A Word about Adirondack Coyotes

Ever since I met a coyote just four miles from the Boston city limits 17 years ago, I've been fascinated by this extraordinary canine. What's most amazing to me is the coyote's ability to thrive despite enormous efforts to eliminate or limit its population and range.

Many coyotes live very close to us here in our southern Adirondack home. Only very rarely do I see them, and usually only at night. When there's no moon, all I can see are their eyes, staring at me as I put the trash securely(!) in the garage. During the day I study their tracks and examine their scat, for a clue as to their current menu, which varies from month to month, season to season.

I search for their tracks, and love to photograph them and compare them with Sophie's tracks, with Zack's tracks (a Labrador neighbor), and with other dog tracks I come across. It is not always a simple task to distinguish coyote tracks from dog tracks. I can easily distinguish Sophie's tracks from a coyote's, because her front paws are so wide. The tricky task is to be positive I am viewing coyote tracks on hiking trails away from home.

Dogs tend to have a swaggering gait, a loose-legged bouncing run--how should I describe it best? They often run with exuberance, and their legs go all over the place. A coyote, on the other hand, usually travels with an economy of movement, each foot seeming to be precisely placed. But--and here's the big but--a dog is able to run or trot with a similar economy, so one cannot distinguish the tracks based on gait alone.

The individual coyote track is narrower overall than a dog track. This, too, is a generality. In addition, and here's what's really tricky, a dog's two outer toes or pads, one on each side, are angled slightly out away from the center of the foot. The coyote's print, in contrast, appears more compact, the toes appear closer together.

Please keep in mind, I am only discussing coyotes of the Adirondacks here. Western coyotes differ in many ways, and, though I've never compared them, the identification of tracks issues may be different, too.