Another Question Book Post

As always there are more and more questions going into the question book. Now with the snow receding there are even more with each discovery I find.

Coyote eye

Do Coyotes howl when hunting?

I was talking with a colleague about howling at their farm and I got to wondering if Coyotes howl while hunting? It seems a little counter intuitive for me as I am always trying to get quiet when I am out tracking with folks. We are trying our best to sneak up on animals and avoid giving away our positions. Perhaps because our eyes are our dominant sense we don’t need to rely too heavily on sound to navigate with others, but what about Coyotes?

I am finding a bunch of different information about the purposes and uses of Coyote howls, depending on the resources I am looking at.

One of my favorite books suggested that howling "may be used to coordinate social activities such as a group hunt". (Natural history of Canadian Mammals by Donna Naughton, 2012). I thought I was schooled on the subject, but then wanted a more detailed analysis. But while searching online, I found an article from the San Francisco Chronicle that says that "There’s little evidence that vocalizations are used to coordinate pack hunting" and this is from a researcher who had been studying Coyotes in Grand Teton Park
I was ready to give up on the subject when I found a paper co-authored by Brent Patterson, who has studied Coyotes for a long time, and is a reputable source of information whom I would trust and listen to.

The abstract to the paper “Evidence for the Use of Vocalization to Coordinate the Killing of a White-Tailed Deer, Odocoileus virginianus, by Coyotes, Canis latrans” reads :

“Among the social canids, howling is largely accepted as playing a role in territory maintenance. However, its role in communication within packs, such as announcing departures from den and rendezvous sites and coordinating reunions or movements, remains largely speculative. We report an observation where a radio-collared adult male Coyote (Canis latrans) and his mate seemed to summon two other Coyotes (presumed to be their offspring) from ~700 m away to join in the successful pursuit of an adult male White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus). Our observation suggests that Coyotes can use vocalization as an effective means of coordinating social activities such as the hunting of large prey.”

Reading through the paper it explains that while the researchers did not hear the Coyote howls, there would be few other means by which two other Coyotes could have been drawn in a direct line to the site of an active pursuit from a distance of 690 m away through thick wooded forest, at night. This report, based on observations while snow tracking the whole ordeal seems to confirm that howling may be used by Coyotes to help coordinate hunting behaviours.