West Virginia’s coyote record is the thinnest in this corner of the atlas, 212 records across 40 counties, but it still runs the length of the state, from the Monongahela National Forest highlands of Randolph, Preston, and Tucker counties down to Pipestem Resort State Park and New River Gorge National Park and Preserve.
A late arrival that took to the hills
The coyote reached West Virginia late in its 20th century push east, arriving well after the state’s wolves were gone, and like other eastern animals it carries wolf ancestry that shows in its size and its willingness to take deer. Steep, heavily timbered country is not classic coyote ground, yet the species has made it work by using the openings the mountains offer: the high balds of Dolly Sods Wilderness, pasture in the eastern panhandle near Harpers Ferry, and the wildlife management areas, Cheat, Little River, and Blackwater, that break up the forest.
Heard uphill, seen rarely
Reports scatter through the year, with modest crests in January and February, the breeding season, and lifts in May, when pairs are feeding new pups, and September, when the year’s young begin to travel. In a state where most land lies under canopy, a coyote’s voice carrying up a hollow at night is far and away the commonest encounter. Even lifelong residents of coyote country can go years between actual sightings.
Status in West Virginia
NatureServe ranks the coyote S5, Secure, in West Virginia, and state listings treat it as established and native to its current range despite its arrival within living memory.
Full species profile
