Quoted By:
>Behaviors recorded included courtship (nonantagonistic play-wrestling or play-chases; allogrooming face, ears, or back; body-bumps; hip-pushes; or sleeping curled against each other); olfactory sampling (sniff or lick of the female's anogenital region by the male, solicitation by females with diverted tail, and sniff or lick of the male's inguinal area by the female); overt sexual activity (attempted mount usually preceded by the male standing perpendicular to the female with his head or bent foreleg on her shoulders or back, male mounting the female, and copulatory tie or lock); and mate guarding (male shadowing the female around the pen, or when in view of neighbors the male would stand on the female with stiff forelegs on her back, or stand over her as she lay on the ground).
>Observers avoided redundant documentation by recording a mating behavior only once even if a pair of coyotes continued the behavior for an extended period of time (e.g., playing might last 15 min and through several scanning passes). Exceptions were any behavior that was terminated then reinitiated (e.g., precopulatory mounts).
[...]
>Copulatory ties generally lasted 5–45 min, with ties occurring early in estrus lasting longer than those observed later toward the end. The earliest a copulatory tie was observed during this study was on day –9, and the latest on day 15; however, 98.4% (179/182) of all ties occurred between day –8 and day 10. At the individual level, behavioral estrus lasted (mean ± SD) 7.6 ± 6.0 days, with 59.4% (19/32) of pairs of coyotes beginning estrus before ovulation (day −2.2 ± 3.9 days).
>During preovulatory estrus, physical contact such as body-bumps and hip-pushes continued to rise. Mate guarding postures such as a stand-over within view of neighbors and shadowing became more frequent. Olfactory sampling (male and female) increased almost 3-fold; specifically, vaginal sniff or lick by males doubled on day −6 from the previous day, continued to increase, then peaked on the estimated day of ovulation.
