What do you eat?
Anything and everything. Coyotes are omnivores (e.g., eat plant matter and meat), generalists (e.g., have a wide diet and don’t specialize on any one given type of food), and are opportunistic (e.g., will eat what’s available and abundant.) As a result, coyote diet will vary from individual-to-individual, from season-to-season, and from year-to-year. But there are some patterns.
Across its range, coyote diet is dominated by “natural” food items – food items you expect to find in parks, forests, and grasslands. Small rodents (voles and mice), rabbits, and deer are generally top food items. Even among urban coyotes, anthropogenic foods, or those associated with humans (e.g., garbage), are not as common in coyote diet as you would expect. We have over 100 scats (aka poop) from NYC coyotes and high school students from the Science Research Mentoring Program are picking through them for prey remains and looking to piece together the diet of NYC’s coyotes. So far we have found very little evidence of anthropogenic foods – a bit of plastic here or there. We have found plenty of deer hair, vole teeth, and squirrel claws. A very natural diet for a very urban coyote.
For more information, you can take a look at our publications on coyote diet.
Across its range, coyote diet is dominated by “natural” food items – food items you expect to find in parks, forests, and grasslands. Small rodents (voles and mice), rabbits, and deer are generally top food items. Even among urban coyotes, anthropogenic foods, or those associated with humans (e.g., garbage), are not as common in coyote diet as you would expect. We have over 100 scats (aka poop) from NYC coyotes and high school students from the Science Research Mentoring Program are picking through them for prey remains and looking to piece together the diet of NYC’s coyotes. So far we have found very little evidence of anthropogenic foods – a bit of plastic here or there. We have found plenty of deer hair, vole teeth, and squirrel claws. A very natural diet for a very urban coyote.
For more information, you can take a look at our publications on coyote diet.