Coyotes

Coyotes are one of the species that play a role in Perfidy.

Range
Coyotes originated in the Western United Pastures, previously just called the Pastures. This is where they originally lived. In modern times, some sneaky coyotes have traveled beyond the heavily guarded borders of the Western United Pastures. This causes them to be spread all across the Paradise Isle, and some rare cases even beyond.

Behavior
Generally, coyotes are not very friendly to anyone they don't know. They are not very territorial or possessive, and tend to travel rather than stay in one place for a long time.

Though loosely resembling wolves and red foxes, coyotes prefer to have nothing to do with theses species and not very open to new situations, unlike them. While they do travel, really setting paw in an unfamiliar situation is something they generally avoid.

Abilities
Coyotes can bite, kick, and use their paws to defend themselves or hunt.

Lifestyle
Coyotes mostly prefer to live by themselves or in very small groups of individuals that may or may not be related. They can sometimes also live in bigger societies, but unlike most species, that have adapted to living in bigger groups, coyotes still tend to stick to their own kind.

Males and females tend to live apart, but, once they have mated and have an offspring, it's very common for them to stay together and raise the pup with the two of them, sometimes with additional family members or friends helping out.

Young coyotes are always born in summer and are young adults by the age of fifteen years. Most individuals will stick to their family until they've found a mate, but some rare cases might go roaming on their own without looking for a partner.

Diet
Back in the olden days, coyotes used to live only off of meat of whatever they could hunt or scavenge. As time went on, though, like many species, they adapted to having an omnivorous diet, though they still have a preference for meat.

History
Many years ago, coyotes lived in small groups together on the Pastures. They lived in these loosely knit "tribes", as they called them. In these days it was common for coyotes to adorn themselves in the bones of the prey they killed. The tribes were usually led by the oldest member of the group. However, as time went on, more and more coyotes chose the solitary lifestyle in very small groups of usually only three individuals, and the old customs slowly vanished. The tripes split up in these smaller groups. More and more coyotes became wanderers who chose the (nearly) solitary lifestyle. At first, there were some fight amongst clashing groups, but throughout the time they learned to avoid one another.

As eons passed and other species chose to associate with one another and start settlements together, coyotes still held back. However, this shift in lifestyle eventually affected them, too, and nowadays it has become neigh impossible to avoid living in a village. Still, some coyotes travel alone, and even the ones that do live in settlements, tend to stick together in their own neighborhood.

General
In general, coyotes are close to resembling wolves. They're fluffy creatures on four legs with pointy muzzles and ears and brushy tails. The difference, however, is that coyotes are smaller, and have relatively bigger ears and tails, and finer muzzles with smaller noses.

Fur colors
What makes coyotes stand out is that their fur, no matter what pattern it has, tends to have one dominant color, which is always gray or white. They can have other colors too, such as brown, reddish or black, for smaller markings, but the most major color will always be gray or white. Coyotes with these colors are also the most common. A marking type that also very often returns is that they mostly have a white muzzle with smaller, detailed markings. Pure white coyotes are not unheard of, but rare. Albinism or melanism don't occur in this specie.

Eye color
Unlike many other species, that can have multiple eye colors, coyotes can simply have one: silverish gray. Some are paler than others, but the core color of them remains the same.

Significant coyotes

 * Squamosal

Trivia

 * It is tradition that all coyotes are named after natural objects or animals.