South Carolina’s 257 coyote records tell one of the more recent colonization stories in the atlas. Coyotes were unknown in the state until the late 1900s, and their records now run from the Blue Ridge foothills of Greenville and Pickens counties through the Sandhills to the marshes of Charleston and Georgetown.
An omnivore that fits every cover type
Rodents, rabbits, insects, fruit, and carrion make up the diet, and that breadth is why the newcomer took hold from mountain cove to coastal marsh. Sumter National Forest and Fant’s Grove Wildlife Management Area anchor the upstate record, while Huntington Beach State Park and Francis Marion National Forest show the species equally at home along the coast.
Winter and fall highs
Counts crest in January, the breeding season, and again in October, when the year’s young animals leave their family groups and wander. Midyear runs quietest, while pairs raise pups in thick cover. For a species now recorded in 40 of the state’s 46 counties, it stays remarkably hard to lay eyes on; most South Carolinians know the local coyotes only by the night chorus.
Status in South Carolina
NatureServe ranks the coyote S5, Secure, in South Carolina, and despite its recent arrival USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous in the state.
Full species profile
