Old Man Coyote: A Relative Newcomer to Harmony Hill
Nature is dynamic. There is never a time when some form of change isn’t rippling through the ecosystems of Harmony Hill. It can be something as simple as the passing of daylight to nighttime or it can be more pronounced, such as the shortening of the days as we march towards winter from fall. Many of our conversations here echo the principles of change on the landscape. Whether it is our story of trees falling and giving their energy to the forest floor as they decompose or of the return of the Wild Turkey to our fields and woodlands, you don’t have to dig too deeply to see change molds the story of the land.
Thirty days ago, we saw leaves begin to change and fall to the ground. One hundred years ago, a large reservoir was formed by damming a nearby river. Three hundred years ago, settlers cleared forests to expand the footprint of agriculture in the area. Harmony Hill is no stranger to change. This land has seen old things pass and new things emerge. She has seen common things become rare and scarce things become more regular. The ebb and flow of change is constant.
About 40 years ago, a new visitor came to Harmony Hill. This newcomer was well-traveled. A westerner that had walked the desert southwest, hiked the Rocky Mountains and looked out over the vast flatlands of the Great Plains, Harmony Hill welcomed an immigrant who was no stranger to persecution and to finding new places to seek out a life. This arrival was not from the other side of the world, nor was it from across the vastness of the oceans. The trotting of the four-legged tenant may have signaled a change on the landscape, but it was from a species that originated right here in North America and was unique in its natural history, its intelligence and in the way humans view it.
Coyotes (Canis latrans) were historically a species only found in western North America. But, after decades of being poisoned, hunted, chased, and expelled from their western range, they began investigating areas well east of their normal territories. As part of that expansion eastward, they made their way to Harmony Hill sometime in the early 1980s. In the time they’ve been here, just over a generation now, we’ve seen that hunting and unwarranted disdain carry over to their more recent eastern seaboard homes. To understand them as a species, we must also look at the negative way some humans view them. For it is the influence of humans on them that has been a defining part of their story; impacting their range, their numbers, and their behavior.
The overall list of reviled and misunderstood species in North America can be short or long, depending upon who you ask. The list of mammals that are reviled and misunderstood is quite short, however. For the most part, that list is usually confined to two species closely related to another species that is almost universally loved: wolves and coyotes.
Coyotes and their bigger cousins, the Grey Wolf (Canis lupus), hold a distinction as being extremely discriminated against by a fair percentage of the population. While they are directly related to “man’s best friend”, the domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris), these two species do not enjoy the adoration afforded to dogs.
But, why have coyotes been persecuted so much? Were they always seen this way? And more importantly, how are they viewed now? Let’s dig into these questions as we also look into their life history.
First of all, coyotes are unquestionably members of the Canidae family and look quite similar to other members. Wolves, foxes, jackals, and dingoes are some of their fellow canids. In fact, the first white Americans to see them thought they were an odd fox. Merriwether Lewis and William Clark initially described them as a new species of fox when they first encountered them. That incorrect identification was to be followed by another, after shooting one and getting it in hand. The two explorers decided it was not a fox, after all; but, instead, they decided upon the name “Prairie Wolf”.
Unlike their wolf cousins, however, coyotes are a North American canid, through and through. Coyotes evolved into a species right here in North America and never left. Some 800,000 to 1 million years ago, coyotes emerged as an individual species and took to the prairies, plains and even mountain areas of western North America.
That misnomer of “Prairie Wolf” would play a role in their ill treatment, as settlers to the west would assume coyotes also hunted and killed livestock and game animals. Coyotes continued to suffer from the assumptions, old wives’ tales and just plain ignorance of humans for more than another century. With little known about their diet, reproduction or place in ecosystems, settlers were more than willing to fill in the unknown with supposition and even superstition. Unfortunately, like their wolf relatives, much of that misinformation plagues coyotes to this day.
Coyotes became targets for homesteaders and western settlers, who killed them without regard. The 19thcentury was not kind to the coyote, as America expanded west and, with it, Americans brought ranching, farming and agriculture to the coyote’s land.
It didn’t get any easier for coyotes after the 19th century. During much of the 20th century, there was an open bounty on coyotes across their range. From government poisoning campaigns and bounties for hides to people simply shooting them on sight, there were nearly 7 million coyotes killed from the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s. As was the case in the 19th century, the hatred placed upon them in the 20th century wasn’t based on science or fact. There were no real studies done on coyotes in even the most basic terms until well into the 1940s. And the killings continued in the midst of that ignorance. That level of immense pressure forced the coyote to either adapt or be wiped out. While they most definitely saw major population declines, adapt to these human cruelties the coyote did.
(A very quick aside… from a linguistic standpoint, one can almost predict how a person views coyotes; either positively or negatively. Anthropology and sociology studies show that people who pronounce the word coyote as “Kie-yō-tee” tend to view the animal more positively than those who pronounce it “Kie-ōt”. There is also a strong correlation to pronunciation and geographic location, with midwestern and western populations using “Kie-ōt” more frequently.)
Almost two centuries of humans doing all they could to remove coyotes from this continent led to their expansion to the east and, eventually, to the first coyotes finding Harmony Hill four decades ago. You see, among other things, coyotes have three special adaptations for survival.
Coyotes are incredibly intelligent! They are cunning and observant, giving them an edge over many other species. Coyotes are one of the few species we’ve studied that seem to be observing and studying us right back. (Crows being another very intelligent species that spears to do the same.)
Coyotes use their smarts to assess places and situations, their patience to wait for the information they need, and their cleverness to get what they want. They’ve used this ability to learn to conquer nearly every ecosystem in North America, including the largest cities in the United States. No longer relegated to wilderness, rural, or even suburban areas, coyotes have learned to adapt and overcome to succeed in places like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Atlanta.
Their intelligence, coupled with a playful knack for what could be interpreted as mischief, is responsible for their place in Native America mythology. Often portrayed as a carefree character with a penchant for trickery and a bit of an ego, “Old Man Coyote” transforms and deceives to suit his whims. This is all a superficial reading of the coyote in folklore and tales. When you look a bit closer at Old Man Coyote, you will find him to be a reflection of the shortcomings of mankind. Too quick to chase after self-indulgence and willing to do underhanded things for instant gratification, Old Man Coyote is a lesson for we humans and can be used as a cautionary tale for those seeking shortcuts. Not at all the simple or lowly character on the surface, Old Man Coyote is a deity who teaches people to do better by their fellow humans.
Coyotes are also able to exist in packs, in pairs, or even succeed as individuals. Like so many other canids, coyotes can establish social groups and have hierarchies within their packs. There is safety and success in numbers. However, when it comes to the business of hunting and roaming, coyotes will, more often than not, break into loose groups, pairs or go it alone. While it isn’t entirely unheard of to have coyotes travel or hunt as a group, research shows they hunt and travel either solitarily or as a pair far more often. Packs set up territories and patrol for food and tend to stay within a given range. Solitary coyotes, on the other hand, can cover 50 to 60 miles over a period of just a few days or weeks, searching for a place to either join a new pack or start their own. Usually young individuals, both male and female coyotes are apt to strike out on their own. This fluidity of social behavior gives them one more evolutionary leg up to survive.
The third adaptation coyotes have developed is the ability to reproduce in response to pressure. Part of being a social animal is that they are vocal. Coyotes howl, yip, yodel, and bark to communicate territory, health, and clues to population in areas. When it comes to vocal communication, those sounds serve as much more than many even realize. When female coyotes hear other coyotes calling back, their reproductive hormones remain at normal levels, and they will have a litter of 4 to 6 pups when they breed. However, when female coyotes fail to hear other coyotes communicating back to them, changes occur in hormones and females will produce litters of 12-16 pups!
The more they are pressured, hunted, and removed, the larger their litters and the more quickly they can replenish their numbers. We had a colleague who did research on coyotes in the southeastern United States and they taught us that coyote populations can be reduced by 60% to 70% in a location and, through this reproductive realignment, they can bring their numbers back to the original population in one year. (Hint, its best to let nature find her own balance.)
With these three adaptations, our newest canid species to Harmony Hill scattered from their traditional lands in search of new habitats to live. Eastbound and down, they slowly made their way to the Atlantic coast, from Maine to Florida.
Here at Harmony Hill, coyotes usually breed from mid-January to mid-February and the female dens to have her pups in March and April. She may find a hole in the ground or dig a den of her own. Often places where trees have fallen over or natural tunnels serve as wonderful dens. This is the only time coyotes den. The rest of the year, they sleep and rest above ground.
Despite what many people think, coyote diets are made up mostly of rodents, small mammals, fruits, and vegetable matter. While they do consume the occasional deer, research has shown that deer make up around 20% of the diet of rural coyotes. The deer that are consumed are usually older deer and deer that aren’t fully healthy.
At Harmony Hill, coyotes are part of our natural rodent control. In more populated areas, coyotes have learned to utilize garbage as a place to forage for food. In agricultural areas, coyotes have learned to walk through orchards to eat apples and peaches that have fallen to the ground. They are very flexible in diet and foraging.
While coyotes can live to 12 and 14 years of age, most only make it to about 3 years. Humans are the leading cause of mortality for coyotes, through unconstrained hunting, trapping, and being hit by automobiles.
Though the target of much vitriol and historically on the receiving end of much persecution, science has shown coyotes are not to be hated or feared. Instead of being the trickster pest some consider them to be, they are intelligent and help keep pest levels down. We prefer to think of them as part of a healthy landscape, and we appreciate the stories of Old Man Coyote and the lessons he can teach. One of the lessons he can teach us is patience and seeing the big picture, not focusing on the immediate and selfish rewards. And so we view the land with a long lens and with a holistic approach.
Change is constant and nature is dynamic. Coyotes at Harmony Hill may be a relatively new development, but we embrace their presence, we appreciate their story, and we learn from them.