Could Wile E. Coyote Actually Chase the Roadrunner in Massachusetts?

The film Coyote vs. Acme has been a box office success, raking in over $82 million globally since its release on August 28. Not too shabby for a film Warner Bros. Discovery originally put on the shelf three years ago for a $30 million tax write-off.

In the movie, Wile E. Coyote hires a law firm to help him sue the Acme Corporation, which has made all of the gadgets and gizmos he’s been using for decades to (unsuccessfully) capture the Road Runner.

Anyone who has seen a Looney Tunes short over the years is quite familiar with Wile E.’s many injuries as a direct result of his use of Acme products, and of the desert setting in which he chases his potential bird dinner – complete with plenty of mesas to slam into, train tunnels that may or may not be painted on, and cliffs to fall thousands of feet from.

Is the desert just part of the storytelling? Could a coyote vs. roadrunner battle take place here in Massachusetts?

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The Harsh Reality of Animal Speeds

Well, first off, I have to drop a harsh reality on you: in real life, coyotes are much faster than road runners. An actual chase between them wouldn’t be much of a chase at all. It would go something like this: coyote sees roadrunner, coyote pounces on roadrunner, coyote eats road runner, cue “That’s All Folks!” ending card. It would be over faster than they could play the first few bars of “The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down” (or as you may know it, the Looney Tunes theme).

Coyotes in Massachusetts: No Cartoon Here

Here in Massachusetts, we do have coyotes. The Eastern coyote is seen all across the Bay State, with the exception of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. You’ve probably spotted one on an early-morning walk, or heard their howls at night. While Wile Ethelbert Coyote is a plains coyote, he’s not that much different than his Eastern cousins.

Siva Kumar Nimmadala

Can Roadrunners Survive in Massachusetts?

Roadrunners, on the other hand, do not live in Massachusetts. According to the National Audubon Society, roadrunners live in “deserts, open country with scattered brush” in the southern and southwestern portions of the country.

“Most common in Sonoran desert and in other kinds of brushy country, including chaparral and Texas brushlands, in areas with a mix of open ground and dense low cover,” according to the National Audubon Society. “At limits of range, found in dry grassland, forest edges, and limestone hills with scattered junipers.”

a bird standing on top of a dry grass field

Roadrunners would not adapt well to our wetter, colder climate. The only Roadrunner in these parts is the concert venue in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston.