Coyote Tales

Astute, versatile, shrewd, mischievous, fleet-footed, cunning and droll coyotes have resourcefully outwitted humans, their only natural predators, for centuries.

to the hills, probably to laugh at their own tomfoolery. Coyotes have used their wits and versatility to deflect predator control efforts by government agencies since 1825, when Missouri offered the first bounty. In 1915, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service initiated an official 30-year campaign in the West to kill more than 3 million coyotes. Yet during that time, the animals increased both in their numbers and their range, haunting urban fencelines and claiming wild country once occupied by the less-adaptable Mexican gray wolf.

Astute, versatile, shrewd, mischievous, fleet-footed, cunning and droll-coyotes have resourcefully outwitted humans, their only natural predators, for centuries.

Coyote's English name comes from the animal's Aztec name-coyotl. European settlers traveling to the West called the coyote by many names-cased wolf, prairie wolf, medicine dog and phantom wolf. The animal figures prominently in many Indian legends as a creator, trickster and dupe known as "Brother Coyote" or "Old Man Coyote." Some of the other names given the coyote include "First Scolder," "First Warrior" and "Fine Young Chief Howling in the Dawn Beyond the East." Scientists dubbed this wild member of the canine family Canis latrans, which translates as "barking dog." But anyone who has ever heard a pack scolding the stars on a clear night knows the coyote's mournful dirge hardly sounds like a domestic dog. A coyote song reaches deep into the universe, a haunting, unearthly and derisive melody that seems part terrified child, part gleeful demon.

Once known primarily for prowling the plains and plateaus of the western United States and Mexico, coyotes expanded their range with European settlement, even following prospectors' pack trains to Alaska during the Klondike gold rush of 1898. Now coyotes range up to Point Barrow, the northernmost tip of Alaska, along the eastern seaboard and down into Mexico, Costa Rica and the Tropics.

Always survivors, coyotes first appeared in Arizona 500,000 years ago during the Pleistocene epoch. The ever-flexible coyotes can survive almost anywhere. They run in packs or as loners, roam either day or night and eat nearly anything-fresh meat, carrion, insects, fruits and vegetables. Their keen senses make them well-adapted to hunting. According to one Indian saying, "a feather fell from the sky... the eagle saw it, the deer heard it, the bear smelled it, the coyote did all three."

Coyotes have been known to pass over meat in favor of fresh fruits and berries. They have an insatiable sweet tooth, which will lead them to raid melon fields and orchards. Despite this diverse appetite, coyotes insects, fish and snakes. They may also stalk larger prey such as domestic sheep, deer and pronghorns.

Reddish-gray with a buff underside, coyotes resemble medium-size dogs, but their yellow eyes, alert ears and bushy, blacktipped tails give away any hope for a domestic disguise. And, of course, those rich voices, which produce the dark, wild song of the tragedies of life, set them apart.

Coyotes exercise a diverse vocal repertoire filled with barks, wails and yips. Disembodied solos earned these animals yet another nickname, "prairie tenor," and their short bursts of falsetto yips resulted in their title "Laughing Philosopher of the Plains." In Arizona, coyotes are more often heard than seen, sometimes congregating in "choir lofts" to serenade the moon. Like ventrilo-quists, the animals can scatter, shatter, multiply and place their voices with surprising ease. Some tales say a coyote's voice will not echo. Others say that at night, howling coyotes shift shape into ghosts that cannot be harmed by any of man's weapons-another story built on the animal's uncanny survival skills.

Adult coyotes weigh between 20 and 30 pounds and measure about 47 inches long-one-third of that comprising their thick tail. They cruise at an easy lope of 25 to 30 miles per hour-accelerating to 40 miles per hour for short bursts-and are able