True or False

by Steve
(Pontypool, Ontario, Canada )

I just read on this site about Coyotes & Wolves. I live in Pontypool, Ontario and at least twice a week I hear the howling of Coyotes.

This howling sounds just like the YouTube video on this site, yet this site states that Coyotes do not live in packs like Wolves do.

On the other hand, a couple of years ago I was driving north on Liberty Street. N Bowmanville, Ontario, between the 7th & 8th Concessions, between 8:30 a.m. & 9:30 a.m.

On the east side of the road, in a farmer's field, I witnessed a pack of around seven Grey Wolves heading east.

I stopped my vehicle and the last one stopped and watched me - it would not leave until I started to leave!

Thanks for your submission to our site, Steve, your information is interesting.

In Nature, often there is no hard and fast rule, however I did a little more research and found that although Wolves almost always live and hunt in packs, the main social unit in Coyotes, is the mated pair - often with this-year's youngsters, making up a small pack, however, larger packs of Coyotes are not unknown.

I also found the site, Canids.org, which our readers might find interesting.

In some places coyotes live like typical grey wolves - in resident packs that are essentially closely-knit extended families consisting of overlapping generations of parents, young-of-the-year, and helpers of varying genetic relatedness. In other habitats they live either as resident mated pairs or as transient single individuals showing little or no site attachment. The mated pair seems to be the basic social unit.

The relative frequency with which different social groups are observed can vary from location to location and seems to depend mainly on the nature of food resources (Camenzind, 1978; Bowen, 1981; Bekoff & Wells, 1986; Gese, Rongstad, & Mytton, 1988a; see also Gese, Rongstad, & Mytton, 1988b). Pack members share in territorial defense and some serve as helpers for rearing young and for defending territories outside the breeding season. At least in northern climates, packs typically form when there is sufficient food in late autumn and winter to allow young-of-the-year to form strong social bonds with older pack members; this results in some young-of-the-year remaining with their parents and older siblings.

Coyotes use vocalizations extensively, and may howl following a reunion, to announce their location, to announce territorial occupancy, or possibly because they enjoy doing so (Lehner, 1978).