Weirdest Video You'll See Today: Coyote and Pet Dog Play Together in Broad Daylight
The domestic canine and and wild coyote are pretty close cousins as these things go, but you don’t often see them playing together.
At least in Tempe, Arizona, however, one duo bucked the trend.
According to KTVK-TV, the video was recorded over the weekend by a local resident.
“An Arizona’s Family viewer captured the encounter on camera as the coyote and her neighbor’s Airedale chased each other in the street. The neighborhood is near Price Road and Southern Avenue,” the station reported.
“The video showed the coyote wagging its tail and the two seemingly playing together like they are old friends.
“The viewer said she was somewhat nervous being close to the coyote, but it seemed more tame than terrifying.”
As a dog owner, I have to admit I found it more terrifying than anything else. Either way, it was certainly weird.
But then again, dogs are brave creatures, and this is certainly one dog I wouldn’t mind looking after my family.
They’re also close relatives with coyotes, although The Bark reports that interactions with their more feral cousins can end aggressively.
“It is hard to observe interactions between dogs and coyotes, but the modern world provides opportunities that were not available in the past. Researchers interested in the nature of dog-coyote interactions used YouTube videos to explore how these two canids behave around one another. After extensive searching for videos, they evaluated 35 clips of free ranging coyotes and dogs in spontaneous, unplanned interactions,” they noted.
“There were 4 videos that captured coyotes behaving in a predatory way towards dogs, 11 videos that showed dogs and coyotes participating in social play and 9 videos of the two species in agonistic interactions. Agonistic behavior is social behavior that relates to fighting but it is much broader than aggression as it also includes threats, retreats, displays, conciliatory behavior and appeasement. Videos that did not show any of these categories of behavior were classified as other/undetermined.
“Researchers found that members of both species directed playful behavior to members of the other species, leading to play bouts. The play behavior between the two species generally involved chasing behavior with reversals being common. Play bows were performed frequently in the play, sometimes by the dog and sometimes by the coyote and in some cases by both species during a play bout.”
Granted, that’s not a huge sample size and I wouldn’t advise letting your dog out specifically to play with a coyote. However, our furry friends are brave things.
I know my indeterminate poodle mix would be willing to chase this big guy even though she’s just a little mite. She doesn’t know that, however — she constantly thinks she’s the coyote.
And that’s the great thing about dogs. They’re brave, whether it’s dealing with the mailman or wildlife.
And, I guarantee if this coyote was attacking the dog’s owner, the dog would fight the coyote to the end.
Indeed, one of the most affecting moments of George H.W. Bush’s funeral was the fact that his dog Sully stayed with him until the very end — until his coffin laid in state.
Playful. Brave. Loyal. No wonder they call dogs man’s best friend.
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