What are Coyotes Afraid of?

When you see coyotes in your neighborhood it really does make you wonder sometimes exactly what are coyotes afraid of?

First of all, coyotes are scared of humans. 

Human vs Coyote

It often doesn’t seem like coyotes are afraid of humans but it is a fact that the majority of the time a coyote will keep well away from humans, including our day to day activities.

However, as a relationship between coyotes and humans develops, they are becoming much more comfortable around the presence of humans and that is certainly not good (for humans).

Humans can be particularly under threat if they are walking a small dog or have small domesticated pets near them as coyotes are here purely on the lookout for food.

Always treat coyotes with great caution and have at the back of your mind that a coyote is much more likely to say…

Coyote vs Fox

The Coyote is generally larger than a fox and can sometimes be double the size of a gray fox and if it came to an out and out battle then the majority of times a coyote will defeat a fox.

This is also backed up that not only will a coyote kill a fox if it wanders into its territory but the coyote is also a predator of the fox and will hunt them to eat.

Coyote vs Wolf

These two cunning and smart predators look very similar to the naked eye but on a closer look the characteristics are quite noticeable should you know what to look for.

The snout of a coyote is much thinner than the wolf and the yote has an oversized pair of ears compared to the size of its head.

However, coyotes would steer well clear of the wolf and you would generally only see coyotes near wolves when they look to polish off a fresh kill that is left discarded by the wolves once they have devoured every morsel that they want and then leave what they don’t want.

Coyote vs Dog

Coyotes do not normally hunt animals that are larger than them, especially if they are hunting alone, therefore, coyotes do not normally voluntarily attack large dogs.

Coyotes and medium-sized dogs are similarly matched when it comes to size and strength, however, remember that coyotes have the instinct of a wild animal but generally, coyotes will not attack medium sized dogs, especially if they are with their owner.

It’s a very different story when it comes to large dogs.

Quite often large dogs are used when hunting to enter the territory of the yote to tempt them towards the hunter in order to get a better shot.

Whilst the dogs are roaming in the territory of the coyotes they will quite often be left to chase them then they will head back to the hunter where the coyote will then chase after the dog and probably take a bite and ahave a tussle with it.

This normally clears the way for the shooter to take out the coyote where the dog then wrestles the injured coyote to the ground before it dies.