Some coyotes kill and eat small domestic pets, poultry, calves, goats, sheep, other livestock, rodents, rabbits, white-tailed deer fawns, and other wildlife. Coyotes are opportunistic and will eat melons, corn, other agricultural crops, and unattended domestic animals and pets.
Coyotes usually weigh from 23 to 40 pounds, midsized between foxes and wolves. Coyotes breed in late winter, and usually four to six pups are born in the spring. Dens are normally in the ground, rock outcroppings, hollow trees, or brush piles. The male helps care for the young, and family groups remain closely associated through the fall.
The coyote's coat is a salt and pepper gray and sometimes red in color, with variations from lighter colors in some individuals to black in others. The ears are always erect and the tail, which may be black-tipped, is usually straight and is carried below a level position rather than upturned.
Coyotes frequently reveal their presence at evening and occasionally at dawn, their two periods of greatest activity, by a chorus of yipping and howling. The home range varies from 3 to 30 square miles, with the male's ranges usually larger than the female's.
Fleaborne Typhus
People get fleaborne typhus from an infected flea. Most fleas defecate while biting; the feces of infected fleas contain the bacteria that cause the disease. The bacteria enter the body at the time of the bite wound or from scratching of the bite area. It is possible to get typhus by inhaling contaminated, dried flea feces. However, this method of transmission is not as common as transmission from a biting flea.
