Social Organizations

The coyote social organization can be broken down into five divisions: mated pairs, packs, solitary residents, transients, and aggregations.

Mated Pairs: The mated pair is the central social unit of the coyote (Harrison, 1992). The pair lives together year round and generally remains bonded for several years, either until one of the pair dies or disappears. Offspring of the mated pair will either disperse, or some juveniles may remain with their parents for another year or two. Availability of large food items increases the likelihood of delayed dispersal. When only small prey is available it is more advantageous to hunt alone, and therefore there is little need for a pack .Coyotes that do not disperse generally aide parents in raising the next year's offspring (Camenzind, 1978).

Packs: Many resident pairs belong to packs. Packs are centered around the breeding/resident pair and generally include 3-7 individuals, however, to a large extent the group size varies due to the timing of juvenile dispersal (Harrison, 1992). Members are often related. The pack may also contain non-related bachelor males, non-reproductive females, and near-mature young (Davis & Schmidly, 1997). The mated pair is dominant over the other group members and are considered the alpha male and alpha female. They are the only breeding members in the group. No strong dominance hierarchy has been observed among the other group members. All individuals share in territorial defense and non-mating individuals may help the mated pair raise their young. Pack members have been observed to eat, rest, play, forage and travel together. Vocalizations were used between members to maintain contact when separated. Pack cohesiveness varied with seasons and specifically food availability (Camenzind, 1978).

During the winter cohesiveness is generally higher because the pack often feeds together on the carcasses of ungulate and guards the food source from intruders (Camenzind, 1978). According to Bowen (1981), groups are generally advantageous to coyote food gathering. Groups consume more large animals, and in this study, particularly deer. Bowen suggests that this may be due not only to a group's increased ability to capture and kill a large animal, but also an ability to defend the food source once it has been found or killed. Also, groups are able to search a larger range for food, which increases the odds of finding ungulate carcasses. Even when bringing down the animal is not an issue because it is already dead, a single individual or pair cannot defend this resource from a group. Bowen reported that similar success with increased group size was observed in the feeding behavior of jackals. Female coyotes in groups rather than mated pairs may specifically be at an advantage because they are more likely to have carrion to eat during the winter, which places them at an advantage over females who must hunt for their food during the winter. Not needing to hunt for food allows the female to store her energy before and during the pregnancy (Bowen, 1980). Besides obtaining food, groups are important to territory defense and care and survival of pups (Camenzind, 1978; Bekoff and Wells, 1980, Bowen 1981).

Solitary-residents: Solitary residents are not bonded to any other coyote, but they live in a specific, non-defended home range (Bekoff & Wells, 1986). These individuals do not defend a core area, as in the mated pairs and packs, because the lone individual would have no chance of maintaining the area against multiple coyotes (Messier & Barrette, 1982).

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Photographs by David and Valerie Peters

Photographs of lone coyotes in various habitats

Photograph by Fred Voetsch

Transients: Transients are solitary individuals that have no location attachment. Transients may be either young dispersing individuals or healthy adults (Bekoff & Wells, 1986). Camenzind (1978) also reported observing many coyote with birth defects among this group. A possible reason for transient behavior would be for individuals traveling in search of their own home-range and/or mate. As individuals traveled, their route ignored boundaries of resident pair territories. However, if resident members come into contact with a transient coyote, they will drive the individual from their territory. Transient individuals hunt small prey and appeared to have no access to carrion unless it had been abandoned by larger groups.

Aggregations: Aggregations are large transient groups of 7 to 22 individuals. These groups are a combination of transient, resident pairs and packs, which gather for short periods during travel. Aggregations were only observed around carrion and were only found between November and April. These groups also move through territories and there is little resident pairs can do to stop this large group (Camenzind, 1978).

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