Coyote loping

How does an animal walk on four legs? There isn’t a single way to do it. Rather animals employ a variety of different gaits. Many sources discuss the gaits of horses (e.g., Wikipedia): walk, trot, canter, gallop. Fewer sources take an interest in other quadrupeds. Do all quadrupeds walk in the same way (one leg moves at a time)? Probably, but I don’t know. Do they all have the same range of gaits? No, horses do not stot; mule deer do. Do bears and deer have the same types of gaits? Again, I don’t know. Maybe my readers can help me with this.

In the past, I have only seen coyotes standing or walking, but coyotes also have a variety of gaits depending on how quickly they wish to move. A site that illustrates and discusses these gaits is Coyote Yipps created by a person with far more access to this interesting animal than I have. Using Coyote Yipps as a source, I discovered that I have just seen a coyote lope. Loping is merely a western term for the canter, but as the range of the coyote is confined to North America, loping it is.

A coyote in a snow field pauses and looks around.

It then walks away. Notice that three legs are down and one is up. In walking, the coyote moves its legs one at a time. This is the usual way I have seen a coyote move.

The coyote breaks into a loping run. It is the first time I have seen this coyote gait.