Update February 18, 2008. Battle in the suburbs!!!   Last night brought more amazing coyote sightings from my research team. I am currently conducting a 3 day/2 night expedition with 2 very nice people (Terry Hawthorne from New York and Holly Hadac from Michigan). We are trapping and tracking non-stop! Last night we monitored the collared coyotes and saw Cake and Raider’s group 7 minutes apart in the exact same location.   At 9:19 PM Cake was on the east side of her territory which is on the west side of Wequaquet Lake. We saw her trotting down a main road (Shootflying Hill Rd) with a second light colored coyote. They trotted west at a casual clip.  At the same time I received Raider’s signal from the south. At first it was medium strength in gain but the signal got strong very quickly. And at 9:26 PM we saw Raider and 3 others cross Shootflying Hill Rd to the west, exactly where Cake’s + 1 went. They ran across the road with their tails straight up in the air (Raider and her mate did that). They were scenting the pavement and could amazingly smell Cake and her probable mate (or offspring) on the pavement. They were clearly on her scent trail and were getting ready to chase her. I have never heard of wild coyotes traveling like that – normally wolves in Yellowstone travel like that when hyper-alert for other wolf packs.   For some reason, the rear two coyotes (likely either full-grown pups or yearlings) saw a car from the distance and after crossing Shootflying Hill Road they turned back around and re-crossed the road. About 2 minutes later Raider and her light colored mate (I can identify him by sight) re-crossed the road as well. Clearly the 2 youngsters were nervous. At 9:34 PM this group, back on the east side of Shootflying by Wequaquet Lake erupted into a loud group howl. Clearly they were doing all of this as an example of an amazing indication of their territorial imperative (this area is 3 miles from their main range in Hyannis/Hyannis Port yet they are still guarding the entire 15 square miles of SE Barnstable from other coyotes).   If you thought that was impressive… read on! Raider continued to round Wequaquet Lake but instead of crossing 132 (where there is tons of construction to make it a super highway) she decided to cross the mid-Cape Highway and go into the Cape Cod Community College campus. About 30 minutes later (11:15 PM) we saw her in the median of exit 6 literally across the street from Burger King. She was sitting in the median, looking at the college (north of her). It seemed that she was waiting for another coyote whom we never saw.   She wasn’t done either. At 11:45 AM we saw her (alone this time?) traveling South on Huckin’s Neck Road and at 1:00 PM she was all the way back in Hyannis by Pitchers Way and West Main Street. This morning she was back at the southern part of her range at the southern part of the Hyannis Port Golf Course. Her movements are incredible and would seem like many different coyotes if she wasn’t collared. She shows up in widely different parts of the town in short period of time. She looks fat, which is hard to believe with all of the exercising she does.   Tracking coyotes like Raider gives me a firm belief that not killing coyotes, and allowing older territorial animals like Raider to live, can actually keep coyote numbers down locally. Say what? The theory goes that younger coyotes have much less of a territorial imperative and will settle for less real estate. Older coyotes are often dogged (no pun intended) to protect their turf and when you look at a map, it is incredible how large of an area Raider guards. Amazing stuff…   In other news, the new coyote Coak (little female) has been moving quite a bit on her own. Last night at 12:30 AM she was in Yarmouth Port near the route 6A/Union Street (exit 8) junction. This morning she was immediately next to the Cape Cod Community College campus where Raider was last night. It is incredible to track them and document these things. Eventually more people will appreciate their actual wild nature and will not kill them for no good reason.   If you don't believe me about their large ranges take a look at this map which encompasses over half of the town of Barnstable which is 60 square miles (the biggest town on Cape Cod and the second largest, to Plymouth, in Massachusetts):     Thanks for keeping us busy guys! Howl on!