An Ethogram Developed on Captive Eastern Coyotes <em>Canis latrans</em>

Abstract

We studied capture Eastern Coyotes (Canis latrans) from 27-585 days of age and compiled an ethogram on them. A total of 72247 15-sec samples were taken, amounting to 301 h of field time varying between 59.4-61.3 h per Coyote. A total of 540 behavioral patterns was observed amongst the 16 behaviour categories ranging from 9 (miscellaneous) to 72 (explore/ investigate) action patterns per parent category. The 16 parent categories that we believed best described and appropriately sorted the behavioural actions were resting, sitting, sitting1, sitting2, standing, traveling, explore/investigating, hunting, feeding, infantile, greeting, self play, play initiating, playing, agonistic, and miscellaneous. Exploring accounted for >31% of all of the behaviours observed with resting and sitting (combined), standing, traveling, and play as categories decreasing in order of most to least frequent. Despite some omissions in our ethogram and drift associated with its ongoing development, we believe that the large amount of data collected made it rigorous enough to be a useful guide for the species. We argue that although future research will no doubt add to and/or modify components of it, its ease of use in the field (in captivity or in the wild) and it being the first complete ethogram described for the species, make it a useful tool for future researchers.

Social and Play Behavior in a Wild Eastern Coyote, <em>Canis latrans</em>, Pack

“…Coyote pups often played with each other during observation bouts (n = 80) at the rendezvous sites, which consisted of chasing, wrestling, and self-play (Way et al 2006). It was very apparent when they were playing because role reversals often occurred where small pups pinned larger, more dominant ones (Rennicke 2007).…”

“…All Coyotes acted submissive to Sill except for Mange-back, who rarely interacted with him, likely because of their familiarity with one another. Yearlings (n = 20 sightings) and pups (n = 75) often greeted Sill in an active submission posture which involved repeated licking of his mouth with exaggerated tail wagging by the intended recipient (Way et al 2006). Sill frequently regurgitated (n = 10-12 observations) to pups when solicited, especially when returning to the rendezvous sites from surrounding areas.…”

“…Play was defined as the behavior that was performed during social interactions in which there was a decrease in social distance between the interactants, and no evidence of social investigation or of agonistic or passive-submissive behaviors on the part of the members playing, although these actions may occur as derived acts during play (e.g., passive submission during a play bout -Bekoff 1972a-Bekoff , 1974aWay et al 2006). Bekoff (1974a) classified play as (1) incorporating various contexts into unpredictable temporal sequences; (2) preceded by a metacommunicative signal (e.g., play initiation); (3) repeated and performed actions in an exaggerated manner; and (4) appearance of being pleasurable to the participants, e.g.…”

“…a play face (wide open jaws and eyes) is apparent. Included in play were numerous role reversals where more dominant Coyotes allowed lower ranked Coyotes to pin them to the ground; this was never documented during agonistic displays (Way et al 2006). I used continuous animal sampling (Martin and Bateson 1986) to record Coyote activity and recorded the behavior (via scan sampling) of as many Coyotes concurrently as I could during my observations.…”

“…In the vast majority of studies on Coyotes (Canis latrans) (and on carnivores in general), play behavior has occurred with juveniles in captivity where researchers can easily ob serve their study subjects and quantify behavioral ob ser vations in a controlled setting (Bekoff 1972a(Bekoff , 1974b(Bekoff , 1978(Bekoff , 1989Way et al 2006). Packard (2003) noted that our understanding of Wolf (Canis lupus) social behavior will advance more rapidly when we integrate the information from both captive and field populations, as long as we take great care to recognize the limitations of each perspective and to understand the whole as the sum of the parts.…”