When I normally hear coyotes, one does the plaintive howl at the moon type thing and one or two others often sound off from nearby places. This time they were definitely together in a pack and sounded to me to be much more excited than what I assume is a normal, 'hey, any of you fellers out there tonight?'
That night they were quite close. Maybe 75 yards.
As a general rule the first howl (family group very territorial) will be the breeding male (pairs breed for life but will take another mate if one is lost) the answering call will be the breeding female and the commotion afterwards is the pups or rest of the group in a yip fest. We will call this group the "Smiths". In the distance you may hear another group vocalizing the same way, these will be the "Jones's" letting the Smiths know they are in their own territory. If the "Smiths" ain't home the Jones's may hunt over in their direction. This is only one common vocalization that just about everyone has heard. A short howl followed by a shrp bark is a challenge and as Barry stated just a common bark at you deal means "you've been made". Interesting stuff yodel dogs....
