Coyote vs Roadrunner: Desert Dash

The ongoing feud between the predatory Coyote and the swift and sneaky Roadrunner will be a familiar one to anyone who grew up on the 1950’s Looney Tunes cartoon series featuring the two arch nemeses.

But what is the relationship between these two desert wanderers in real life?  Do roadrunners really say “beep beep” all the time?  Do coyotes really harbor large arsenals of TNT to blow the roadrunners into oblivion?

Well wonder no more!  We’re here to answer all your questions about this ancient rivalry.

Who is faster, the roadrunner or the coyote?

Although the animated roadrunner was always able to outrun the coyote, real roadrunners max out at running speeds of around 20 mph.  This is still quite an impressive speed, and clocks in at the fastest known speed for a bird of flight!  Unfortunately for the roadrunner, a coyote can run twice as fast, maxing out at over 40 mph.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the roadrunner always gets caught by a hungry coyote.  Roadrunners have their own set of skills that they can use to their advantage, including running in erratic zig-zagging paths, and of course flying away!  Since the coyote has yet to perfect its flight suit, this is still a very effective way of escape.

Is the coyote really fixated on catching that pesky roadrunner?

A coyote certainly wouldn’t pass up a nice juicy roadrunner, but they are certainly not picky about what they eat.

A coyote will eat anything from small rodents to young deer, to birds (sorry roadrunner!), eggs, plants and even human garbage!

Is the coyote always the bad guy?

In the battle of a coyote and a roadrunner, the coyote is certainly always the predator, and the roadrunner its prey.

But the roadrunner is no angel itself.  Certainly no vegetarian, the roadrunner snacks on insects, birds, lizards, snakes, gophers, mice, and even hummingbirds!

Where are these guys always running to?

Coyotes can live in a very wide variety of habitats, and have been found all over the Americas from Canada to the US to Mexico to parts of Central America.

Roadrunners have a smaller habitat, roaming from California to southwestern Missouri, to northern Mexico.

So we can infer that the roadrunner and coyote are meeting up somewhere in the southwest.  Perhaps in New Mexico, where the roadrunner is the state bird!

 

So who will prevail?  The hearty coyote, or the zig-zagging roadrunner?  Let’s find out!  The competition begins 9/21/17 at 11 am ET and runs for 24 hours.  We’ll see you there!

The usual bonuses
Earn 5,000 points – 2,500 bonus
Earn 15,000 points – 5,000 bonus
Earn 25,000 points – 10,000 bonus
For every 25,000 points above 25,000 – 5,000 bonus
Member of winning team (if you’ve scored at least 2,500 points) – 10,000 bonus
Highest scorer on each team – 5,000 bonus
Player with #1 overall score – 10,000 bonus
Player with #2 overall score – 5,000 bonus
Player with #3 overall score – 2,500 bonus

Artwork by Rabbit Giraud