Tennessee’s 1,304 coyote records run the full length of the state, from Blount and Sevier counties at the edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, across Morgan County’s Cumberland Plateau woods, to the farm country of Gibson County near the Mississippi bottoms.
A newcomer that took to the whole state
Coyotes were not part of Tennessee’s original fauna. They spread east during the 1900s and reached the state in the second half of that century, filling in as the red wolf vanished, and they now live in mountain cove hardwood, plateau forest, and field edge alike, hunting rodents and rabbits, taking fawns in season, and scavenging what winter leaves behind. The heavy tally at Great Smoky Mountains National Park shows that even the state’s wildest ground is part of the range.
Strongest in late winter
Counts crest in January and February, the breeding season, when pairs are most vocal and travel most widely, then ease through midsummer while the pups grow. A smaller rise in November matches the season when young animals disperse to find ground of their own. Despite the numbers, most Tennesseans never see one; the species moves mostly after dark, and its howling is the usual sign of residency.
Status in Tennessee
NatureServe ranks the coyote S5, Secure, in Tennessee, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous in the state.
Full species profile
