Coyotes have the gift of seldom being seen; they keep to the edge of vision and beyond…

~N. Scott Momaday

On our last round of trail camera videos, we caught members of the local coyote clan in several places, often alone, and on a few occasions, as a group

—-A Coyote trots by a trail camera in the now dry creek bed

This clip shows two adult Coyotes (based on their fur quality compared to that of the pups I have seen recently). Neither is the one called One-ear. This footage was captured at about 3 a.m. on September 8.

–Two adult Coyotes passing through. I believe they are not part of One-ear’s current pack.

A few hours later, at 7:44 a.m., that same camera caught this action. It is very fast, so take a close look.

–One-ear (I slowed it down and can see that it is her) blows by the camera with two other Coyotes following along with her (look in the background for one of them). Something must have gone through before her and triggered the camera since there is a part with no action before you see her move through.

Two minutes after this action, a lone Coyote pup runs through in the same direction. Two more minutes lapse and then three pups go through on the same path.

–Three pups following the path that One-ear took just a few minutes earlier

Eleven minutes after the three pups passed through, One-ear and 4 pups come back by the same camera going in the opposite direction.

–One-ear and her 4 pups coming back after the chase

So, what just happened? Over the last few weeks, the cameras have caught One-ear’s clan of her, her mate, and 4 pups. But, unless one of the Coyotes doubled back, the chase and follow ups show a total of 7 Coyotes (the 3 in the chase scene, the one trailing pup I mentioned, and the 3 trailing pups from the video). What were they chasing? I assume that, if it was prey, they did not catch it. My guess is they might have been chasing the two adults shown in the earlier night-time video. And perhaps the Coyote seen running in the background of the initial chase scene is not a member of One-ear’s pack, but is, instead, one of the interlopers.

Let me know if you have any other thoughts. It is always interesting to see what the trail cameras observe.