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The Coyotes of Yellowstone page contains 50 images taken in autumn and late winter in various locations of central and northern Yellowstone National Park.
Most of the images from Yellowstone National Park have been prepared without Title Bars.
Click an image to open a larger version. Use your back button to return to this page.
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Coyotes of Yellowstone National Park Coyotes of Bosque del Apache
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The Banner below leads to the Coyote Gallery where images can be selected.
There are 111 images in the Coyote Gallery
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Coyote at Sunrise Floating Island Lake 0242
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Coyote at Sunrise Floating Island Lake 0250
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A Coyote searches the edge of Floating Island Lake at sunrise, the site where two days previously a female Elk who had injured her leg and was trapped in the muddy lake bed by a pack of wolves had been killed by a Grizzly Bear. The elk was trapped in the lake by the wolves for five days before the bear came along and killed her, eating his fill while holding off the wolves. The coyote was looking for any remains which were left behind by the bear and the wolves. It was sad for the elk, but this is the way things go in the wild, and the ongoing event was a topic of conversation for photographers and rangers for a week.
This was an exceptionally large, well-fed and bold male Coyote. To approach a recent bear and wolf kill site is very dangerous, as wolves go out of their way to attack coyotes, who compete with the wolves for their prey.
Coyotes are often mistaken for gray wolves, as their coat colors range from tan to buff and are sometimes gray. The closest relative of the coyote is the gray wolf, with whom they occasionally interbreed, but most encounters between coyotes and gray wolves end with the wolves killing the coyotes to eliminate the potential competition. The male coyotes are slightly larger than females, and coyotes have some orange on their nose, ears, tail and legs. Most coyotes are about 1/3 the size of wolves, and are built more slightly than wolves. This one was about half the size of the average wolf... with its fur fluffed up in the cold morning air, at this distance it looked like a wolf, and it is possible that this individual is a hybrid of a wolf and a coyote. Interbreeding of coyotes and wolves is more common in the eastern US and Canada than in the west.
These images and the three shown below were taken at 850mm from across Floating Island Lake.
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Wolf Floating Island Lake 7794 M
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Wolves Floating Island Lake 7808 M
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Above are two images taken a week before, on the first day that the elk was trapped by the wolves. In the left center of the image above right, a black wolf can be seen peeking through the trees behind the two resting wolves who were waiting for the injured elk to get tired. Black wolves are a melanistic color variant of the gray wolf that derives from interbreeding between wolves and domestic dogs. They are often quite large, and one black male in Mollie’s Pack in the Pelican Valley of central Yellowstone was weighed in 2009 at 143 pounds, making it the largest wolf in Yellowstone.
All of the landscape (horizontal) large version images linked from the thumbnails are 1500 pixels wide. Portrait (vertical) images are 1200 pixels tall (1290 pixels with title bar). Images designated with an “M” in the shot number are 5:4 aspect ratio, 1500 x 1290 with a title bar, or 1500 x 1200 without a title bar.
Elk Trapped in Floating Island Lake 7799
An injured female Elk keeps an eye on the pack of wolves who are keeping her trapped in the mud at Floating Island Lake in northern Yellowstone National Park. The wolves kept her trapped for four days, until finally a Grizzly Bear came along and killed her. After the bear ate his fill, the wolves got the leftovers, and later, the coyote shown at the top of this page came by to check for leftovers.
The never ending drama of life and death in Yellowstone National Park.
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Coyote Tower Junction 0319
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Coyote Tower Junction 0332
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A Coyote stalks through the autumn grass near Tower Junction in northern Yellowstone National Park.
Coyote Tower Junction 0326
An 850mm telephoto portrait of a Coyote in the autumn grass near Tower Junction in Yellowstone.
Coyotes in northern Yellowstone typically live in packs or family groups of up to seven, generally composed of an alpha male and female and several subordinates which are usually pups from previous litters. They will often hunt in pairs or small packs, but it is not at all uncommon for solitary coyotes to hunt in Yellowstone, as they do in other areas. Pack socialization is common in areas where coyotes are not hunted by humans.
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Coyote Tower Junction 0334
A Coyote peers through the autumn grass in this 850mm telephoto image taken near Tower Junction.
Coyotes flourished in Yellowstone after the eradication of wolves in the early 1900s. In the late 1900s, the primary predator of the coyote was the cougar, who would often kill coyotes who were caught trying to feed on cougar kills, but after the reintroduction of wolves in the 1990s, many coyotes and pups were killed by wolves who were trying to eliminate the competition for prey. Recently, coyote populations in northern Yellowstone have made a resurgence after having fallen nearly 50% since the mid-1990s.
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Coyote Tower Junction 0343
A coyote keeps an eye on the photographer in this portrait taken near Tower Junction in Yellowstone.
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Coyote Tower Junction 0346
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Coyote Tower Junction 0347
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Note the wound on the nose of this coyote, a remnant from a recent fight.
Coyote Tower Junction 0356
A coyote in the autumn grass near Tower Junction in northern Yellowstone National Park.
The name Coyote derives from the Mexican Spanish coyote, which originated with the Aztec word coyoti, which means “trickster”. In Native American mythology, the Coyote appears as the Trickster, Clown or shape-shifter. His role has often been compared to the Norse god (or jotunn) Loki, also a trickster and shape-shifter.
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The Banner below leads to the Coyote Gallery where images can be selected.
There are 111 images in the Coyote Gallery
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Coyote Tower Junction 0370
A Coyote in the autumn grass near Tower Junction in northern Yellowstone National Park.
The coyote evolved alongside the Dire Wolf during the Pleistocene epoch 1.8 million years ago. It is sometimes called the Prairie Wolf or American Jackal, and fills the same ecological niche as the similarly sized Eurasian and African jackals, but the coyote’s closest relative is the Gray Wolf.
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Coyote Tower Junction 9297c
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Coyote Tower Junction 9298c
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A coyote tastes the air while searching for prey in the autumn grass near Tower Junction in Yellowstone.
This series of 420mm telephoto portraits were taken at closer range than the previous (850mm) series.
Coyote Tower Junction 9303
A 420mm telephoto portrait of a coyote in the autumn grass near Tower Junction in Yellowstone.
Coyotes are typically one third the size of Gray Wolves, about the size of a small German Shepherd. Southern coyotes are typically smaller than the northern subspecies, which themselves are smaller than those coyotes which are the result of interbreeding with wolves. Most coyotes which have interbred with wolves are in the Eastern US and Canada, although some interbreeding takes place in the northwest.
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Coyote Tower Junction 9305
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Coyote Tower Junction 9301
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A coyote looks for prey in the autumn grass near Tower Junction in Yellowstone.
Coyotes are primarily carnivorous omnivores, and while they eat fruits and vegetables in the summer and autumn, they primarily eat voles, mice, rabbits and other small animals. They also take down young elk calves and deer in the spring, and prefer fresh meat, although they also will eat carrion. Part of the reason why coyotes are so successful at living in so many areas is that they will eat nearly anything, including household pets and human garbage in urban areas. In Yellowstone, rangers scare coyotes away from visitor areas to reduce threats to humans.
Coyote Tower Junction 9308
A coyote in the autumn grass near Tower Junction in Yellowstone National Park.
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Coyote Tower Junction 9310
A coyote searches for prey in the autumn grass near Tower Junction in Yellowstone.
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Coyote Tower Junction 9313
A coyote peers over the autumn grass in this 420mm telephoto portrait taken near Tower Junction.
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The Banner below leads to the Coyote Gallery where images can be selected.
There are 111 images in the Coyote Gallery
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Coyote Portrait Obsidian Cliffs 0773
A 200mm telephoto close-portrait of a coyote approaching the photographer near Obsidian Cliffs in north-central Yellowstone National Park in late September.
Coyotes have small feet and large ears relative to their body size.
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Coyote Portrait Obsidian Cliffs 0776 M
A 160mm telephoto extreme close-portrait of a coyote near Obsidian Cliffs.
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Coyote Obsidian Cliffs 0779 M
A coyote enters a game trail in this 200mm telephoto image taken near Obsidian Cliffs.
This is very close to the area shown in the Winter Hunt series at the bottom of this page.
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Coyote Willow Park 0610
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Coyote Willow Park 0611
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A coyote searches for prey in the autumn grass near Willow Park, not far from Obsidian Cliffs, about halfway between Norris Junction and Mammoth Hot Springs in north-central Yellowstone.
Coyote Pounce Willow Park 0621
A coyote pounces on a vole in the autumn grass in Willow Park.
This stiff-legged pounce is typical behavior for coyotes when they are “mousing”.
Another example of this pounce can be seen in the next series shown below, where a coyote successfully catches a large, very fat vole as part of the Winter Hunt sequence at Obsidian Cliffs.
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Coyote Willow Park 0625
A coyote searches for the vole who got away in this 850mm telephoto shot taken in Willow Park.
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Coyote Willow Park 0630
An 850mm telephoto portrait of a coyote hunting in the autumn grass in Yellowstone’s Willow Park.
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The Banner below leads to the Coyote Gallery where images can be selected.
There are 111 images in the Coyote Gallery
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6784
A coyote spots a vole hiding in the brush during a hunt near Obsidian Cliffs in north-central Yellowstone at the end of winter. This 420mm telephoto image was taken on May 1st, at the edge of Obsidian Creek at 7400 feet altitude.
Yellowstone National Park is mostly at 7000 to 8000 feet in altitude and above the 44th Parallel. At this altitude and latitude, spring comes in May in most areas of the park, and snowstorms can often continue through April, as can be seen in a number of images which are shown on this page.
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Coyote Pounce 6791
A coyote performs his characteristic stiff-legged pounce to catch a vole who is hiding in the brush and snow alongside Obsidian Creek near Obsidian Cliffs in Yellowstone.
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Coyote Pounce 6792
The coyote stomps on the vole with both front paws, with his legs extended after the pounce to stun the vole long enough to allow him to capture him in his mouth, as shown in the following three images. He then crushes the vole with his teeth and swallows it whole. Brutal, but efficient.
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Coyote with Vole 6794
The coyote picks up the stunned vole in his jaws...
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Coyote with Vole 6797
... crushes its head using his molars, making sure the photographer sees the superb technique...
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Coyote with Vole 6802
... and then flips the vole back into his gullet before swallowing it whole. Note the tail sticking out.
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The Banner below leads to the Coyote Gallery where images can be selected.
There are 111 images in the Coyote Gallery
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6804
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6805
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After dining on a fat, tasty vole, the coyote continues his hunt, crossing the deep snow to Obsidian Creek.
Coyote Winter Hunt 6818 M
A coyote poses for a 420mm telephoto portrait alongside Obsidian Creek, during a late-winter hunt near Obsidian Cliffs in Yellowstone National Park in early May.
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6821
A coyote prepares to jump over Obsidian Creek during a late-winter hunt near Obsidian Cliffs in Yellowstone.
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6823
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6827
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6829
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6831
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A coyote crosses the snowy flats beyond Obsidian Creek during a late-winter hunt near Obsidian Cliffs.
Coyote Winter Hunt 6836
The coyote pauses to look for possible signs of yet another tasty rodent near young seedlings at the edge of the snowy flats near Obsidian Cliffs.
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The Banner below leads to the Coyote Gallery where images can be selected.
There are 111 images in the Coyote Gallery
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6841
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6843
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A coyote crosses the snowy flats beyond Obsidian Creek during a late-winter hunt near Obsidian Cliffs.
Coyote Winter Hunt 6846
A 420mm telephoto portrait of a coyote on the snowy flats beyond Obsidian Creek in late winter.
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6849
The coyote pauses considerately to make sure the photographer gets a good profile shot during his trek.
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6855
The coyote looks back to make sure the photographer got a good shot, then continues on his way.
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6860
A 420mm telephoto portrait of a coyote crossing the snowy flats during a late-winter hunt near Obsidian Cliffs.
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6866
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Coyote Winter Hunt 6877
The coyote reaches the edge of the snowy flats beyond Obsidian Creek and continues on his late winter hunt near Obsidian Cliffs in north-central Yellowstone.
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The Banner below leads to the Coyote Gallery where images can be selected.
There are 111 images in the Coyote Gallery
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Click the Display Composite above to visit the Coyotes of Bosque del Apache page.
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