them live and in person.In
rural America coyotes share the same
natural aversion to people that other wildlife do. They are
scared-to-death of people. However, from time to time I do capture a
handful
of digital photos on a trail camera.
There photos were taken by the same camera one minute apart. Same animal, same location, infrared and color...
It is not uncommon or unusual to capture an image of an owl on a trail camera here. You can do a search under Owl Biology using the labels feature in the left margin of the blog and you'll find older posts featuring Northern Saw-Whet owls, Great Horned owls, rare Snowy Owls or Eastern Screech owls like this one from last week.
Last month delivered a first - at least photographic evidence anyway with this:
A Barred owl.
Common throughout the state of Wisconsin this is the first documented appearance here of Strix varia. A chunky brown and gray bird of prey it sports a large head, disc-like face, barring on the chest and no "ear-tufts". This bird dines on mice, rabbits, small birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish. Yes, fish.
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