I've been reading The Daily Coyote: A Story of Love, Survival, and Trust in the Wilds of Wyoming by Shreve Stockton about her adventures raising a coyote pup. I've had a fascination with coyotes since the summer after we purchased our house. That's when we first heard them in the woods out back and down near the creek across the road. They have a wide range so it's sometimes several weeks before they come back around but they're fairly regular visitors. They really do howl and it's the eeriest sound you've ever heard.While we hear them all the time, seeing them is a much rarer thing. Last summer around dusk two of them ran across the road in front of my car but it happened so fast that I could almost convince myself that it didn't happen at all. I'd given up hope of ever seeing one up close and personal. Last weekend it finally happened.
I was driving to the grocery store that's about 4 miles from my house and there was a truck stopped in the opposite lane. I stopped, too, because that usually means a deer is going to run across. Believe me, you don't want to hit one if you can help it—they can total your car. The guy in the truck pointed over to the field and there was a coyote standing there. He must have just crossed the road, and was walking across the field. There was no one on the road behind me so I sat and watched him for a few minutes. He stopped, looked back at me, then walked along the creek at the back of the field. Gorgeous golden fur and a bushy tail and, even though they're in the canine family, you'd never mistake it for a dog.
Anyway, the book is pretty interesting and the author is a photographer so lots of cool photos. The cover shown here is courtesy of Amazon.com where you can purchase the book if you'd like.
Coyote hunts are a popular sport where I live. I'm not sure how I feel about that because they're beautiful animals and they were here long before we were. I do understand that the population can easily get out of control and hunting helps to keep their numbers manageable. I was happy to hear that hunters are cooperating with local researchers who are studying the coyote population and physiology. At least some good comes from it.
I still hope to see coyotes on our property but I'll take what I can get.
2 comments:
We too in Cincinnati have coyote. You'd think it's too built up, but they've come in from Ind. and Pa. During Spring we hear packs of them singing..they mix with large gray foxes we have and stray dogs too. If they're outside out Shadow,our Norwegian Elkhound,
wants to come right back inside. He likes no part of them.
He is from Wayne and Marla Mast in Maryland and there they have a problem with the coyote being to smart for comfort. As the story goes..the coyote pack will use a female to entice a male out to her and then the rest of the pack kill him. Then they incorporate any female that may be with him. Wayne didn't really put too much stock in the story. They had a male and 4 or 5 female Elkhounds that ran on
the dairy farm. One day he noticed
a coyote near a back field fence pacing making strange noises. His male and females were getting agitated, but not moving. Wayne noticed behind the fence at the edge of the woods a whole lot of other coyotes just watching. Well, He quickly shot his gun in the air and they took off without incident, but now he watches the area closer and they haven't seen any thing since. Coyote are beautiful, but they're not dogs or wolves. They'll play and kill something just for fun, but I'm with you. Not sure if culling is right. If people use common sense we can all live along side nature.
Wow! I've never seen one, but we hear them all the time in our area too. They are not indigenous
to this part of Georgia--I'm told they were brought here for the foxhunters. Obviously some the coyotes must have managed to escape and are thriving.
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