Sancho (not on display) was acquired .  Sancho was an unexpected birth at zoo that did not have enough space for him. We received him when he was 8 days old and bottle-raised him in an effort to make him accustomed to people because coyote are usually very shy of people. He has already appeared in a coyote documentary on the Discovery Channel, called ‘Coyote, the Wiley Vagabond’.

Coyote ()

Dining and Dwelling

Most (90%) of the coyote’s diet is made up of meat, from prey like rabbits, squirrels, groundhogs, voles, mice, and sometimes even deer, and livestock. They are not opposed to eating carrion (already dead animals). and in some rural areas 50% of their diet consists of dead livestock. The coyote is very adaptable and can be found in almost any type of habitat, although their preference is open grasslands and thinly wooded bush.

Life and Death

Coyotes are sexually mature at 1 year and usually mate for life. Before having their young the couple will either dig a den, use a cave, a thicket or renovate a fox or badger den. After 2 months the young are born and will stay with their parents for up to a year. A coyote pack, unlike wolves is made up of only the parents and their pups. The coyotes number one predator is the human, who kill them for their fur and also because coyotes kill livestock. They are also predated by wolves, black bears and their young are taken by eagles, lynx, and domestic dogs.

That's Amazing

-Known for it’s wiliness, the coyote has been seen hunting with badgers. The badger does all the work of digging up a burrow and the coyote waits by another entrance for the fleeing residents.

-In 1977 alone, 350,000 coyotes were killed for their pelts in North America.