50 Coyote Quotes on Cleverness and Cunning

By Norbert Juma

Master quote curator and editor on a mission to inspire

Published July 20, 2023

Tap into your own innate cleverness with these wonderful and wild coyote quotes.

A coyote is a native North American animal known for its adaptability and resilience.

Coyotes also hold a key place in folklore and ecology.

Keep reading to learn more.

Characteristics and Physical Adaptations

Coyotes are capable of achieving a range of behavioral and physical adaptations.

Some of their adaptations can include:

Appearance and Size
Nocturnal Behavior
Problem Solving and Intelligence

Appearance and Size

Weighing between 20 and 50 pounds, the coyote is relatively smaller than a wolf.

It has an agile and slender structure.

They have a fur of grayish-brown color, which usually comes with a reddish tint.

Their tail has a distinctive bushy appearance.

Intelligence

Coyotes are famous for their adaptability and intelligence.

With their problem-solving abilities, coyotes can adapt to almost any kind of environment.

They display a range of vocalizations to communicate.

In addition, coyotes are capable of swiftly adjusting their behavior and diet.

This makes them highly adaptable to changing circumstances.

Nocturnal Behavior

Being primarily nocturnal, coyotes exhibit most of their activity at night.

They have a strong sense of smell and hearing.

The ability to see in the dark also helps them navigate during the night and locate prey.

Ecological Role and Food Habits

Coyotes play a critical role when it comes to maintaining ecological balance.

In many ecosystems, coyotes are referred to as the keystone predators.

Scavenging Ability
Predatory Behavior
Coyotes as Regulator of Prey Populations

Scavenging Ability

Coyotes are true scavengers with exceptional abilities.

They can prey on a wide array of food sources.

Since they are also capable of consuming human-left food, it allows them to survive in human-inhabited areas.

Predatory Behavior

Coyotes are known to be opportunistic predators.

They have a diverse diet, including small mammals like rodents, rabbits, and squirrels.

Apart from this, they also consume fruits, insects, and carrion.

Occasionally coyotes also prey on some bigger animals like livestock and deer.

Coyotes as Regulator of Prey Populations

Being predators, coyotes also assist with the population control of rodents and small mammals.

This role is critical for creating a balance within various ecosystems.

Limiting the population of a specific species can help reduce the chances of spreading disease among them.

Top 10 coyote quotes

These are top coyote quotes that you may have never heard before. Enjoy reading!

1. “I could sneak up on a coyote if I’ve a mind to!” — Jack Elam

2. “Coyotes hunt in packs, and so do assholes.” — Ellen Hopkins

3. “You have a coyote inside you, and you have to get it out.” — Chuck Jones

4. “I’m in a Road Runner cartoon, Sinclair. And I’m the coyote.” — MaryJanice Davidson

5. “The wolf pack will die when scattered by man, lonesome coyote survives.” — Kris Kristofferson

6. “What should I do?’ Coyote yelled. ‘Cultivate philosophy and run like hell,’ said Bear…” — Roger Zelazny

7. “I am the reality of all coyotes. The archetype. The epitome. You are just a reflection of me.” — Patricia Briggs

8. “Perhaps you are Coyote in disguise and have chosen a spectacularly inappropriate time for a joke.” — Brandon Nolta

9. “Manipulators are very evolved. Energy is food. Forget good and bad. Is the coyote bad and the rabbit good?” — Frederick Lenz

10. “The only difference between the Coyotes and ‘Days of Our Lives’ is that nobody has been shot on our team yet.” — Jeremy Roenick

Coyote quotes about their wildness

Below are some of the top quotes about coyotes in their element.

11. “Never dare a Coyote.” — Lora Leigh

12. “When the coyote falls, he gets up and brushes himself off; it’s preservation of dignity. ” — Chuck Jones

13. “I live up in the Hollywood Hills, and I have frogs, owls, coyotes, mountain lions – but I’m ten minutes from the center of the city.” — Moby

14. “Do you know the one about the wolves chasing me? The only thing about that – they weren’t wolves, they were coyotes.” — Si Robertson

15. “Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and numbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me – I am happy.” — Hamlin Garland

16. “Los Angeles is more hospitable to writers [Than NY]. It’s less claustrophobic. It feels more unpredictable and dangerous, and the landscape is less structured. You see coyotes lurking all over the place.” — Nick Antosca

17. “We are kindred, all of us, killer and victim, predator and prey, me and the sly coyote, the soaring buzzard, the elegant gopher snake, and trembling cottontail, the foul worms that feed on our entrails; all of them, all of us!” — Edward Abbey

18. “I felt him there with me. The real David. My David. David, you are still here. Alive. Alive in me. Alive in the galaxy.Alive in the stars. Alive in the sky. Alive in the sea. Alive in the palm trees. Alive in feathers. Alive in birds. Alive in the mountains.Alive in the coyotes” — Kelly Easton

19. “Wilderness is not only a haven for native plants and animals, but it is also a refuge from society. It’s a place to go to hear the wind and little else, see the stars and the galaxies, smell the pine trees, feel the cold water, touch the sky and the ground at the same time, listen to coyotes, eat the fresh snow, walk across the desert sands, and realize why its good to go outside of the city and the suburbs.” — John Muir

20. “Oak, Madrone, Douglas fir, red-tailed hawk, serpentine in the sandstone, a certain scale to the topography, drenching rains in the winters, fog off-shore in the summers, salmon surging up the streams – all these together make up a particular state of mind, a place-specific intelligence shared by all the humans that dwell therein, but also by the coyotes yapping in those valleys, by the bobcats and the ferns and the spiders, by all beings who live and make their way in that zone.” — David Abram

Quotes about the sound of coyotes

Coyote produces a characteristic sound and are louder than you might expect.

21. “The coyotes made too much noise last night and kept me awake.” — Dave Barry

22. “ With The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, I used animal sounds – as you say, the coyote sound – so the sound of the animal became the main theme of the movie.” — Ennio Morricone

25. “At dawn and at evening, we hear the coyotes howling with excitement—mating season.” — Edward Abbey

23. “There are big bad wolves all over the world who tremble at the sound of his name, yet a little puny coyote girl peanut-buttered the seat of Bran Cornick’s car because he told her that she should wear a dress to perform for the pack.” — Patricia Briggs

24. “Now and then we hear the wilder voices of the wilderness, from animals that in the hours of darkness do not fear the neighborhood of man: the coyotes wail like dismal ventriloquists, or the silence may be broken by the snorting and stamping of a deer.” — Theodore Roosevelt

26. “She kept her ears permanently tuned to the chicken voices outside, so she knew immediately when a coyote had crept into the yard and barreled screaming for the front door before the rest of us had a clue.” — Barbara Kingsolver

27. “Well, another senator rose and said {as they always do} ‘Does the gentleman yield?’ They always say that – at least they call each other ‘gentleman’ in there. But the tone they put on the word, it would sound more appropriate if they came right out and said, ‘Would the coyote from Maine yield?’ ’cause that’s about the way it sounds.” — Will Rogers

28. “If the book is good, is about something that you know, and is truly written, and reading it over you see that this is so, you can let the boys yip, and the noise will have that pleasant sound coyote make on a very cold night when they are out in the snow, and you are in your own cabin that you have built or paid for with your work.” — Ernest Hemingway

29. “Coyotes have the gift of seldom being seen; they keep to the edge of vision and beyond, loping in and out of cover on the plains and highlands. And at night, when the whole world belongs to them, they parley at the river with the dogs, their higher, sharper voices full of authority and rebuke. They are an old council of clowns, and they are listened to.” — N. Scott Momaday

30. “I grew up in those years when the Old West was passing, and the New West was emerging. It was a time when we still heard echoes and already saw shadows, on moonlit nights when the coyotes yapped on the hilltops, and on hot summer afternoons when mirages shimmered, dust devils spun across the flats, and towering cumulus clouds sailed like galleons across the vast blueness of the sky.” — Hal Borland

Quotes with various coyote references

Here are some quotes that all reference coyotes in different ways.

31. “We don’t have to do this. I can fight Coyote. We have the ability to defeat him.” — Sasha Sherrilyn Kenyon

32. “I’m a coyote shapeshifter playing in a world of werewolves and vampires—outmatched is n understatement.” — Patricia Briggs

33. “If the coyote’s in your living room pissing on your couch, it’s not the coyote’s fault. It’s your fault for not shooting him.” — Ted Nugent

34. “A decent cowboy does not take what belongs to someone else, and if he does, he deserves to be strung up and left for the flies and coyotes.” — Roy Bean

35. “On my recent trip to the Mexico border, Border Patrol agents in California told me they have arrested the same coyotes 20 times, but they are not prosecuted.” — Ric Keller

36. “She tries to get a waitressing job for a while – I mean, she’s looking for a while before she finds Coyote Ugly – and it’s hard to get a waitressing job in the city.” — Piper Perabo

37. “Dekka looked up straight into the glittering eyes of a coyote. She could sense the others around her closing in. Wary but sensing that a fresh meal was close at hand.” — Michael Grant

38. “This morning, I saw a coyote walking through the sagebrush right at the very edge of the ocean ― next stop China. The coyote was acting like he was in New Mexico or Wyoming, except there were whales passing below.” — Richard Brautigan

39. “Who are they gonna run? Sarah Palin, reading off her hand. Did you see that? Did you see this? She wrote “tax cuts” on her hand. A Republican so stupid she has to be reminded of the one thing – Tax cuts! This is like if you saw the coyote’s paw and it said “Road Runner”.” — Bill Maher

40. “Our Father who art in nature, who has given the gift of survival to the coyote, the common brown rat, the English sparrow, the house fly, and the moth, must have a great and overwhelming love for no-goods and blots-on-the-town and bums, and Mack and the boys.” — John Steinbeck

Coyote Quotes about their behavior

Coyotes are associated with cleverness and a cunning approach.

41. “Coyotes are known to bite more people annually than do all the world’s sharks.” — Robert Benchley

42. “Speaking of friends…why did our new coyote buddies run from you?” — Sherrilyn Kenyon

43. “Many sci-fi authors, we know, are as clever and tricky as so many coyotes.” — Tom Shippey

44. “Texas governor Rick Perry has been in the race only three days, and he’s already blowing away the competition like it is a trespassing coyote.” — Stephen Colbert

45. “The hawk swoops down on its prey, and so does the Indian. In his lament, he is like an animal. For instance, the coyote is sly, and so is the Indian.” — Black Elk

46. “In this dream, I wasn’t a coyote shapeshifter trying to hold a werewolf, I was Coyote’s almost daughter, and I had all the strength of the world in my arms.” — Patricia Briggs

47. “I write about things that are important for us as Americans. I’m concerned about al-Qaeda sneaking across the border with the illegal immigrants that are using coyotes to get across the border.” — Brad Thor

48. “Humiliation and indifference, these are conditions every one of us finds unbearable — this is why the coyote, when falling, is more concerned with the audience’s opinion of him than he is with the inevitable result of too much gravity.” — Chuck Jones

49. “Wile E. Coyote is a coyote with nothing but good intentions. But Road Runner comes along and is unattainable, he wants it and can’t get it, and thus he becomes a villain that is impossible to be around. Bill O’Reilly is a villain that is so in love with himself and the sound of his voice that he’s literally become the personification of evil.” — Shawn Hatosy

50. “In my art and life, I really strive to reverse the old adage that what you see is what you get. If I can be Coyote and practice my sneak-up, I can engage the viewers from a distance with one image and lure them in for exposure to another layer, which changes the initial view into quite a different reality.” — Jaune Quick–to–See Smit