Male coyotes usually have to travel further to find the larger territories that they need, and a number of young males have been known to relocate further than 100 miles away from their birth places. Coyotes are skilled hunters. Their vision, sense of smell, and hearing are all extremely good, and enable the coyote to feed itself easily during most of the year. In the extreme weather of mid-winter coyotes frequently eat carrion. Significant numbers of deer and antelope are killed by coyotes.
Deer are particularly vulnerable during deep snow conditions when coyotes often pack up to hunt.
Although healthy adult deer or antelope are sometimes killed by coyotes, the fawns of both species are particularly vulnerable. Sheep on the rangelands are a particular temptation to coyotes, and its seems likely that some coyotes develop a taste for lamb after natural mortalities of sheep occur on the range. Nevertheless, coyotes soon learn to kill sheep when they are available, and it is virtually impossible to discourage them after they develop a taste for sheep. Coyotes also kill calves, and sometimes these calves are eaten as they are being born. Bob-tailed calves are frequently seen on western rangelands and usually the result of an attack by one or more coyotes.