I've been told that grooming is hierarchical in coyote
families. Not so! Here you have two buddies of equal
stature taking turns in grooming and taking off ticks.
I've seen mothers groom yearlings, I've seen mothers
groom mates, I've seen males groom youngsters and
mates, and I've seen youngsters groom each others
and their parents. So it's not about hierarchy. It's
about caring for one another, removing unhealthy
ticks and about closeness.
I had been watching them groom for several minutes
before I decided to videotape them. You can see
from the length of the video that this isn't a
perfunctory groom for the purpose of confirming
rank. These guys are really taking care of each
other. Ticks are bad this year.
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