{"id":483546,"date":"2026-02-22T08:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T08:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483546\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T08:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T08:52:15","slug":"yellowstones-beloved-coyote-trickster-limpy-is-starting-to-show-his-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/483546\/","title":{"rendered":"Yellowstone\u2019s Beloved Coyote Trickster Limpy Is Starting To Show His Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Yellowstone National Park\u2019s favorite critters, Limpy the Coyote, might be slowing with age, but he hasn\u2019t stopped his game of trying to grift tourists out of snacks.<\/p>\n

Limpy, also called Tripod or Chester, likes to hang out near roadsides. He has an authentic limp from an old injury. But he\u2019s mastered greatly exaggerating his injury and making sad faces, in hopes that unsuspecting tourists feed him.<\/p>\n

To be clear, feeding wildlife in Yellowstone is strictly forbidden.<\/p>\n

And wildlife photographers who follow Limpy say he\u2019s more than capable of getting food the natural way, such as hunting small rodents or scavenging big game carcasses.<\/p>\n

Aging Trickster<\/p>\n

Limpy\u2019s estimated to be roughly 8 to 9 years old. That\u2019s quite an advanced age for a coyote, many of his species don\u2019t make it past age 5 or so.<\/p>\n

Observers say Limpy is starting to show his age. However, he could still have several years left in him.<\/p>\n

Coyote expert Robert Crabtree previously told Cowboy State Daily that, under the right circumstances, coyotes in the wild can live about\u00a0as long as domestic dogs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Crabtree, the founder, chief scientist and president of the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center, noted that once while doing research, he captured a coyote that was \u201c16.5 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThoughThough he\u2019s aging, Limpy delights visitors to Yellowstone National Park. (Courtesy Jennifer Banks Stapchuk)Might Have Beaten Mange<\/p>\n

Wildlife photographer Isabella Smedley has observed\u00a0the\u00a0crafty coyote up to all sorts of shenanigans, such as teaching other coyotes\u00a0how to beg.<\/a><\/p>\n

She told Cowboy State Daily that Limpy, who she calls Tripod, still seems tenacious.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw Tripod about a month ago. He definitely looks older, but still walking his territory, which has expanded,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

He might have won a bout with mange, a disease that kills many wild canines, Smedley said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s admirable, though she wishes he would give up his grifting ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cApparently, he was ill with possibly\u00a0mange. About three months ago, he lost his\u00a0territory, according to someone who knows him very well. To me his fur looked normal\u00a0and, unfortunately, he is still walking\u00a0the roads for handouts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Bright And Aware\u2019<\/p>\n

Limpy still has plenty of life in his eyes, wildlife photographer Deby Dixon told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n

She noted that he had bounced back nicely from the apparent mange.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main thing is that he has recovered from whatever was ailing him a couple of months ago and his eyes, while old, are bright and aware,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s up to his old tricks,\u201d traveling many miles, often\u00a0close\u00a0to roads, she noted.<\/p>\n

\"Limpy,Limpy, aka Tripod, is an aging trickster coyote who lives in Yellowstone National Park. (Courtesy Isabella Smedley)\u2018An Awesome Little Guy\u2019<\/p>\n

She recently watched Limpy pull a fast one on another male coyote, for an opportunity to mate with a female.<\/p>\n

Initially, it looked as if the other male had run Limpy off. But then Dixon saw the other male \u201ccrouching and advancing slowly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly, here comes Limpy, trotting down the hill and walks right up to the guy and just stands there, tail tucked and waiting.\u00a0 I thought sure I would see Limpy\u2019s demise, but the other coyote just walked back and forth past Limpy a couple of times and then left,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLimpy was sly – he waited and watched for a while,\u201d and then took off in the direction the female had gone, Dixon added.<\/p>\n

She said she\u2019s amazed that Limpy has lasted as long as he has, with so many other coyotes and wolves around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wonder if he may be related to the other coyotes and they are giving him a pass,\u00a0probably\u00a0due to his bum leg,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She added that she had never\u00a0seen\u00a0an injured coyote last so long.<\/p>\n

For as long as he\u2019s around, Limpy will continue to win fans.<\/p>\n

Oregon resident Jennifer Banks Stapchuk recently visited Yellowstone and told Cowboy State Daily that she was quite taken with Limpy.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s such an awesome little guy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Yellowstone National Park\u2019s favorite critters, Limpy the Coyote, might be slowing with age, but he hasn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-483546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}