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The sound of coyotes howling and yipping at night sometimes causes people concern and alarm. Some mistakenly believe howling indicates that a group of coyotes has made a kill. While coyotes howl for a variety of reasons, it is not likely because they have downed prey.
Listen to the howling, yipping, growling, screaming, and barking of coyotes. Coyotes are known for howling but make many more sounds to communicate. Which co...
It's an attention-grabbing sound, and an eerie one: coyotes howling, usually in the evening or at night, a chorus that is being heard with increasing frequency throughout the Northeast—and not just in remote wilderness areas, but in towns, suburbs, and city fringes.
In the wild, coyotes use howling to communicate with one another when other prairie wolves are nearby. Believe it or not, coyotes don’t typically howl at the moon. Rather, it is the moonlight that causes coyotes to communicate verbally by howling.
Coyote, New World member of the dog family (Canidae) that is smaller and more lightly built than the wolf. Noted for its nightly serenades of yaps and howls, this primarily nocturnal animal is an efficient hunter that can be found from Alaska southward into Central America.
Coyotes are well known for their distinctive howling. Commonly found in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, coyote howls echo through many rural areas at night. But why do these animals make such a loud noise?
It is not the long, low, slow howling of wolves that can be heard further north, but the group yip-howl of coyotes: short howls that often rise and fall in pitch, punctuated with staccato yips, yaps, and barks.
Howling may be the most recognizable coyote vocalization, but these canids actually have a wide repertoire of sounds. (One of the animal’s more endearing nicknames is “song dog”). Researchers generally identify 11 vocalizations that serve a variety of functions, from alarm to warning to socialization.
Howls communicate information (who is calling) and location. Howls carry a long way and are undistorted by distance. Humans can hear a howl made by a coyote almost a mile away, but other coyotes can listen to it nearly three miles away.
For coyotes, howling is one of the most basic forms of communication, but it can have several purposes. According to the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, a coyote’s howl is a high-pitched cry meant to signal other coyotes and animals in the area.