Q 01/05

What does the coyote's scientific name, Canis latrans, mean?

A) Barking dog

B) Desert dog

C) Little dog

D) Running dog

Answer · why

A) 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 02/05

The word 'coyote' is a Spanish borrowing from which language?

A) Quechua

B) Navajo

C) Nahuatl

D) Apache

Answer · why

C) Nahuatl

Nahuatl, the Aztec language, called the animal coyotl; Mexican Spanish trimmed the ending, just as tomatl became tomate.

Q 03/05

Coyotes in which region carry wolf ancestry that makes them unusually large?

A) The Southwest

B) The Rocky Mountains

C) The Northeast

D) The Pacific Northwest

Answer · why

C) 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 04/05

A typical coyote weighs about as much as which dog?

A) A Chihuahua

B) A border collie

C) A Labrador retriever

D) A Great Dane

Answer · why

B) 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 05/05

How does the IUCN classify the coyote?

A) Least Concern

B) Near Threatened

C) Vulnerable

D) Endangered

Answer · why

A) Least Concern

Least Concern, because adaptability let coyotes outlast the extermination campaigns of the early 1900s and stay common and widespread.