kinship

Our coyote friends are shedding their thick winter coats right now as the temperatures start to warm.. I always feel so lucky when I see a coyote as their coloring gives them next level camouflage! Coyotes are extraordinary native animals - they have been here in some form longer than any humans! With an amazing capacity to evolve and adapt, we can learn so much from them. 

Right now is a particularly sensitive time in their annual cycle as many coyote pairs actively set up dens during the pupping season (typically late March through May). In this denning and early pup-rearing period (roughly April through early summer), the parents are highly focused on protecting their vulnerable young. The mother stays close with the pups in the den for the first several weeks, while the father and sometimes older siblings bring food. Giving coyotes reasonable space during this time helps reduce stress on the family, lowers the chance of defensive encounters, and allows the parents to focus on raising their litter successfully.

Suggestions at this time - :

- Keep dogs on leash/supervised, especially smaller dogs.

- Avoid approaching or investigating potential den areas (holes, brush piles, or spots with frequent coyote sightings).

- Be vigilant with smaller pets especially at dawn, dusk, or night.

- If a coyote seems unusually bold or tries to escort you away from an area, calmly leave — there’s likely a den nearby.

Don’t leave any food out to encourage coyotes close to human spaces.

Like us they need for a bit more privacy while they raise their young.

Coyotes and the Land: A Deep History

Coyotes (Canis latrans) are one of the most ancient and resilient native species of North America.

Scientific evidence shows that modern coyotes have existed on the continent for hundreds of thousands to over a million years, with fossils of animals very similar to today’s coyotes dating back to the Pleistocene epoch (as early as 0.74–1 million years ago). Their ancestors within the Canidae family evolved in western North America millions of years earlier. For at least the last 10,000 years of the Holocene period, coyotes were well established across much of the arid West, prairies, deserts, and parts of California—long before European colonization and, importantly, long before the arrival of the first humans in the Americas (who migrated from Asia roughly 15,000–20,000+ years ago).

In this sense, coyotes and their wild canid lineage were here thousands of years before any humans set foot on the continent. Their descendants have remained continuous inhabitants of North American ecosystems ever since.

Coyotes are therefore among the original wild inhabitants of the land. Many Indigenous Nations across the Plains, Southwest, California, and Great Basin have recognized this deep connection for centuries. In numerous Native American traditions and mythologies, Coyote appears as a powerful cultural figure — often a trickster, creator, teacher, or transformer — reflecting the animal’s real presence on the landscape since time immemorial.

While coyotes dramatically expanded their range across North America in the 20th century (moving into forests, cities, and eastern regions after the decline of wolves and changes in land use), they have always been a native, endemic species tied to this continent far longer than human societies.