Trying to be more efficient on my coyote line. Does anyone have any thoughts on what makes up a territory boundary? I can see the hard lines such as a river,a major road and even larger ridges and valleys. But how about the others. For instance most of our major ridges run north to south and extend for miles. If the ridge itself is mostly forested and that ridge is a east or west boundary, is there anything I could look for that might suggest a north or south boundary?

Some of the studies I've read on urban coyotes do show some of those geographic "hard" edges they also showed overlap and shared areas and even different groups sharing travel corridors.
But I've long suspected well fed city coyotes have less conflict than their country cousins.

If you can spare the time, right now (this time of year) will tell you more about territorial boundaries than maps will. Dusk on a quiet evening here will have one coyote sending out his boundary to any other one listening. They are paired and getting real close to mom's due date so the males do not want anyone else raiding any of their grocery stores. Have little experience with urban coyotes but am guessing they still sing their intensions and challenges to others like their country cousins. Find a hill to listen from and as they communicate,,,, try to estimate the distances between the calls. Move to another hill and see if they are still calling. DO NOT BE FOOLED into thinking 5 coyotes are calling at one spot! A coyote can make up to 7 different sounds (vocalizations) at 1 time so they are "gabby" creatures. Spend the shoe leather right now and you will get a handle on how far they can tolerate their neighbors. After the pups are born and become vocal (late August-September here), you will be hearing sub adults (sassy teenagers) and they seem to be all over the place. If you have the time, I encourage you to listen now. .......................... the mike

Anyone else just about given up on trying to figure anything at all about urban coyote behavior? Its like trying to figure out the behavior of a pack of wild dogs, or herd of house cats. All that I know for sure is that they go wherever the food is. That's it.
They will travel 20 miles a night and never take the same route. No such thing as a coyote trail.

This is me!

I caught 13 within 1/2 mile of my house, shot 5 within 2 miles and now have 5 I can confirm as different coyotes on cams while testing lures a 1/2 mile from house. With the exception of keeping away from one's den when pups are there(which isn't during fur trapping) don't worry about territory boundaries. I don't believe they exist or are of any value. As stated before find the best food sources and trap them.

I don't worry about boundaries much more than how many can I expect to catch on this property that would make my client satisfied. Or of it might make that task go quicker or easier.
Us urban coyote trappers are forever rolling that rock up the hill.

Like 52carl mentioned....around here follow the food.

Rural aresa there might be more territories but for those part I think they aren't solid lines but more of a suggestion.

I completely agree with you that the coyotes will be where the prey is but I just as completely disagree that there is "no such thing as a coyote trail". Call them "trails" or "travel routes" in between hunting/prey areas, those are what I trap in the fall. Within the coyote's hunting area there most certainly are "coyote trails" that coyote use consistently and repeatedly, not deer trails, coyote trails. Blind trail setting these "trails" are my bread & butter in the winter.
I have a number of videos published on Youtube showing these trails and the results of blind setting them.

With the exception of a core area, you’re not wrong….for some areas. Core areas are strictly off limits no matter where you are. The immediate area of a den. I used to not put much stock into territorial boundaries until I started moving around to different states. I’d say they are less obvious on the east coat and in heavily wooded regions. Not saying they aren’t there, just less obvious. As I moved from state to state, I found differing levels of territorial activity.

That said, I’ve seldom found a line that indicated “do not cross.” Boundaries are often blurry. Like an entire pasture. (Remember, a pasture out west can be several thousand acres). But I’ve also seen spots of no-man’s land in between what I thought were boundaries where coyotes seemed to not use the land.

Again, you’re not wrong but your experiences may not have brought you to where those boundaries are more defined yet.

I live in a unique location where I generally have 3 family groups within eyesight of my back porch. I watch them all summer and as long as they don’t come sniff my pee foxes, dogs, and chickens, we are good till they’re prime.

I wish everything down here was as described how it’s “supposed” to be elsewhere. Our coyotes may use a trail today and not again for another 6 months. And the only way you’d know that was either by actually seeing it using the trail or have cameras up. All I can do is set road intersections, burns next to standing cover, and high density rabbit cover. No tracks to be seen, or if you do find a set of tracks, it’s one set. I’ll set that and wait.

I completely understand and I feel as you do with a lot of coyote-related postings here or on any trapping forum. Unless someone is trapping in my County and writing about their observations and experiences can I relate. There is only so much of the posted knowledge and/or observations that can be passed on that reflects objectively with what I deal with so it's just the way it is and I glean out what I can use.

This reply reminds me of the reason why I started publishing Youtube videos of my coyote trapping. I have a couple of friends, one lives downstate a good distance and the other lives and traps near LaGrange IN. Neither of these fellas have trapping properties/territory similar to me so I used my videos to show as best Im could the country I trap more so than I did the actual trapping! Farming practices are a lot smaller here and human population is a lot more crowded which made gaining permissions a chancy deal with either!

I can understand urban coyotes being more restricted by cover and food availability but their country cousins don't face the same restrictions. Other than the occasional house or major roads they can pretty much roam wherever they choose. From my own observations they will filter through an area, hunting and scavenging along the way and move on , only to come back through sometime later. It could be a few days to weeks depending on what they find along the way. My catch rate is way higher where 2 packs home range overlap then it is in the dead center of 1 packs core territory.
I believe they spend more time on the perimeter of the range then they do deep inside. Whether it's just refreshing scent markers or patrolling fortrespassers. There is some overlap on these edges where both packs will leave their mark , which is why my set visitation numbers are much higher
I have one location where a N-S highway intersects a E-W highway. I average 8 every year on this 30 acres. Five miles west I have an excellent funnel where a corn field buts up against a major river. If I get set up on the cornfield/river location first, I catch 4-5 coyote and the other locations catch will go down the same number. If I set up the highway crossroads first I will not have any action at the river. No matter what I always catch the other 4-5 at the highway sight. This tells me it is a boundary and I am into 2 different packs at this site.
Maybe I'm overthinking this but the results over numerous years shows the same results. To me, my time is better spent at the location with more individual dogs and the time "wasted" at the cornfield/river spot would be better invested in finding another shared boundary.

My 2 cents is ur over thinking it and imposing pre conceived ideas of territory boundaries on a good pinch point or good food supply. Highways provide a good amount of food. But I'm not in your aree to say for sure. I'm just not that big of a believer in territory boundaries during trapping season .

Now that’s a different story. During trapping season, to me, means November through January for the most part. You won’t see the hardcore behavior like you will from denning till before dispersal. Totally different story.

If I was fur trapping it would be a different story. I would set the feed areas and pinch points for 2 weeks and move on. Landowners pay me to catch coyotes. Some locations I will have equipment on for 6 months. From about the first of February until pups disperse is a different ball game then early fall and the family break up.

I agree, there is a lot of overlap on the outer boundaries which is why I'm trying to identify those areas.
Just for the record, this area is definitely not urban. Very rural area with a mixture of mature forest, overgrown farm land and pasture.

I'm positive about one thing for sure, I have both Urban and country coyotes on in my county. The urban coyotes are far less territorial than country coyotes. More food I believe is one reason. With less coyotes in the country, they have larger territories than when the populations are higher too. When you find a territorial marker with multiple scratch kicks you've found the shared boundry, most of the time its located on a travel corridor just outside thicker cover. Seldom is spot on, there certainly are coyote trails but it takes some looking. Some change over time some stay for decades. All ya need is a track...

Thanks guys. That gives me somethings to think about.