The coyote (Canis latrans) is one of North America’s most widespread and ecologically successful carnivores, largely due to its highly flexible feeding habits. This animal is a true omnivore, possessing a remarkable ability to exploit nearly any available food source across its vast range. The generalist feeding strategy of the coyote allows it to thrive in diverse environments, from remote wilderness areas to dense urban centers. Understanding what coyotes eat is key to recognizing their role in the ecosystem and their interactions with human communities.
Primary Food Sources: Mammals, Birds, and Reptiles
The coyote’s diet in natural settings consists primarily of small mammals, providing the most consistent source of energy throughout the year. Rodents, such as mice, voles, and gophers, are the most frequently consumed items across the species’ range, often making up a significant portion of their diet. Lagomorphs, including rabbits and hares, also represent a major food group, with their consumption frequently increasing during the winter and spring months.
Coyotes are proficient hunters, often utilizing a solitary stalking and pouncing technique for smaller prey. Their ability to hunt cooperatively, however, allows them to occasionally take down larger prey, such as white-tailed deer fawns or, less commonly, adult deer. In some areas, coyotes are responsible for nearly half of the mortality among young deer.
Beyond mammals, coyotes opportunistically consume birds and reptiles as secondary food sources. They will prey on ground-nesting birds and their eggs when discovered, though birds generally represent a smaller percentage of the overall diet. Consumption of lizards and snakes is also documented, especially in warmer climates where these prey items are more readily encountered.
The Role of Plant Matter and Invertebrates
Coyotes demonstrate their omnivorous nature through the regular consumption of plant matter, which can make up a substantial part of their seasonal intake. Vegetation appears in the diet with a frequency second only to small mammals, with consumption peaking sharply during the summer and autumn months. Coyotes will seek out seasonal soft mast, such as various berries, apples, grapes, and melons, often consuming these items for their water content as well as their nutritional value.
Invertebrates also serve as an energy source during the warmer seasons. Insects like grasshoppers, beetles, and crickets are eaten when they are plentiful and easy to catch. The consumption of plant and insect material becomes particularly important when the availability of primary mammalian prey decreases, establishing these items as crucial dietary supplements.
Adaptability: Urban and Scavenged Food
The coyote’s success in human-modified landscapes stems from its opportunistic scavenging behavior, which incorporates dead and human-generated food sources. Carrion, or the remains of dead animals, is a consistently utilized food resource, ranging from roadkill to the carcasses of large ungulates like moose or bison. This scavenging role provides an important ecological service by helping to clear the landscape of decaying animal matter.
In urban environments, coyotes readily exploit human-associated food. This includes improperly secured trash, where they consume discarded food scraps and waste, which can sometimes account for a large majority of their diet in highly developed areas. Pet food left outdoors is another common and easily accessible resource.
While conflicts often arise over domestic animals, studies show that pets, such as cats and small dogs, generally constitute a small fraction of the urban coyote diet. Incidents involving pets are sometimes linked less to predation and more to territorial disputes or threat responses. However, opportunistic predation on vulnerable domestic animals does occur in human-dominated areas.
How Diet Varies by Season and Location
The coyote’s diet exhibits significant shifts driven by the cyclical availability of resources across the year. The consumption of fruits and invertebrates increases during the summer and fall when these items are most abundant. Conversely, the reliance on mammals tends to increase in the winter and spring, a period when other food sources are scarce and scavenging opportunities for carrion, such as deer carcasses, become more frequent.
Geographical location also imposes distinct dietary variations on coyote populations. For example, coyotes inhabiting temperate forests often show a more carnivorous diet, reflecting a higher consumption of ungulates. In arid regions, coyotes may incorporate items like cactus fruit and desert reptiles into their feeding habits. Coastal populations may occasionally consume marine life. These regional and seasonal adjustments demonstrate the species’ ability to adapt its diet to whatever resources are locally and temporarily available.