Coyotes live in family units, not packs. What you're hearing is a family of parents with siblings born last spring. Sometimes a daughter will stay with the parents several years and help raise the new pups. Coyotes howl to designate their territories, and when one family does it neighbouring families do it too. Coyotes don't hunt large animals as wolves do. They have plenty of mice, ground squirrels, rabbits, snakes, grasshoppers and the like. They also eat a lot of road kill. The main reason why they kill pet dogs who are hiking the trails is because they're defending their territory. They kill foxes and cats for the same reason, and after killing them they shake them in their jaws vigorously swinging them back and forth until the carcass tears in half. Then they have a howl fest as they bounce with their front legs on the carcass. People who find these carcasses torn in half start wild rumors about extraterrestrials killing cats (Linda Mouton Howe) or imagine some twisted person is doing it.
A few years ago a young women was killed by coyotes at a city park. I imagine she was curled up on the ground as they attacked her and that was her fatal mistake. Maybe she was sick from drinking alcohol. You should stand up and defend yourself because these are typically 30 or 40 pound dogs, fairly small and easily intimidated.
Long time hiker, pet owner, wild dog lover, coyote observer.
Last edited by Clem von Jones; 02-28-19 at 03:31 PM.