Coyotes in Western Washington
CIC Museum Research Document (Created 3/2/2026) Photograph by Aidan McCarthy. All rights reserved.
A high, wavering howl rises over the landscape at dusk, echoing across forests, farmland, and city streets alike. The owner of this ghostly voice is the coyote, a small but formidable canine endemic to North America. Coyotes thrive both alone and in packs, adapting to live in a wide variety of landscapes both natural and manmade. While now well established in the landscape, their presence here represents over a century of ecological change across North America.
Today, the coyote is widespread across all of North America. However, their historic range spanned from the open plains and deserts from Eastern Washington to New Mexico. Coyotes became established in coastal Washington toward the beginning of the 20th century, expanding westward as Euro-American settlement reshaped forests and prairies through logging, agriculture, predator control, and urban development.
Tracing Species Prevalence Through Local Language
None of the tribes within the Quinault Nation have a word for coyote. Historical accounts and tribal linguistic records documenting the languages of the Quinault, Queets, Quiluete, Hoh, Chehalis, Chinook, and Cowlitz peoples indicate that coyotes were absent from the Olympic Peninsula and the Grays Harbor region until their expansion, which followed the widespread environmental changes brought by settler development.
Domain Expansion
As mid-ranking predators, or mesopredators, coyote populations were historically kept in check by apex predators such as wolves, cougars, and the now-extinct American lion. However, westward European-American settlement dramatically reshaped North American ecosystems. In Western Washington, the local extirpation of gray wolves in the late 1800s and early 1900s was the main driver of coyote expansion, moving westward to fill the ecological void.
While coyotes share a large portion of their genome with wolves, they are unable to replicate the full ecological function of wolves. Before their removal in Washington, gray wolves greatly influenced the movements of elk and deer, changing browsing patterns and allowing vegetation in riparian areas to recover. By controlling the overgrazing of riparian areas, animals like beavers, songbirds, insects, and numerous other animals are able to thrive. Coyotes lack the size, strength, and cooperative hunting structure to consistently regulate large herbivore populations at that scale. Although coyotes fill part of the ecological gap left by the removal of the wolf, the broader predator–prey dynamics in places like Grays Harbor remain fundamentally different than it did 150 years ago.
While coyotes are unable to fully replicate the benefits of wolves on an ecosystem, their presence is still beneficial. These crafty canines help regulate populations of small mammals such as rodents and rabbits, which can help prevent overgrazing and protect vegetation. Coyotes also prey on vulnerable young deer, influencing herbivore numbers and plant communities. In landscapes altered by logging, agriculture, and urban development, where apex predators have been eliminated, their presence helps to partially restore predator-driven checks and balances. The presence of coyotes on an ecosystem supports biodiversity and ecosystem resilience even in regions where they are not historically native, like Grays Harbor.
A Wide Palate
A key reason coyotes succeed in so many environments is their highly flexible diet. Coyotes are opportunistic omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and animals and take advantage of whatever food sources are most available. The diet of a coyote changes with its surroundings, feasting on insects, small mammals, fruit, carrion, and the like in relatively undisturbed environments like forests, wetlands, deserts, and prairies. In more developed areas like suburbs, small towns, and city edges coyotes are known to seek food sources like outdoor pet food, unsecured trash, unmonitored pets, and the like. Coyotes in urban areas have even shifted their active hours, becoming more active at night to avoid human activity.
How to Prevent Potential Conflict with Coyotes
Coyotes are naturally wary of humans and rarely pose a direct threat. Most conflicts occur when they gain access to unsecured food sources such as garbage, compost, or pet food. The simplest and most effective way to reduce conflicts is to remove attractants and supervise pets and small children.
Hazing is an important tool for reinforcing a coyote’s natural fear of people. Because coyotes are highly intelligent, relying on a single tactic like yelling can lose effectiveness over time. Using two or more of the following strategies together is recommended:
Used consistently, these techniques help coyotes remember that humans are not a food source and maintain a safe distance, keeping both coyotes and people protected.
Sources
Touch whale bones, examine shipwreck artifacts and connect with the coast's living history.
Support our mission, get involved in educational programs, or contribute through donations and volunteering.
