A coyote pack is a family group - or a reproductive group. Coyotes are social animals that often live in packs. They often hunt and rear pups cooperatively. The pack is dominated by two breeding animals: the alpha male and female. Other members of the pack can include one or more pups from a prior year, animals from other packs that have been accepted, and puppies from the current year.
The alpha male and female are the dominant animals in the group and patrol the same territory. Others in the pack are subordinate to the alpha pair. Subordinate pack members often care for the young of the year. Others help hunt for food.
NBCS monitored an alpha pair - Bonnie (pictured left) and Clyde (pictured right)- from March 2010 through April 2011. We believe they had puppies both years in a den on Sachuest Point. Their territory was large and extended from Sachuest Point, Middletown, to north of Mill Road in Portsmouth.
NBCS has found that Coyote packs have territories that are as large as needed to support the pack members. Normal coyote packs that exist on natural foods (mice, rabbits, woodchucks, fruit, etc.) have 3-7 adult pack members and subsidized packs, those receiving significant food resources from people, have as many as 20 packmemebers. Unsubsidized coyote packs in our study area generally raise 2-5 young, subsidized coyote packs regularly have 7. Subsidized packs have smaller territories. Areas with ongoing coyote subsidization tend to have higher coyote population density: more coyote packs per unit area, and more coyotes in each pack.