Join the Pack – Earth Adventures

Walk from the parking lot across the field past a concrete shed with a red roof. After the shed, follow the line between the field and the woods on the right for about 50 m and enter the woods on a wide trail. Go about 15 m in the trail and circle up at a trail junction.

The coyotes of Canning need your help! The seven pups were playing in the woods near here and one of them got lost. Can you find the lost pup? The parents have to care for the others and can’t take time to search. Will you help them?

First, you need some coyote skills to know where to look and how to search. The best way to learn is to turn into coyotes. Here’s how:
• Crouch down on your back legs in a circle facing in. Curl your arms in front of your chest to become the coyote’s front paws.
• Close your eyes and repeat these words together, followed by a big coyote howl:

With coyote legs I want to prowl.
With coyote eyes I’ll see.
With a coyote voice I’ll give a howl.
A clever coyote I’ll be.
Ow… Ow… Owwwwwwwww!

• Open your eyes, jump up, and hop around making yip, yip yip sounds. Every time you see someone hop, jump even higher while yipping!

You’re now coyote pups! Remember to howl and yip. This might help the lost pup find you.

How Did Coyotes Get Here?

Coyotes are not native to Nova Scotia and were not regularly sighted here until the 1970s, though there may have been a few earlier on. They slowly started to expand their range eastward from the west in the late 1800s as a result of land clearing and development. The first coyotes in the Maritimes travelled from Ontario, Quebec, and New England. They found suitable habitat with few carnivores here to compete with as the result of people killing the wolves.