🐾 The Clever Coyotes of Cat Tales
Curious. Adaptable. Wildly Misunderstood.
Coyotes may not always win popularity contests, but these highly intelligent, adaptable animals are essential to maintaining healthy ecosystems. Often cast as the “bad guys” in rural and suburban tales, coyotes actually play a critical role in controlling rodent populations and helping balance nature’s scales.
At Cat Tales, our coyotes serve as charismatic ambassadors for misunderstood predators everywhere. By observing them up close, guests gain a new appreciation for their intelligence, resilience, and the important role they play in our world. Through education and encounter, our goal is to replace fear with fascination.
Coyote Facts – Canis latrans
Habitat: North America, all regions
Lifespan: Wild 6-8 years; Captivity 12-16 years
Diet: Omnivore
Status: Least concern
The coyote, like many canids, is highly adaptable in habitat and opportunistic in diet. Once believed to be always solitary, it may also form a breeding pair or, when larger prey is common, gather as a small hunting pack. Coyotes have a grizzled buff coat that is yellowish on the outer ears, legs, and feet. The shoulders, back, and tail may be tinged black. Food varies from pronghorns, deer, and mountain sheep to fish, carrion, and refuse. The coyote is a rapid sprinter (40 mph/ 65 kph) and often runs down jackrabbits. Its well-known nocturnal howl usually announces an individual’s territory or location to neighbors. Mating occurs from January to March, gestation takes 63 days, and the litter size is 6 to 18 (average 6). The pups are born in a secure den.
The coyote, like many similar species, uses a characteristic pounce to catch small prey, such as mice, in snow or grass. It moves forward slowly, watching and listening intently. Having located the prey, it leaps almost vertically in the air and brings its front feet down onto the animal, pinning it to the ground before killing it with a bite.
Generally, uniformly colored, from frosted grey to rufus-brown, with pale underparts and often greyish or ‘salt-and-pepper’ saddle. Tail is typically infused with dark brown to black hairs, and usually dark-tipped (rarely white-tipped). Melanistic, leucistic, brindled, sable, and blonde individuals occur, particularly in eastern North America, where admixture with domestic dogs is prevalent.
Extremely opportunistic generalist that consumes virtually any edible food source. Vertebrate prey is most important, mainly rodents, lagomorphs, juvenile ungulates and carrion. Mammalian prey is always supplemented by a wide variety of other food sources, especially fruits, seeds, vegetables, grains (including crops), eggs and invertebrates. Domestic pets, especially cats and less so small dogs, are rarely eaten; cats occur in 0-2% of scats collected in urban and suburban studies.
Foraging is normally diuron-crepuscular, but generally nocturnal near humans, particularly where hunted. Scavenges from carnivore (especially gray wolf) kills, human refuse, pet food and bird feeders.
Meet Our Coyotes
🌟 Meet Sunny & Blue
Not just survivors—storytellers.
Sunny and Blue arrived at Cat Tales as pups on April 8, 2018. They came alongside older animals who needed sanctuary after outgrowing their roles at other facilities. In many places, when space gets tight, hard choices are made—older animals are sometimes euthanized to make way for younger ones that draw crowds and dollars.
But not here.
Cat Tales is a place where no animal is discarded because they’ve aged out of the spotlight. We proudly offer a “retirement home” for elder wildlife, and when asked, we occasionally welcome younger animals in need of placement too—just like Sunny and Blue.
- Sunny‘s full name is Sinawava, meaning “coyote” in Southern Paiute—a name honoring native perspectives that revered the coyote as a powerful spirit.
- Blue‘s full name is Talapus, the Chinook Jargon word for “coyote”, who often appeared in native stories as the clever trickster and teacher.
These two are full of personality—watch them play, vocalize, and interact with their environment and you’ll walk away with a new respect for this incredibly misunderstood species.
💬 Why Coyotes Matter
By learning about animals like Sunny and Blue, we inspire future wildlife stewards and advocate for the protection of all predators. Predators like coyotes aren’t just fascinating—they’re fundamental.
Recommended – Project Coyote – for more coyote videos, information and downloads.