Coyote Trivia
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57 free Coyote trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Sep 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
Barking dog fits the animal biologists call the most vocal of North America's wild mammals, with a repertoire of yelps, barks and howls.
Q 02The word 'coyote' is a Spanish borrowing from which language?
Nahuatl
Nahuatl, the Aztec language, called the animal coyotl; Mexican Spanish trimmed the ending, just as tomatl became tomate.
Q 03Coyotes in which region carry wolf ancestry that makes them unusually large?
The Northeast
The Northeast is home to the eastern coyote, whose ancestors bred with wolves; it is noticeably bigger than coyotes west of the Mississippi.
Q 04A typical coyote weighs about as much as which dog?
A border collie
A border collie is about right: a coyote is often likened to a German shepherd in looks, yet it weighs only about half as much.
Q 05How does the IUCN classify the coyote?
Least Concern
Least Concern, because adaptability let coyotes outlast the extermination campaigns of the early 1900s and stay common and widespread.
Q 06Coyotes have spread south through Central America, and in 2013 they were first recorded beyond which waterway?
The Panama Canal
The Panama Canal fell behind them as coyotes moved into cleared, deforested land to the east. The dense Darién forest is now the last barrier between coyotes and South America.
Q 07Which Eurasian animal fills roughly the same ecological niche as the coyote?
The golden jackal
The golden jackal is a mid-sized, adaptable canid much like the coyote. It is also on the move in the same way: since the 1970s it has spread from the Balkans across much of Europe.
Q 08Until about 1900, coyotes were largely confined to which part of North America?
The western plains and deserts
The western plains and deserts held nearly all coyotes until about 1900. Cleared forests and the removal of bigger predators then opened the East, and they now range from Alaska to Central America.
Q 09Which endangered wolf carries so much coyote ancestry that its species status is disputed?
The red wolf
The red wolf came out as mostly coyote in a 2016 genome study, which fuelled a dispute over its legal protection. A 2019 National Academies review still judged it a valid species.
Q 10Why are coyote-dog hybrids, known as coydogs, so uncommon in the wild?
Their breeding seasons rarely line up
Their breeding seasons rarely line up, because coyotes are fertile only briefly each winter. A dog father also wanders off instead of feeding pups, so the few coydogs born seldom survive.
Q 11Black-coated coyotes owe their colour to a mutation that first arose in which animal?
Domestic dogs
Domestic dogs passed the black-coat mutation to wild canids through old hybrid matings. North America's black wolves owe their colour to the very same dog gene.
Q 12Which of these famously quick animals could a sprinting coyote actually outrun?
A roadrunner
A roadrunner tops out near 20 mph, about half the 40 mph a coyote can sprint. The cartoons have it backwards: in a real chase the bird would lose.
Q 13How does a running coyote carry its tail, unlike a wolf?
Pointing downwards
Pointing downwards is how a running coyote holds its tail, while a wolf streams its tail straight out and a dog carries it up. Watching the tail is a quick way to tell the three apart.
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 22Which crop are coyotes notorious for eating straight from farm fields in the American Southwest?
Watermelons
Watermelons offer sugar and water in dry country, and coyotes have been helping themselves to melon patches for over a century. Hunters by trade, they switch readily to fruit whenever it ripens.
Q 23Coastal California coyotes eat more marine food than their ancestors, likely due to which animal's disappearance?
The grizzly bear
Q 14Which author's portrait of a scrawny, always-hungry coyote inspired the cartoon Wile E. Coyote?
Mark Twain
Mark Twain called the coyote "a living, breathing allegory of Want" in Roughing It. The cartoon's director read it as a boy and modelled his luckless, starving predator on it.
Q 15In 2007 a coyote strolled into a downtown Quiznos sandwich shop and lay down in the drinks cooler in which city?
Chicago
Chicago diners kept eating and took photos while the calm coyote cooled off in the Loop shop. Officers removed it after about 40 minutes and it was later released unharmed outside the city.
Q 16What is the coyote's mating system?
Strictly monogamous
Strictly monogamous pairs were all that a six-year genetic study of city coyotes found: across 96 pups, none had a father from outside the pair. Bonds ended only when one partner died.
Q 17After heavy culling, the surviving coyotes' litters become what?
Larger
Larger, because each survivor has more food and more of the females breed. It is a big reason why a century of trapping and poisoning has failed to shrink coyote numbers.
Q 18How does a lone coyote typically catch a mouse hidden in long grass?
With a stiff-legged pounce
With a stiff-legged pounce: the coyote stalks slowly through the grass, freezes once it has pinpointed the mouse, then springs into the air and drops on it much as a cat would.
Q 19Compared with wolf pups of the same age, how do infant coyotes treat their littermates?
They fight far more fiercely
They fight far more fiercely: by three weeks old, coyote pups bite each other with less restraint than wolf pups do. In one captive study they were also the worst at coaxing a littermate into play.
Q 20Which animal sometimes hunts alongside coyotes in a mutualistic partnership?
The American badger
The American badger digs into burrows while the coyote waits above to run down whatever bolts. Between them a ground squirrel has no safe way out, above ground or below.
The grizzly bear is the suspect: bone chemistry shows coastal coyotes ate no seafood while it was around. Today coyotes beside one seal colony get about a fifth of their diet from the sea.
Q 24How did Yellowstone's coyotes fare after wolves returned in the 1990s?
They fell by up to half
They fell by up to half on the park's northern range, where wolves killed coyotes at carcasses and crowded them off their territory. A separate study measured a 39 per cent drop in coyote density.
Q 25Before coyote pups can handle whole prey, how do their parents bring meat home to them?
Swallowed, then regurgitated
Swallowed, then regurgitated: the pups get a soft, half-digested mush from the age of about two to three weeks. Both parents do it, and the father also brings food home for the mother.
Q 26In long-running tracking studies, what kills more big-city coyotes than anything else?
Being hit by vehicles
Being hit by vehicles is the leading killer, because coyotes range widely and have to cross busy roads again and again. Even so, city coyotes tend to outlive their hunted country cousins.
Q 27In 2026 a coyote was found to have swum to which famous island, over a mile from the nearest land?
Alcatraz
Alcatraz got its first recorded coyote in January 2026, when one was filmed swimming up to the island. DNA from his droppings later traced him to Angel Island, a swim of about two miles.
Q 28Why have urban coyotes become more nocturnal than their rural cousins?
To avoid encounters with humans
To avoid encounters with humans: tracking studies keep finding that city coyotes cut their daytime activity wherever people are busy. Away from people they are often out in daylight too.
Q 29A chorus like a dozen coyotes usually comes from what?
One family
One family yelping in unison is usually all it takes. With howls, yips and barks at shifting pitches, a few coyotes can create the illusion of a dozen or more.
Q 30Which everyday sound is well known for setting coyotes howling, even in the middle of the day?
Emergency sirens
Emergency sirens and fire whistles can start a coyote chorus at any hour. Biologists exploit the habit: they play a siren or a recorded howl, then count the groups that answer.