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EE_
22nd October 2012, 11:39 AM
Coyotes: Let's Appreciate America's Song Dog
Coyotes, God's Dog, are amazing animals and very misunderstood and maligned
Published on October 20, 2012 by Marc Bekoff, Ph.D. in Animal Emotions

Coyote, America’s song dog, is an amazing and magnificent animal who is very misunderstood, historically maligned, and tragically and reprehensibly persecuted. Coyotes are intelligent, playful, affectionate, and devoted caregivers. Native Americans appreciated them as cunning tricksters. They are among the most adaptable animals on Earth and are critical to the integrity of many diverse ecosystems. I know coyotes well having studied them for decades.

North America is home to a very special wild dog—the coyote. Highly respected by Native Americans, coyotes have held a special place in our history. The Navajo’s sheep and goat herders greatly revered coyotes, and referred to them as “God’s dog.” It wasn’t until sheep ranchers began running large herds of unprotected sheep that coyotes began to be viewed in an unfavorable light. I’ve written about these amazing mammals in earlier essays (see also and) and this short piece is an update on what we’re learning about them. It’s essential to revisit just who coyotes are because they (and other predators also called pests) are killed in huge numbers because of incredibly false claims (detailed data about what coyotes and other predators actually do can be found here) that they wreak havoc on livestock and kill pets. Indeed, "Less than a quarter of one percent, 0.23%, of the American cattle inventory was lost to native carnivores and dogs in 2010, according to a Department of Agriculture report." And, "Four percent (4%) of the U.S. total sheep inventory are killed each year by carnivores such as coyotes and dogs according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) ..."

Yes, coyotes rarely attack livestock and dogs and cats but, in fact, dog fights and dog attacks and bites directed toward humans are incredibly more common. In October 2009 two coyotes tragically killed Canadian singer Taylor Mitchell. This was only the second fatal attack on a human by coyotes and the first on an adult. The facts about the attack remain unknown so it is simply irresponsibly misleading to conclude that the coyotes were motivated to kill and eat her as was claimed in the sensationalist National Geographical documentary called "Killed By Coyotes". There is no doubt that coyotes have the opportunity to do significantly more harm than they do but choose not to do so. They have a healthy respect for people and actually avoid us almost all of the time.
Coyotes are native only to the western two-thirds of the continent, although today they can be found from Alaska’s arctic regions to as far south as Costa Rica. Their extreme adaptability has enabled them to fill the void left open by the elimination of other larger predators such as grizzly bears, wolves, and mountain lions. Coyotes also thrive in urban and suburban environments. While their natural prey is primarily rodents and carrion, their omnivorous diet allows them to survive in diverse habitats. Because of what we know about their incredible ability to live just about anywhere and the flexibility they show in social organization, it's misleading to talk about "the coyote."

Coyotes can live on their own, as a mated pair, or as part of a pack with a social structure similar to that of wolves. Packs typically consist of a dominant male and female (often called the "alpha pair"), and extended family members. Typically, only the alpha pair breeds and produces one litter a year. They breed from January through early March, and the gestation period is 63 days. Litter size varies from 4 to 9 pups, with an average of two pups surviving the first year in unexploited populations. Unless they become habituated to humans, coyotes are generally shy and wary of people.

Although coyotes can live into their teens, the average life span in the wild is around five years of age, and a lot shorter when targeted for elimination. Causes of death include predation, disease, weather, hunting, trapping, poison, automobiles, and rampant and wanton predator control by local, state, and federal agencies.

The paradoxical effects of coyote control

Counter-intuitively, programs aimed at reducing coyotes such as lethal control programs and sport trapping and hunting actually cause coyote numbers to increase. Coyotes respond to indiscriminate control programs with a number of complex biological mechanisms that work very efficiently to boost their numbers. For example, when the alpha pair is killed, subordinate pack members can breed and produce larger litters of bigger pups with higher survival rates. In order to feed more robust litters, coyotes may change their hunting habits to include unnatural and larger prey, such as livestock. Thus increased persecution leads to bigger populations and increased predation, a response that is just the opposite of what the control is designed to accomplish.

The importance of coyotes in ecological balance

Like other top predators, coyotes play a critical role in keeping natural areas healthy. In fact, coyotes are considered to be a keystone species, meaning that their presence or absence has a significant impact on the surrounding biological community. For instance, because coyotes reduce the number of nest predators and jackrabbits, sage grouse benefits include higher chick survival and less competition for food.

By exerting a top-down regulation of other species, coyotes maintain the balance in the food web below and around them. When coyotes are absent or even just greatly reduced in a natural area, the relationships between species below them in the web are altered, putting many small species at risk.

It's clear and inarguable that we should respect coyotes for whom they are and appreciate that they still bless our lives. Hysterical over-reactions that result in the killing of more than 80,000 coyotes a year by Wildlife Services is thoroughly unjustified and indeed, Wildlife Services has been widely criticized for their wanton murderous ways. According to WildEarth Guardians, "Between 2004 and 2011, Wildlife Services killed over 26 million animals purportedly to 'protect' agribusiness or 'bolster' hunting opportunities – a contention based on unsupported myths. The agency spends over $100 million each year on wildlife-killing actions."

mamboni
22nd October 2012, 12:11 PM
We must condemn anti-coyoteism in all it's forms! Just because coyotes will kill and eat the occasional human does not indicate that they are evil or dangerous! And we must never forget the Coyote Holocaust at the hands of the craven Wildlife Services!

Can't we just get along?

hoarder
22nd October 2012, 02:02 PM
They can fool city people about coyotes and wolves. Personally I will show my appreciation for them by drilling a hole in their lungs. That usually stops the howling.

Glass
22nd October 2012, 09:57 PM
No agenda bias here


Causes of death include predation, disease, weather, hunting, trapping, poison, automobiles, and rampant and wanton predator control by local, state, and federal agencies.


killed in huge numbers because of incredibly false claims (detailed data about what coyotes and other predators actually do can be found here) that they wreak havoc on livestock and kill pets. Indeed, "Less than a quarter of one percent, 0.23%, of the American cattle inventory was lost to native carnivores and dogs in 2010, according to a Department of Agriculture report." And, "Four percent (4%) of the U.S. total sheep inventory are killed each year by carnivores such as coyotes and dogs according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) ..."

So the claim is that virtually no farmed animals are eaten by coyote because it's only 4% of sheep that get killed. Hard to determine but there is perhaps 7 million sheep in the US or thereabouts. 2003 is the last figure I could find (http://www.sheep101.info/farm.html).

4% of 7 mil = 280,000 sheep killed each year buy predators.

At the start of 2012 there were 90.8 million head (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203363504577187362571112198.html) of cattle.

0.23% of 90.8 mil = 208, 840 cattle killed by predators.

As a percentage it doesn't sound like much but in whole numbers it's a different picture altogether.

And since when have there been Doctors in Animal Emotions? I mean really WTF?

Heimdhal
23rd October 2012, 05:55 PM
Yeah, and there isnt a hog problem in the US either, its just feral bacon thats misunderstood.......

LuckyStrike
23rd October 2012, 08:18 PM
They can fool city people about coyotes and wolves. Personally I will show my appreciation for them by drilling a hole in their lungs. That usually stops the howling.

When I was a kid we found coyotes eating my horses foal, we don't know if it was stillborn or what but regardless I've hated them to this day.

And yeah coyotes are a livestock problem, the fact that the government allows open season on them proves that, the government doesn't like you to kill any animal.

hoarder
24th October 2012, 04:41 AM
Jews like the author of the OP have been working dilligently for a couple decades to propagandize predators. It has proved a most effective tool in eliminating the practice of hunting.
When hunting is eliminated it will be much easier to implement gun control.

osoab
24th October 2012, 04:51 AM
I loathe coyote hunters more than coyotes. Growing up, they would just march onto anyone's land to hunt. Permission be damned.

Tumbleweed
24th November 2012, 03:16 AM
If you make your living raising livestock it's a big deal when coyotes are killing them. I don't have a problem with having a few coyotes around but they do kill a lot of wildlife and livestock when they get to numerous. They killed a couple of baby calves of mine last spring. When K os was here visiting I had some calves getting pneamonia. They were unable to fight off or get away from the coyotes and I'd find them dead and half eaten less than twenty four hrs. after treating them with anti biotics. I had a calf another time who was recovering but was caught out alone. I found that one about twelve hrs after I'd last seen him half eaten and his blood and guts scattered all around.

If the coyote defenders would put their money where their mouth is and buy the livestock to feed the coyotes from livestock producers we could have lots of coyotes and wouldn't have to kill them. That's not going to happen though because the coyote defenders want something for nothing.

osoab
24th November 2012, 03:36 AM
If the coyote defenders would put their money where their mouth is and buy the livestock to feed the coyotes from livestock producers we could have lots of coyotes and wouldn't have to kill them. That's not going to happen though because the coyote defenders want something for nothing.

Where I grew up there is no free range livestock. All the animals all penned. Even large timber pastures are fenced.

We don't have the open range livestock you raise in this area. Our hunters and coyote population is night and day in difference.

monty
2nd December 2020, 01:30 PM
There aren't many coyotes visible in this picture on an old calendar given to me by my father about 60 years ago.
O.M Franklin Serum Company based in Denver Colorado supplied the nations ranchers with veterinary products.

The reason Dad gave me this is because the old cowboy looked very much like a local rancher, Jim Daniels, even the white horse looks like the horse he rode. All that is missing is an Austrailian Shepherd dog he calle Patches.

I was looking online for a copy of this Raphael Lillywhite painting but struck out. I did find some of his paintings that had sold at auction varying from $1000 to $20,000.

https://i.postimg.cc/Gp5CVsLG/IMG-20200614-162543.jpg

osoab
2nd December 2020, 02:42 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fWVG_RKQ_o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fWVG_RKQ_o

Tumbleweed
15th December 2020, 06:12 PM
"Coyotes"

Don Edwards


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGGEfl8GzK8