A chorus of weird sounds heard in the dark in Northern Virginia’s Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge has been linked to a predator that has expanded its range into Virginia.
Video shared by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows the cacophony at 2:23 a.m. came from a group of coyotes boldly standing in the middle of the road.
“Turn your volume down, or don’t. Either way, you’re about to experience the eerie, high-decibel coyote night shift at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge,” the service wrote in a March 25 Facebook post.
“This trail camera footage captured three coyotes in the middle of the night, absolutely letting it rip. ... Coyotes are highly social and communicate using a complex mix of yips, howls, and barks. The result? The unmistakable, spine-tingling coyote chorus you hear at night.”
The howls serve a variety of purposes, including locating other coyotes, warning each other of threats, defending turf and “pure drama ... because sometimes, you just need to scream into the void,” the USFWS says.
“When they hear police/fire sirens close to the refuge, you can hear them howling at them!” the USFWS added.
The trail camera video was recorded in mid-January, and it was 15 degrees at the time.
Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge — about a 25-mile drive southwest from Washington D.C. — covers 642 acres of “diverse upland and wetland habitats,” the USFWS says.
Coyotes are relatively new to the refuge. The species was once “restricted to the prairies and desert areas of Mexico and central North America,” according to the Urban Coyote Research Project. But the adaptable predators have “dramatically expanded their range across North America,” the project says.
“Coyotes are proficient hunters ... and they can reach speeds of up to 64 kilometers per hour (40 miles per hour),” the International Fund for Animal Welfare says. “In open spaces, they rely on sight, but where prey may be hiding in a forest or thick vegetation, they will use their keen senses of smell and hearing.”
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April 29, 2024 5:41 AM
This story was originally published March 26, 2025 at 7:27 AM.