Coyote roaming range ?

What is the roaming range of the average Midwest coyote ? Do they only pass through an area once every week or two as they roam a giving area ? Seems like I will get one or two then not get any or see sign for a week or so , then get a couple more. How many square miles do they cover in one night ? -thanks

Around here I’d say 5 square miles would get the home territory of 2 families. Maybe 4-10 total. As you move closer to towns and feedlots overlaps in territory increase dramatically. As you trap them out they just fill in the now vacant area. As far as travel goes it depends greatly on food sources and quantity of food. They may be forced to hunt hard and cover lots of ground or they may be through an area every day or two.

I’ve always tell people to visualize a hurricane. The center or eye is the home range, and there is a mass of transient animals and coyotes in adjacent territories swirling around it ready to make it their new hunting ground.

I had the unique opportunity to trap a single coyote on an Island made of sand. The habitat was a mix of wooded, shrubby, and grassy areas as well as a big salt marsh. I was able to see everywhere that it went each day form the easy to find tracks in the sand. Tracks weather pretty fast in wind blown sand, so it was easy to differentiate recent tracks from old tracks. The Island was 10 miles long and that coyote traveled from one end to the other every 24 hours. That is 20 miles a day

Wow, that's impressive.

Around here, if you got two family groups in a township you’re in high cotton.

Usually closer to 1-1.5 groups per township.

Lots of variables as when they “come back through”. They find a good food source somewhere and stall out for a few days, hunting/trapping pressure, running into other coyotes, snow and weather, etc etc.

In this part of the world it can be up to 5 sections, and as Boone stated lots of variables at play. Some actually stay in the same section if the food base is rich, but most wander from source to source. They get bumped out a lot in ag land from deer hunters and such. Some never return, some come back ASAP. I keep some locations set all season for traveling new yotes that try to back fill. The family groups that were showing on trail cams in October have most likely dispersed and have become 2 adults, maybe. The truth is the population in southern Michigan and northern Indiana is way down. Tracks don't lie and neither does the lack of.

All this is relative to the carrying capacity of the area vs population and its fluctuations as well as other environmental conditions.

In a corn belt (Say Iowa or Nebraska) where a combine header knocks whole ears to the ground a family of coyotes could probably sustain on 100 acres if you don't scare them off of it. Out in the panhandle region or eastern slope of the Rockies the same family unit might need 3 sections and still look half skinny.

When I say other environmental conditions there could be any number of factors. I spent most of my life in the Flint Hills of Kansas and if a coyote saw a pickup truck it was a-holes over elbows because he just knew there was either going to be a flat shooting rifle pop out the window or an entire pack of greyhounds dumped out of the dog box. Those same coyotes have cousins in California who play tug of war with soccer moms who have a Miniature Yorkie on a leash.

Yep that’s what I’m seeing here just Northeast of Kalamazoo, I do ADC work all
Year and had to capture a sick raccoon 2 miles from my primary trapping area and took it in for testing. Lab report canine distemper.
Coyotes have been sparse here so far. Usually have 30-40 coon by now form my canine sets, only go 9 (8 boar and one sow)

Just got on to some new properties further north and some further East so hope to finally get some

Prior to last season I could expect to get 2-6 off each small parcel I trapped but now just finding scat is rare

So to the original post question, it’s going to vary on population quite a bit I believe

Wi has collared some yotes, but I haven't heard results of the study.