Figure 1
Coyotes (Canis latrans), a canine unique to the New World, is not very famous in China, in addition to the most formal Chinese name of "coyote", China's online media to this animal as a messy translation of the name also includes "little wolf", "American wolf", "bush wolf", "steppe wolf" and so on. (The last two translations are very painful, because coyotes do not stick to either of the jungle or grassland natural environments.)
Figure 2
Coyotes, a genus of canines in the family Canis, are very closely related to the most famous canines, the canis lupus , including its artificial subspecies, the domestic dog.
Figure 3
For the average person, it is quite difficult to distinguish between wolves and coyotes from appearance, the easiest way to distinguish is to look at the size, coyotes are much smaller than wolves, and their average weight is about 8-20 kg, about half of wolves.
Figure 4
At the same time, coyotes are almost never as large as wolves, they usually live in small families, hunting is basically alone, rarely fighting with other coyotes.
Figure 5
Coyotes are a typical opportunist, unlike jackals, African wild dogs and other social canines that rely heavily on large prey, coyotes are willing to eat any prey they can catch, whether it is rodents such as mice, ground squirrels, marmots, or relatively large ungulates such as white-tailed deer, and they do not mind taking berries when they can't find meat, and the large amount of leftover food left in the human trash can also make the coyotes eat with relish.
Figure 6
Another unusual feature of coyote hunting is that they sometimes cooperate with American badgers across species (see the O webpage link for details), which is simply unimaginable for wolves - "Your little boy, as a canine, does not cooperate with the same kind, but actually ran to team up with the ferret family, is there any mistake??" ”
Figure 7
Although coyotes cannot be compared with wolves in terms of combat effectiveness, in terms of adaptability to the environment, coyotes can blast their big brothers out of five streets.
Figure 8
Since whites came to the New World to establish civilization, wolves have disappeared from many parts of North America due to human hunting and habitat destruction, while coyotes are the complete opposite, with the benefits of human household garbage and poaching livestock, they not only did not die out under the expansion of human beings, but also expanded their sphere of influence with the expansion of human settlements. Before the nineteenth century, coyotes were only common in the western United States, but today they have spread throughout North America, whether in forests, grasslands, deserts, or human cities.
Figure 9
Figure 3-4: Coyote vs. wolf
Figure 7: A coyote hunting down a raccoon. Raccoons, like coyotes, are the beneficiaries of human expansion and are very adaptable to the living environment of human settlements, with the saying that "coyotes are like dogs, and raccoons walk everywhere". However, the two are not friends, and when coyotes and raccoons encounter each other, the former's usual reaction is to want to slaughter the latter and eat them.
Figure 8: Coyote confronting a short-tailed cat. Short-tailed cats are the smallest lynx and are the main competitors of coyotes in their natural environment.
Figure 9: A coyote that was headshot by an arrow. Although the death was tragic, there is no need for officials to worry about the survival of coyotes, which are legal hunting targets in most parts of the United States.