We live in a canyon in So. Cal. A pack of Coyotes are presently dwelling about 200 yards up the mountain. About 2 or 3 times a month, one can hear the yelping or screaming for about 10 minutes and then all is quiet. A few nights ago, they must have been so close that the screaming was extremely loud for 5 minutes and then silence.
I was told that they do this after they catch prey; if this is true, why scream? In any event, your answers would be helpful. And yes, none of my neighbors have outdoor cats either.
Fighting amongst themselves for the meat most likely. I hear them fairly often around here. Also listen for them after a siren, sometimes they will answer the sound of our noon whistle (fire whistle).
It’s not actually the coyotes screaming. They catch lobsters, see, and when they drop the lobsters in the pots to boil 'em, the lobsters scream. You can tell the difference between a coyote scream and lobster scream, just like you can tell the difference between the scream of the leopard and that of the loon (at least in Connecticut) if… um… uh… oh, wait.
I’ve hunted coyotes quite a bit. You’ll rarely ever hear them “howling” at the moon the way it happens in the movies, but when they do it’s pretty cool (and spooky) but I digress.
Whenever one hears a pack of coyotes yelping and screaming, they’re not usually fighting. Rather this is how the coyotes communicate with each other. They make these noises in order to attract all of the other coyotes from the pack and let them know that food is available. It also helps the other coyotes in the area to locate the other ones in the group.
I think the behavior is very much akin to your dog yelping and woofing and whining when he realizes he’s going to the park to play frisbee - it’s just a natural canine response to being excited and he can’t help it. Same thing for the coyotes. They catch something to eat and they get excited.
BTW, on a tangent question, how many people here say ‘KY-oat’ and how many people say ‘ky-OA-tee’ … just curious
I pronounce it “vermin”.
And, yes, there are coyotes in CT (one of the reasons that the cat isn’t let out at night). Some years ago, there was a pack whose base was on the highway near my house. Driving home from a, ummm, <prevaricate>church social</prevaricate> about 0300 one night, I caught a glimpse of an animal in my headlights. “That’s the mangiest-looking German shepherd I’ve ever seen”, I thought to myself. Then I realized, “That wasn’t a German shepherd”.
It is often said that “anything is possible”. In fact, very few things are possible, and most of them have already happened.
I want to take this time to thank the administrator for his/ her contribution to this thread. It was hilarious and I’ve just now stopped ROTfL. In case any wonders if I’m employing the “lowest form of wit”, I am.
Only the female coyote yelps, and only in response to males who are not sharing the kill. If you hear yelping, Skel, you can bet its in response to some gluttonous males.
As a suburbanite from the Bay Area and Coastal Central California, I say ‘ky-OA-tee’. I think you have to be a red-neck Mountain Stater or Texan to say ‘KY-oat’.
Ray (I guess you could be an Hispanophone and say ‘ko-YO-tay’, or say ‘KO-yotl’ in some Nahuatl dialect.)
If the majority of one’s coyote experience comes from TV, then it rhymes with “Wile E.”
If TV reception at the double wide limits viewing pleasure to HeeHaw, or if membership in the local rancher organization requires it, then it’s the mispronounciation of the name used by the hired ranchhands.
We jump out of the truck, grab the gun out of the rack (actually don’t have a rack in the truck but it makes fer a perty image) and call them target practice.
