It is hard to guess what a Coyote weights. But we have the answer:
An adult Coyote (Canis latrans) on average weights 12 kg (26.44 lbs).
The Coyote is from the family Canidae (genus: Canis). It is usually born with about 200 grams (0.44 lbs). They can live for up to 21.83 years. When reaching adult age, they grow up to 87.5 cm (2′ 11″). Usually, Coyotes have 5 babies per litter.
As a reference: An average human weights in at 62 kg (137 lbs) and reaches an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). Humans spend 280 days (40 weeks) in the womb of their mother and reach around 75 years of age.
The coyote (Canis latrans) is a species of canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the closely related eastern wolf and red wolf. It fills much of the same ecological niche as the golden jackal does in Eurasia, though it is larger and more predatory and is sometimes called the American jackal by zoologists. Other names for the species, largely historical, include the prairie wolf and the brush wolf.The coyote is listed as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, due to its wide distribution and abundance throughout North America, southwards through Mexico and into Central America. The species is versatile, able to adapt to and expand into environments modified by humans. It is enlarging its range, with coyotes moving into urban areas in the eastern U.S., and was sighted in eastern Panama (across the Panama Canal from their home range) for the first time in 2013.The coyote has 19 recognized subspecies. The average male weighs 8 to 20 kg (18 to 44 lb) and the average female 7 to 18 kg (15 to 40 lb). Their fur color is predominantly light gray and red or fulvous interspersed with black and white, though it varies somewhat with geography. It is highly flexible in social organization, living either in a family unit or in loosely knit packs of unrelated individuals. Primarily carnivorous, its diet consists mainly of deer, rabbits, hares, rodents, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, though it may also eat fruits and vegetables on occasion. Its characteristic vocalization is a howl made by solitary individuals. Humans are the coyote’s greatest threat, followed by cougars and gray wolves. In spite of this, coyotes sometimes mate with gray, eastern, or red wolves, producing “coywolf” hybrids. In the northeastern regions of North America, the eastern coyote (a larger subspecies, though still smaller than wolves) is the result of various historical and recent matings with various types of wolves. Genetic studies show that most North American wolves contain some level of coyote DNA.The coyote is a prominent character in Native American folklore, mainly in Aridoamerica, usually depicted as a trickster that alternately assumes the form of an actual coyote or a man. As with other trickster figures, the coyote uses deception and humor to rebel against social conventions. The animal was especially respected in Mesoamerican cosmology as a symbol of military might. After the European colonization of the Americas, it was seen in Anglo-American culture as a cowardly and untrustworthy animal. Unlike wolves (gray, eastern, or red), which have undergone an improvement of their public image, attitudes towards the coyote remain largely negative.
Animals of the same family as a Coyote
We found other animals of the Canidae family:
- Gray fox bringing 3.83 kilos (8.44 lbs) to the scale
- Red fox bringing 4.83 kilos (10.65 lbs) to the scale
- Bush dog bringing 6.32 kilos (13.93 lbs) to the scale
- Culpeo bringing 8.62 kilos (19 lbs) to the scale
- Bat-eared fox bringing 4.07 kilos (8.97 lbs) to the scale
- Falkland Islands wolf with a size of 96 cm (3′ 2″)
- Short-eared dog bringing 8.36 kilos (18.43 lbs) to the scale
- Sechuran fox bringing 4.23 kilos (9.33 lbs) to the scale
- Bengal fox bringing 2.51 kilos (5.53 lbs) to the scale
- Raccoon dog bringing 4.22 kilos (9.3 lbs) to the scale
Animals with the same weight as a Coyote
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Canis latrans:
- Sulawesi bear cuscus with a weight of 10 kilos (22.05 lbs)
- Red-flanked duiker with a weight of 12.06 kilos (26.59 lbs)
- Pennant’s colobus with a weight of 10.9 kilos (24.03 lbs)
- Reeves’s muntjac with a weight of 13.5 kilos (29.76 lbs)
- Tenkile with a weight of 9.98 kilos (22 lbs)
- Siamang with a weight of 10.84 kilos (23.9 lbs)
- Caracal with a weight of 11.98 kilos (26.41 lbs)
- White-bellied duiker with a weight of 13.1 kilos (28.88 lbs)
- Water chevrotain with a weight of 10.83 kilos (23.88 lbs)
- Roosevelt’s muntjac with a weight of 10.76 kilos (23.72 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Coyote
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Coyote:
- Short-eared dog with a size of 83.3 cm (2′ 9″)
- Fossa (animal) with a size of 72.7 cm (2′ 5″)
- Ogilby’s duiker with a size of 100 cm (3′ 4″)
- Large Indian civet with a size of 81.9 cm (2′ 9″)
- Bay duiker with a size of 84.9 cm (2′ 10″)
- Jaguarundi with a size of 70.4 cm (2′ 4″)
- African clawless otter with a size of 80.9 cm (2′ 8″)
- Thomson’s gazelle with a size of 88.5 cm (2′ 11″)
- Canada lynx with a size of 70.4 cm (2′ 4″)
- Siamang with a size of 82.4 cm (2′ 9″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Coyote
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (5) as a Coyote:
- Eastern spotted skunk
- Dalton’s mouse
- European rabbit
- Tundra vole
- Fat-tailed false antechinus
- Midday jird
- Eastern quoll
- Mexican ground squirrel
- Silent dormouse
- Striped field mouse
Animals with the same life expectancy as a Coyote
Completely different animals, but becoming as old as a Coyote:
- Brown-mantled tamarin with an average maximal age of 24.5 years
- Allen’s swamp monkey with an average maximal age of 23 years
- Eastern grey kangaroo with an average maximal age of 24 years
- Guatemalan black howler with an average maximal age of 20 years
- Grizzled tree-kangaroo with an average maximal age of 20 years
- Southern elephant seal with an average maximal age of 23 years
- Southern hairy-nosed wombat with an average maximal age of 24.5 years
- Sheep with an average maximal age of 19.17 years
- Townsend’s big-eared bat with an average maximal age of 21.17 years
- Père David’s deer with an average maximal age of 23.25 years