JACKSON, Wyo. — A couple of local coyotes were captured “mousing” around by Buckrail photographer Nick Sulzer over the holiday weekend.
A coyote’s hunting technique is called mousing; when they leap high up into the air to pounce down on their prey.
According to Yellowstone National Park (YNP), snowy winter months can be more difficult for coyotes to hunt, because small mammals tend to bury themselves in the snow. As a result, coyotes have mastered this unique pouncing technique that they do while mousing in the snow.
YNP states, that coyotes are strong diggers with acute hearing and a keen sense of smell, and this enables them to locate a mouse or gopher deep under the snowpack. If the snow’s top layer is difficult to penetrate, the coyote will then rear up on its hind legs and slam its front paws down on the snow to break through. Once down into the softer snowpack, the candid will burrow using its nose and front paws until it catches its prey.
Coyotes will often hunt by themselves or in packs in order to take down larger animals like deer or elk. Their food source mostly consists of small mammals like mice, rabbits, gophers, small birds like the grouse and quail and Uinta ground squirrels. They will also eat insects, fruits and berries, as well as lizards and fish.
Coyotes can be seen roaming throughout YNP, Grand Teton National Park and even sometimes in town. The Yellowstone coyotes are among the biggest in the United States, frequently weighing up to 30 pounds and occasionally growing to 40 pounds, according the National Park Service (NPS). The animal stands roughly two feet tall, making it easily distinguishable from its much larger relative, the gray wolf.
The NPS urges patrons to discard of waste properly and to refrain from feeding coyotes so they don’t grow accustomed to human food. According to the NPS, coyotes “can quickly learn bad habits like roadside begging behavior.” Feeding these animals can disrupt the natural ecosystem and lead to dangerous human-animal interactions.
