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Update August 18, 2008. Updated November 1. Update from the field: Cape Cod happenings. Two radio-collared coyotes now traveling together! Updated August 22: Revised pup count of Snup's group = 7; Cost information. Updated Sept. 7: additional updates from 8/18/08. Updated Sept. 22: Coyote updates including Walnut located in Hingham (see bottom of page for Walnut)! October 4: New coyote capture "Eben" a 36.7 lb probably pup or yearling of Cake's! (scroll down to Cake's section to read about Eben). Nov. 1: Eben has disappeared.
This was a very busy and productive summer. Currently 11 coywolves (eastern coyotes) are radio-collared on Cape Cod, and 2 are off-Cape (whom I simply don’t get to monitor that often due to lack of time and money to get off-Cape to track them much). It is unbelievable how busy tracking 11 animals can be.
So, here is a summary of happenings from these animals, some of whom you know well, others who you might not know quite so good because they are newly radio-collared.
Sill – long time radio-collared male and breeding male of the Marstons Mills Bog Pack (formerly Newtown Pack). He is now almost 9.5 years old and his collar is unfortunately due to expire soon (Yes, I am attempting to recapture him but that is much easier said than done). Probably the most disappointing of this update is that this is the first year in the past 12 where I have not observed pups at the Marstons Mills Rendezvous Site cranberry bog complex. He clearly has not localized this summer and continues to use a pretty small couple square mile size territory centered around most of the bogs in Marstons Mills. I have observed him regularly with a second and sometimes with a third coyote. They don’t really get active until dusk and I have not made many great observations of him to tell if his previous mate “Mange-back” (at least 2005-2007, maybe longer) is still around or not. But it is a definite that he is not tending pups like he has in years past. Updated Sept. 7: it is obvious that they didn't have pups this year and his collar is on its way out unfortunately. Sept. 22: I recently saw him with another Coyote (mate?). He looked phenomenally robust for being 9.5 years old.
Mup – This 2 year old has pups by the Marstons Mills Airport but I have not observed them yet as they are in dense cover. Therefore, a count has been impossible up to this point. Updated Sept. 7: multiple coyotes are being seen in the MM Airport and no doubt some/many are pups. I still have not had a good observation/pup count on them.
Lyn – Captured this past spring this young female has not localized and does not seem to belong to a group. However, she has remained fairly localized (for an eastern coyote) on the south side of route 6 between exits 2 and 4 in Sandwich. Hopefully she will find a mate (which could've already happened) and settle in the area. Updated Sept. 22: She is still fairly localized in southeastern Sandwich. I have made only 2 brief sightings of her but she appears to be darker than I thought based on what she looked like during her May capture.
Snup – This radio-implanted pup (with an ear tag in his right ear) hangs around the Sandwich side (and west) of Sandy Neck. He occasionally is located near Trail 1 on the beach but is mostly in Sandwich off the barrier beach. As summer ends, he has begun to move considerably more, which is expected of a pup. I have observed adults and at least 2 other pups with him. August 22: This week has been very productive as Snup and his siblings have been located around a large cranberry bog. Patience has paid off as I first observed 4 (Aug. 19 AM) then 7 pups together at dusk on Aug. 19. I have also seen a tall, lanky gray adult with them a few times. All pups are roughly 20 pounds or about 2/3's of their adult size. From a distance with my spotting scope, I could see Snup's red ear tag #4 in his right ear. He traveled with that adult one night to a different cranberrry bog. Today, Aug. 22, Snup is out of range and is likely on Sandy Neck Beach, a 6 mile long barrier beach (Note: I have a new vehicle and am likely not taking it out on the beach as the salt destroys the vehicle: thus I could not obtain a signal on him today on the mainland but did not drive out on Sandy Neck to locate him). Sept. 22: Snup is still in the same general area as I tracked him all summer. He is approaching 6 months old.
Cake – long-time radio-collared female in Centerville (from 2002 when a probable yearling) moved her pups to the south part of her territory by route 28 this summer which is the first time she has done that. She is occasionally found in my backyard and the powerlines at the edge of my property. It is pretty cool to wake up and turn on the antenna and pick up a strong signal of a coywolf in my backyard. (Normally she raised her pups in the north part of her territory between Old Stage Rd and Route 6.) I have not made a definitive pup count but have observed a couple of them her or there and know from group howling that her and her uncollared mate and I think a 3rd adult have been successfully in raising quite a few offspring. Updated Sept. 7: there are clearly multiple pups in this group as I have recently heard loud group howls from my house (!!!) and many were pups. Sept 22: ditto to Sept. 7. I am ready to capture a coyote, likely a pup, in my backyard.
Update October 4: New coyote capture "Eben" a 36.7 lb, 62 inch (over 5 feet: nose to tailtip) long, probably pup or yearling of Cake's! On 29 September I captured a coyote (coywolf) in my backyard. I initially thought it was an adult female at first because of its large size and narrow snout (female-like). However, upon sedating it, I realized it was a male and very young at that. His teeth were so fresh and sharp that I am guessing that he is a pup of the year so 6 months old. There is a chance that he is a 1.5 yr old yearling though. I have tracked him all week (an impossibly difficult task with school all week too) and he has traveled with Cake most of the time and I have had some great sightings of him, Cake, and Cake's mate whom would be Eben's father if he was born this year or possible step-father if Eben is a yearling (Cake had a mangy mate up until this year). The 3 were clearly on a border patrol (i.e., traveling powerlines at the edge of their range and peeing on scent posts) and Eben followed behind Cake and her mate. I haven't seen him around Cake until now which furtherly causes me to think he is a pup that just started to travel with them and will likely be the 3rd coyote in the pack. However, his behavior and purposefullness during the territorial patrol indicated that he has done that before (i.e., is a yearling). Either way, I hope that he doesn't disperse (like Walnut did, going 51 miles from his mother Cake's territory) and remains on territory until at least next fall. We'll have to wait (and do lots of tracking) and see!
Nov. 1: Eben has disappeared. I tracked Cake and Eben for a couple of weeks after his capture. It was quite clear that Eben was one of Cake's sons as they looked nearly identical and I saw them a few times with a third coyote whom I recognize as Cake's mate. On the evening of October 12 I could not find Eben despite having located him that morning. I have not found him since despite finding Cake every day (or night). I assume he dispersed and B-lined it out of my study area that night. However, there is a small chance that he is still around with a non-functioning collar. Time will tell but it stinks to lose track of an animal so newly radio-collared.
Jaws – He continues to localize around the Marstons Mills dump area in a fairly small home range. I have observed at least 1 other adult and 2 pups but suspect there might be more. Also, I have already written a short manuscript on Jaws and 2 pups eating Cicadas this past June and submitted it to the peer-reviewed journal Canadian Field-Naturalist. Jaws’ range (SE part) borders Cake’s (SW part) at my house/street and I also occasionally locate him in my neighborhood, although not as often as Cake. Updated Sept. 7: he is spending much time in Osterville right at the north edge of Mill and Eb's range. Pretty cool. (note: this is right around Cape Cod Academy). Sept. 22: Note: the Sept. 7 update should have mentioned that the north part of Jaws' range borders the South part of Mup's range, around route 149.
Coak – She continues to use the NE part of Raider’s old range which includes Hathaway’s Pond, BJ’s sandpit area, and neighborhoods in urban Hyannnis. Occasionally I find her in Hyannisport. I have observed 2 healthy gray colored pups and her mate is very brown. This is no doubt a new pair and thus there are no other adults that associate with them (that I know of). Check out a picture of her standing next to route 132 trying to cross W to E around Attuck’s Ln in Hyannis. Unfortunately, these road construction projects are awful for wildlife movements and I feel so bad for her as she risks her life to go hunting in Hyannis but to return (daily) to her pups. They sure don’t have an easy life. Here you can observe her scanning the road for traffic. She eventually crossed 132 out of my sight around 7:30 AM. August 22: See Cost update for additional information, but man is she small. I saw her last night with her mate (possible Raider's son) and he is so much bigger, almost like the difference between a pup and adult this time of year (pups are now 4.5 months old). Updated Sept. 7: I am going to try and track her more this fall but she seems to be using Hyannisport more and may eventually be a territorial neighbor to Cost (Cost's eastern border and Coak's western/southwestern). Update Sept. 22: I sighted Coak this morning with her mate again. It is almost comical of the size difference between the two. He is likely mid-40 lbs and she is high 20s. They were on the Hyannisport Golf Course less than a mile from Cost. The 2 (along with their mates) appear to be establishing bordering territories. Where is Raider?
 The cement barrier on the bottom of the picture is route 132.
Fac – I have observed 8 pups in her group after repeatedly only seeing 1 or 2 (and once 5). They are currently at the north part of their range overlooking beautiful Sandy Neck and the Great Salt Marsh in Barnstable. I have not seen her pups recently but recently go amazing video of her and her mate (clearly a male) traveling in Barnstable village and Cummaquid. Updated Sept. 22: Fac is still traveling between Barnstable Village and Yarmouthport, with Cummaquid in between. I saw her last week with possibly 5 others on the Cummaquid Golf Course. It was dark (night, using nightscope) but it seemed like there were many. Counting 6 in the dark while looking through a nightscope with no zoom is no easy task.
Mill and Eb – Probably the most exciting news of this update is the pairing of Eb and Mill in Osterville. Eb (captured this past May in my backyard) is a young 36 lb female. For 2 months I mostly located her at the border of Jaws’, Cake’s and what is now Mill’s home range (Mill captured in mid-June). However, I did occasionally locate Eb in the middle of these coywolf’s ranges. But starting in mid-July I located Eb with Mill on Oyster Harbors (a private island that I frustratingly have no access to). Since then I have seen the 2 of them together quite often and have observed a third with them a couple of times. My best guess is that Eb is one of Mill’s (43.1 lb adult which is big for a coywolf in the summer) daughters from last summer and has rejoined her group. I would assume that her mother is still around (i.e., Mill’s mate) but there are many mysteries when you study such of an elusive species. And, of course, the biggest frustration is not having access to tracking them when they are on Oyster Harbors. I suspect that Mill et al. have pups out there which makes it very difficult to study this interesting pack. Updated Sept. 7: They are now off Oyster Harbors much more often, to my delight. I am also going to try and dedicate more time to observing this group to get a possible pup count. Update Sept. 22: They clearly border Cost on their eastern boundary and Cost's western boundary. I am regularly locating the two and they are together roughly half the time I locate them. I still do believe that Eb is one of Mill's daughters from 1.5 years ago.
Cost – I just captured her 6 days ago but preliminary data/tracking indicates that she is not part of Eb and Mill’s Osterville pack. I have located her at the western part of Raider’s range in the Craigville area. I don’t know if this means that Raider is still around or not – obviously I will need to collect more data (especially night tracking) on her to access her status (i.e., breeding female or nomad). Take a look at a picture of her during her release on Aug. 12. August 22: I have found her everyday since this update and she is indeed using the Craigville area, which is the western part of Raider's old range. On Aug. 21 I located Coak and her mate on the Hyannisport Golf Course, and watched 2 little kids (8-10 years old) chase them when they were in the open on a fairway (note: the 2 coyotes appeared to be crossing the course to get back across Hyannis to their pups on the other side of Hyannis; people activity forced them to bed down until dusk in a marsh at the south part of the golf course). However, Coak and Cost appear to be using approximate halves of Raider's original, large range, lending some evidence that maybe Raider did leave the area and possibly her collar still works...
Updated Sept. 7: Cost is definitely using the east Osterville - Craigville - W. HyPt area. I can't imagine Raider still being around given her (& Coak's) movements which (combined) is most (but still not all) of Raider's old range. What in the world ever happened to Raider?
Updated Sept. 22: Last week I saw Cost super up-close with a second coyote. Likely her mate. It was in Hyannisport.
 32.2 lb (skinny) Cost just before release back into the wild with a radio-collar. There is no barrier between her and me (4 feet away) as I quickly take her picture before moving out of the way so she could get up and run away into the woods.
Raider – I still have not obtained a signal on this 41 lb female since February 20, 2008. Thus I have no idea if her collar died and she is still a resident of Hyannisport (that likely conceded part of her range to Coak) or if she was displaced and left the area which would be unusual since I observed her chase Cake in February in a clear territorial battle shortly before I lost track of her. Another nagging uncertainty for sure.
Updated Sept. 22: Walnut located in Hingham! On Saturday (Sept. 20), my wife, Tara, and I located Walnut during the day. He was active near the commuter rail train tracks during the afternoon. We were only able to track him for about 20 minutes before heading to another (non-coyote related) commitment. It is frustrating to not have more data on Cake's son (genetic testing has confirmed this, by the way) 51 miles from Centerville, on Cape Cod. Remember this map from a previous update. He is still in Hingham, approaching a year later!
 Walnut's movements in eastern Massachusetts
To the readers of this field update, please notice 2 things:
1. That I did not mention anything about coywolf (eastern coyote) hunting. Most of you whom have read my webpage and/or my book know how I feel about hunting a social, intelligent, family-oriented animal that one (a person) doesn’t even eat. Thus, I am going to try and stop complaining repeatedly (to the point of whining) about this unnecessary “management” practice. But I do think that all fish and game agencies need to revise their wildlife statues to protect even predators like coyotes/coywolves .
2. Just how much work it is to produce this field update. I hope you realize that tracking 11 animals while continuing to trap and radio-collar new subjects is an enormous undertaking. It literally could be a full-time job in itself let alone my other job of teaching at a public high school (Barnstable). Because I have so many animals currently collared, it is difficult to get intimate information on a particular pack like I previously had on the Marstons Mills Bog Pack the past few summers when they were highly visible at their open late-summer rendezvous site detailed in my book “Suburban Howls.” It is exhausting work, especially doing most of it on my own. However, an update like this is an important product that makes tracking all of these animals worth it.
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