Yocote

Yocotes are coyotes in the Iron Lyons Universe.
==Information==
===In Iron Lyons===
Yocotes are found in The Hidden Lands and band together in groups, essentially acting as raiders and bandits to their neighbors. No one does much about this, as the Yocotes are found in the desert and the desert it simply too hot to sift through for any long length of time.
===In Reality===
A close relative to the wolf, Coyotes are smaller canid animals. It is abundant in North America and even found in Mexico and Central America. A highly versatile species, it thrives, even in close proximity to humans. It's diet consists of animals such as rodents, lagomorphs, birds, reptiles and, less commonly, ungulates. It will eat fruits and vegetables on occasion.
Cougars, Humans, and Wolves are it's main predators. Despite that, Wolves and Coyotes will occasionally mate and produce the hybrid Coywolf. Both sexes weigh anywhere from 16-42 pounds, the largest specimen on record being 75 pounds.
Though they resemble wolves, Coyotes are not as cohesive as their larger cousins and don't really have to be, as they are not specialized to take down large game. Group structure is similar to the wolf, but centers on a single reproductive female instead of a breeding pair. "Non-family" member coyotes frequently join but are just as frequently only temporary, consisting of bachelor males, non-reproductive females and sub-adults. Females enter estrus in the midwinter, when families are formed. Females attract male wolves by marking and howling with peak frequency. A pair wolves may bond for several months before actual breeding takes place. Coyotes gestate about 2 months, females having an average of about six pups, but this number fluctuates in time with food availability.
Pups drink milk for the first ten days of their lives, then regurgitated meat at about fifteen. Father coyotes play an active role in raising the pups, searching for food and guarding them, however if the female abandons them before they are weaned, so will he. They are walking at twenty days and running at six weeks. Coyotes begin fighting for hierarchical standing earlier than wolves do and have firmly established who is dominant/submissive to who at about five or six weeks. Only then do they begin to play.
The coyote isn't as territorial as the wolf, and rarely kills any intruders it finds or bothers to chase them out in the first place, provided it isn't pup rearing season. Coyotes only conflict with each other when food is short.
Category:Species