Return of the Coyotes?

I've been worried about our coyote population. I've been seeing far fewer in trail camera photos, and my neighbors are all commenting that they rarely hear them sing anymore. Some of you might remember a video that I captured of a small pack of coyotes singing right outside our house. You might want to turn down the volume on the video, especially if you're using earphones.

The most amazing part was that having a pack of coyotes sing outside our windows was an almost nightly occurrence then. Sadly, it hasn't happened in at least 18 months now. Some of us think that the absence of coyotes is related to unprotected compost piles which produce chemicals that are poisonous to mammals during the decomposition process. All of us locals know that coyotes will eat anything remotely edible that's left outside. I even once found a roll of $20 bills in coyote scat!

Regardless of the reason for the crash of our local coyote population, one of my trail cameras started getting photos of a pair of coyotes in mid-March.

They were marking the territory vigorously, which made me think that they were moving into this territory. You can see the one coyote kicking the dirt backwards in a scent marking behavior in the photo above.

The pair has come back to that same spot many times, marking every time. It's a place where all our carnivores scent mark.

My only worry was that one of the pair appeared to have something wrong with his lower lip or jaw. Every photo of him in mid-March showed either a swollen or sagging front lower lip.

Fast forward to today. I was out riding my bike without Shyla, and I saw a pair of coyotes trotting next to each other in front of me. One went up the hill and into the forest. The other stayed and watched me. I wished that I had my good camera with me but my point-and-shoot did okay.

I thought that he was very handsome!

I wonder if he was trying to pick up my scent or some other animal's scent?

He sat and looked off to my left.

What a privilege to get to see him like that!

I love coyotes. In areas where wolves have been exterminated, they live in packs with multiple generations helping to raise the young of the alpha pair of coyotes. There's clear loyalty among the pack as they all work together toward raising the pups.

It's horrendous to see some of the comments that are made on the Youtube video that I showed at the start of this post. People say that they want to shoot and torture coyotes, and I don't understand it. Fortunately, I moderate the comments so none of those really bad comments stays visible for long.

One of the coolest things is how similar coyotes are to our dogs. Back when they used to sing outside our windows, R would regularly join in with his own howl.

I hope that this new pair of coyotes can raise some young in our neck of the woods so we can hear their singing more regularly again!