Available evidence indicates that effective coyote attractants are blends o
f volatile substances. Typically, attractants are a combination of biologic
al substances such as fermented glandular materials, urines, and rotted mea
ts. Although effective, these attractants have several distinct disadvantag
es. Among these is the possibility that they are unnecessarily complex sind
variable and, thus, difficult to replicate from one batch to the next. Alt
hough attractants containing a few reagent grade materials are available, t
he chemicals selected and their concentrations are not derived from actual
attractants. For this reason, commercially available coyote attractants wer
e analyzed with the intention of developing relatively simple synthetic alt
ernatives. Purge and trap headspace analysis with gas chromatography/mass s
elective detection was employed to identify the volatile components of know
n conventional and synthetic attractants. All identified compounds were gro
uped according to chemical functionality, and one compound from each functi
onal group was chosen to represent the group. Using only these representati
ve compounds, seven synthetic attractants mere formulated. Bioassays with c
aptive coyotes (Canis latrans) were conducted to compare behavioral respons
es elicited by the seven new attractants, a currently available synthetic a
ttractant, and a control. The results indicated that the attractants elicit
ed significantly different behavioral profiles.