Coyote: Gorgeous, Spectral Presence

Literary Source

Coyote

Roxana Robinson

Coyotes are extraordinarily adaptable, which is what makes them so successful as a species: they can live pretty much anywhere, and on anything. In central Los Angeles, my sister-in-law can't let her cats out at night.

Coyotes would rather hunt small prey, but they'll kill fawns, or old animals, weakened or injured ones. They're usually solitary, but if necessary they hunt as a pack.

We haven't had coyotes here, or wolves, for a hundred years, and now, for better or worse-not that nature cares-we have them back, these gorgeous, spectral presences. I like to think of that coyote, trotting easily down the bare wood land slope in her new territory, confident, resourceful, astonishing. 

Roxana Robinson
Coyote
Mississippi Review, Vol. 33, No. 3, Location/Dislocation (Fall, 2005), pp. 189-196
Published by: University of Southern MississippiArticle Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20132544

Scientific Source

CITY SLICKERS: How to Be a Good Neighbor

Stewart, Doug

While these four-footed neighbors are bound to make some city dwellers nervous — coyotes are carnivorous, after all — Gehrt and other wildlife experts say there's no reason we should feel threatened. Most coyotes avoid contact with people so thoroughly that we're lucky if we see one at all; learning to be wary is part of a pup's upbringing. The key to coexisting is to not undo what coyotes have learned so well.

Most coyotes manage to operate unobserved, mainly due to their preference for the wee hours between midnight and dawn. They may visit your backyard regularly, but not while you're awake. Urbanites who do cross paths with coyotes can easily mistake them for unleashed dogs. With their large, upright ears and bushy tails, they look a bit like small German shepherds but with lighter frames and narrow, fox like muzzles. In the western United States, adults typically weigh between 20 and 30 pounds, though their heavy coats can make them appear larger. Eastern coyote average 10 pounds more; some reach 50 or 60 pounds. Their larger size may be due to crossbreeding with wolves sometime in the past.

A modern city might at first seem like marginal habitat for a coyote. Not so, says Paul Krausman, a University of Arizona wildlife biologist who is studying two groups of coyotes living in downtown Tucson. "Coyotes are one of the most adaptable species on the face of the Earth," he says. "In urban areas, they've got everything they need. There are no wolves or mountain lions, so they're at the top of the heap. People are throwing out garbage for them to eat, and they're watering their lawns, which attracts prey species. It's a perfect setup."

In dietary matters, coyotes are opportunists, which is one reason they're able to make themselves at home while surrounded by people, cars, buildings and asphalt. Strictly speaking, they're more omnivores than carnivores. Their diet consists of mammals like deer (fawns in spring, roadkill year-round), raccoons, rabbits, mice and, when the opportunity presents itself, cats and small dogs, but also birds, insects, berries and other fruit. An urban coyote's natural diet is often supplemented by anthropogenic food items like pet food and trash.

Stewart, Doug

CITY SLICKERS: How to Be a Good Neighbor

National Wildlife (World Edition), (2006). CITY SLICKERS. 44(6), 31-35

Printed Source

Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior

Edited by Marc Bekoff

For many tribes coyote is the most important of the Spirit People and Native Americans have sometimes called him "the Indian God." To be sure, he did not actually create the world, but he organized it in the way we know today; he ordained the way people should live. For many tribes it is coyote who brings fire to humankind, who gives them salmon and acorns, and who in fact invents death, not only for the ecological motive of preventing evolution, but also for a psychological motive- "so that people will be sorry for each other".

Observers of coyotes observe their round-the-clock activeness, which seems to include a strong element of playfulness. As one writer says, "Coyotes do have a sense of humor. How else would you explain, for instance, the well-known propensity of experienced coyotes to dig up traps, turn them over, and urinate or defecate on them?"

Among the most salient characteristics of the biological coyote is its opportunism and adaptability. Sheepmen and trappers are quoted as saying, "The coyote will be here long after we are all gone!" It is estimated that there are more coyotes within Los Angeles city limits than there were in aboriginal times; they thrive on garbage, and on people's perception of them as cute. As white people have populated the continent, the original range of Canis latrans, in the western United States, has expanded eastward; the animal is now found from Alaska to Central America, and from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

This aspect of the coyote turns up in Native American myths repeatedly; coyote "drowns", but immediately afterward he is seducing teenage girls. He "dies", but a few minutes later- like Wyle E. Coyote in the cartoons, he falls off the cliff or gets blown up with dynamite- Old Man Coyote is back, and he is planning the life of the world to come.

Edited by Marc Bekoff

Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior

Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut/London, 2004

Animals Myth and Lore: Animals of Native American Lore Pg. 23-26

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I have forever been fascinated by coyotes. I am fascinated by most creatures in the animal kingdom and suffer quite extensively from solastalgia. The literary source I chose, is a story about a woman who sees a coyote on her way somewhere. She feels an instant rapport and addresses the coyote as a female. She briefly touches on their solitary nature and their resourcefulness. For the scientific source, I chose an article about how coyotes live among us in the concrete jungles and most of us aren’t even aware. They can only do this by going about as inconspicuous as possible but are becoming ever more sinanthropes. For the printed source I wanted something that would shade coyotes as mythical creatures, as I’ve always thought of them.

I feel like human beings sometimes open themselves up too easily. I would like to focus on how coyotes have been able to adapt and thrive by hiding in plain sight. It was in Chicago I believe; that coyotes made a den among bushes in a preschool and were there for months without raising suspicion. I want to champion the introverts who howl their way into this world!