Security Camera Captures Coyote Playing With Toys A Dog Left Out In The Yard

"I figured it would be a fox, not a lone coyote."

Damjan

• Published in Animal Stories
• April 30, 2022

Is taking someone else's toys a crime? Probably.

But what about if you take them just to play with them and return them after? The calm, rural house of Brian Chisholm and his dog, Sancho Panza, was rocked by a spree of thefts last week.

Sancho's dog toys, which he had left out on the yard night after night, were mysteriously disappearing - taken, it seemed, by some strange person with a love for puppies' toys. Sancho was irritated. Chisholm, on the other hand, discovered that someone else was very happy.

Namely, Chisholm and Sancho had had enough after the third night of thievery and they went out onto their property together in search of the lost toys. And sure enough, they discovered them strewn about in a nearby field.

That puzzle had been solved. But there was still one question: who was stealing the toys? Was it just to annoy them or did someone actually play with them?

So many questions. Chisholm devised a strategy to find out.

He set up a camera in the yard and stacked the toys in front of it, and the thief returned the next night, only to be caught on camera. Well, who was it?

Well, the butler didn't do it, that's for sure.

This is Sancho. And someone has been using his toys at night and leaving them scattered all over the neighboring properties.

Sancho's toys had evidently been discovered by a coyote, who decided to have some fun with them night after night. Chisholm now had proof — and he was taken aback when he saw the perpetrator.

"I figured it would be a fox, not a lone coyote," Chisholm says. "Even more surprising was his playfulness."

The camera has captured one happy coyote:

Sancho may not have been delighted to share his toys with a coyote, but there was no real harm done in the end. And he won't have to share them indefinitely.

"We go out in the morning and pick the toys up," Chisholm said, adding: "The coyote has not been here for the past couple of nights."

The coyote couldn't be happier with his newly-found playground

Do wild animals play? If you’ve seen a wild animal playing, you probably saw a mammal, because 80% of mammals play.

Some smart birds play, too, such as ravens, which will pick up and play with almost any object, from sticks to keys to bottle caps. Science News says even crocodiles show evidence of some play behavior.

But what precisely is play, and why is it important?

Animal play is defined by the science of animal behavior, ethology, as a voluntary action conducted for pleasure and satisfaction that does not directly promote survival. Play differs from every other activity in that it requires creativity.

Play frequently entails manipulating an object to see what it will do or attempting new body positions to push the animal's own boundaries.

We have to admit, this coyote sure did push some boundaries. Leaving toys scattered all over the place after using them?

No manners...

Damjan