The coyote (Canis latrans) is a highly adaptable predator found across North America. Their capacity to thrive in diverse environments, from wilderness to urban areas, is due to their flexible feeding behaviors. Whether a coyote consumes its prey at the kill site depends on the immediate context. This decision responds to factors like meal size, the presence of rivals, and hunger level. The resulting action—immediate consumption, transport, or storage—demonstrates the coyote’s resource management strategy.
The Immediate Decision: Safety and Prey Size
The primary factor determining a coyote’s post-kill behavior is the size of the captured prey and the security of the location. Small prey, such as voles, mice, insects, and rabbits, are almost always consumed immediately at the kill site. This instantaneous feeding occurs because the meal is manageable, energy expenditure is low, and the risk of attracting attention is minimal.
Behavior changes significantly when a coyote takes down larger prey, such as a deer fawn or livestock. Since a large carcass cannot be consumed in one sitting, leaving it exposed poses a major risk. Coyotes rarely consume an entire large animal at the kill site because the meal would attract larger predators or rival packs. The goal shifts from feeding to securing the resource.
Initial feeding on a large carcass involves consuming the most accessible portions first, particularly the viscera, including the liver and heart. Afterward, the coyote decides whether to move the remainder or cover it. This decision balances the nutritional reward against the danger of defending the kill in an open location.
Transporting the Kill: Avoiding Competition
When a large kill is made, the coyote’s priority is to move the carcass or substantial pieces to a safer, concealed location. This transport is motivated by intense pressure from competitors and scavengers, including larger canids, raptors, and mesopredators like raccoons.
To mitigate this threat, the coyote drags the kill away from the original site, often using natural cover like dense thickets or steep embankments. These routes offer concealment from aerial scavengers and visual cover from ground-based rivals. The goal is a temporary consumption site that offers security, allowing the coyote to feed without interruption.
Near human development, transport is also a response to human activity. A coyote may move a kill away from a trail, road, or residential area to reduce disturbance. This relocation is for immediate, uninterrupted feeding, and is distinct from long-term food storage. The distance moved is typically only far enough to achieve adequate concealment.
Resource Management: The Practice of Caching
When a coyote has excess food from a large kill or successful hunting, it employs caching. Caching is the burying of food for later consumption, ensuring a supply when hunting is less fruitful. This behavior is most common when the coyote is satiated but still possesses a substantial portion of a carcass.
The caching process involves digging a shallow hole, typically a few inches deep, in soft substrate like soil, leaves, or snow. The food item is deposited into the depression. The coyote then uses its snout to push the displaced material back over the item, tamping it down to conceal it.
Coyotes are scatter-hoarders, distributing their excess food into multiple, smaller caches across their territory. They rely on spatial memory and scent marking to locate these caches days or weeks later. This distribution minimizes the risk of losing the entire stored food supply if one cache is discovered by a rival or scavenger.