"WHO'S BEHIND THE GRASSES?"

Coyote - 7 Photos

When photographing wildlife in Nature, you don't get to choose the most optimal places to take your photos. It certainly makes for challenges but also provides huge rewards.

Coyotes are at home in a diversity of environments, from grasslands to forest groves and even in urban situations. With their coat colourings, they blend easily into the tall dry grasses that cover hillsides, to the point of disappearing in plain sight.

A young coyote came running down a hill, took a few minutes to check out the flat area below and then headed back up, where he/she disappeared. At that point, a second much larger coyote appeared from the meadow to the south and headed up the same hill but further east. Probably due to size & stature, it was much easier to follow & spot the second coyote (Photo #7).

I've put the photos in reverse order as believe it is much easier to follow & distinguish the two in and behind the tall dry prairie grasses (Photo #1 & Photo #2). 

It took a few seconds to realize that the youngster had actually met up with the adult (Photo #5 & Photo #6), who I believe to be a female and could potentially be "Mum" or at the very least, a much older female sibling. The clue to gender determination can, I believe, be seen in Photo #3 & Photo #4. The smaller coyote is probing & licking the jaw area of the adult, encouraging her to open and potentially regurgitate some food, a learned behaviour as a pup.

But "pup" no more and as this was most likely an expedition of a youngster, accompanied by an adult to learn the "how's" of successful hunting, it was back over the ridge, followed shortly by her guardian.

PHOTO #1

PHOTO #2

PHOTO #3

PHOTO #4

PHOTO #5

PHOTO #6

PHOTO #7