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60 free Coyote trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This coyote trivia quiz covers the animal behind the cartoon: what Canis latrans means, how big coyotes really get, why the eastern coyote is part wolf, why they hunt alongside badgers, how they kill porcupines and rattlesnakes, what their eleven vocalisations mean, and how they expanded from the western plains to Panama and Alaska once the wolves were gone. It also covers coyotes and people: the Nahuatl origin of the name, Lewis and Clark's 'burrowing dog of the prairies', Thomas Say's 1819 description, the Aztec god Huehuecoyotl and the Native American trickster, the two confirmed fatal attacks, the 90,000 coyotes killed each year to protect livestock, and pop culture from Wile E. Coyote and Don Coyote to the Simpsons' Johnny Cash spirit guide, the San Antonio Spurs mascot and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Every question was verified against a primary reference (mainly the Wikipedia articles on the coyote and on Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner) and carries a citation. Try our wolf and fox quizzes next.
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Q 01What does the coyote's scientific name, Canis latrans, mean?
Barking dog
It has been called 'the most vocal of all wild North American mammals', with at least 11 distinct calls.
Q 02The word 'coyote' is a Spanish borrowing from which language?
Nahuatl
The Aztec word was coyotl; the first published use came in Clavijero's Historia de México of 1780.
Q 03How many coyote subspecies are recognised?
19
Eastern ones are large and dark; the animals get paler and smaller westward and redder in Mexico and Central America.
Q 04How much does an average male coyote weigh?
8 to 20 kg
Northern coyotes average about 18 kg and Mexican ones about 11.5 kg; the record, shot in Wyoming in 1937, was 34 kg.
Q 05How does the IUCN classify the coyote?
Least Concern
It is abundant across North America and still expanding its range, including into cities.
Q 06In 2013 the coyote was first recorded east of which waterway, raising fears of a push into South America?
The Panama Canal
Biologists worry it could cross into South America if the Darién Gap is ever bridged by the Pan-American Highway.
Q 07Which Eurasian animal fills roughly the same ecological niche as the coyote?
The golden jackal
The coyote is generally the larger of the two.
Q 08What is a 'coywolf'?
A coyote hybrid with eastern or red wolves
Coyotes have never been known to mate with gray wolves in the wild, but they do with eastern and red wolves.
Q 09Roughly what share of the modern red wolf's genome is of coyote origin?
75 to 80%
The red wolf likely arose when declining wolves in the Southeastern Woodlands were forced to hybridise with coyotes.
Q 10A coyote-dog hybrid is colloquially called what?
A coydog
They are rare in the wild because the two species' breeding cycles do not line up and coyotes are usually hostile to dogs.
Q 11Black-coated coyotes owe their colour to a mutation that first arose in which animal?
Domestic dogs
A white (non-albino) coyote population in Newfoundland got its colour from a Golden Retriever gene.
Q 12Which dog breed passed a coat-colour gene to a population of white coyotes in Newfoundland?
Golden Retriever
The gene affects the melanocortin 1 receptor; true albinism is extremely rare in coyotes.
Q 13How does a running coyote carry its tail, unlike a wolf?
Pointing downwards
It also has longer ears, a relatively larger braincase and a thinner muzzle than the gray wolf.
Q 21How do experienced coyotes kill porcupines?
Flip them onto their backs and attack the belly
They often work in pairs; young coyotes trying it usually end up full of quills.
Q 22How do coyotes kill rattlesnakes near their dens?
Tease them into stretching out, then bite the head
They kill them mostly for food but also to protect pups.
Q 23Roughly what share of a coyote's diet is meat?
90%
The rest includes strawberries, watermelons, peanuts, grass and even balsam fir leaves.
Q 14Where did Meriwether Lewis describe the 'small wolf or burrowing dog of the prairies' in May 1805?
Northeastern Montana
He noted its bark was 'precisely that of the small dog' and its eyes were 'a deep sea green'.
Q 15Who first scientifically described the coyote, in 1819, during Stephen Long's expedition?
Thomas Say
He was working near Lewis and Clark's Council Bluffs with a copy of their journals in hand.
Q 16Unlike the wolf, what is the coyote's mating system?
Strictly monogamous
That holds even where coyotes are dense and food is abundant; a female in heat may draw up to seven suitors, who leave once she chooses.
Q 17How long is a coyote's gestation?
63 days
The average litter is six pups, born blind and dependent on milk for their first ten days.
Q 18Coyotes often raise pups in the abandoned burrows of which animals?
Badgers, marmots and skunks
Dens have turned up under homestead shacks, grain bins, drainage pipes and railroad tracks; a den may be reused for years.
Q 19How do coyote pups differ from wolf pups in their early behaviour?
They fight seriously before they start to play
By three weeks coyote pups bite each other with less inhibition than wolf pups; hierarchies are set by four or five weeks.
Q 20Which animal sometimes hunts alongside coyotes in a mutualistic partnership?
The American badger
A Mexican jar from 1250-1300 CE depicts the pairing; some coyotes lay their heads on their badger partners.
Q 24How much food does a coyote need each day, roughly?
600 grams
That works out to about 250 kg a year; in winter it is mostly ungulate carcasses.
Q 25Coastal California coyotes eat more marine food than their ancestors, likely due to which animal's disappearance?
The grizzly bear
In Death Valley, they gorge on hawkmoth caterpillars in spring.
Q 26After wolves returned to Yellowstone in the 1990s, coyote numbers in the Lamar Valley fell by roughly how much?
39%
Coyotes were wiped out entirely on Isle Royale after wolves arrived there in the 1940s.
Q 27Which two predators, after humans, are the coyote's greatest threats?
Cougars and gray wolves
Cougars kill coyotes and sometimes do not even eat them, suggesting straightforward competition.
Q 28How far do coyotes typically walk in a day?
5 to 16 km
They often follow logging roads and paths and use iced-over rivers as winter highways.
Q 29In 2026 a coyote was found to have swum to which famous island, over a mile from the nearest land?
Alcatraz
Coyotes are competent swimmers, reliably managing at least 0.8 km across water.
Q 30Why have urban coyotes become more nocturnal than their rural cousins?
To avoid encounters with humans
Rural coyotes are mostly crepuscular, active around dusk and early night.