RIVER WATCHER

THE CALL OF THE COYOTE

Rex Burress

Of all the animals that could symbolize the wild west and covered wagon times-- beaver, bear, eagles, rattlesnakes-- surely the coyote and its kin the wolf deserves to place high on the King of the Wild Frontier title.

How distinctly that member of the dog family stands out as a serenader of the night. Those who have heard its wailing cry out on the desert-- or even now at the edge of cities-- know it to be a haunting call of the wild. It adds some flavor to the trip of a Sierra Club backpacker, or a Mohave explorer, as you lie in a sleeping bag listening to the wind whine and the lonesome howls of a wild mammal quite independent even in the wide open spaces. The out-of-doors would be poorer without the coyote.

While some can think of the coyote with nostalgia and admiration, others may be reminded of livestock losses and encroachment upon private land. Be it known that the dog family cannot read human property signs or keep-out notices, and introductions of livestock onto coyote territory is a sort of gift to a predator accustomed to surviving on any meager means.

Just when I thought the bounty system was over, I find that there have been rancher-funded hunts that offer prizes for the most coyotes killed. Such mass killings are rather barbaric and against conservation principles, including the Aldo Leopold studies over a half century ago.

Thus I thought the California ban on coyote hunts that offer prizes, as explained in a 12-2-2014 Enterprise-Record article, was a proper gesture of respect and compassion for a wild animal. The vote by the state Fish and Game Commission was the first such action of any state in the country. The ban doesn't offer overall protective regulation but stops the hunting derbies that reward shooters who bag the most coyotes with cash, belt buckles, or other prizes. What is more obnoxious than to see a dozen dead coyotes hanging from a highway fence? On the ranch, it is war on any animal that interferes with agriculture.

Commission vice president Jack Baylis said the state also needs to limit how many predators a hunter is permitted to kill while respecting responsible hunters and allowing ranchers to manage their livestock. President Michael Sutton added; “Awarding prizes for wildlife killing contests is both unethical and inconsistent with our modern understanding of natural systems.” The “Project Coyote” group petitioned the state to end the popular contests that occur almost every month in California.

Aldo Leopold concluded in his predator research, expressed in his book “A Sand County Almanac,” that the role of wolves, coyotes, and other predators is important in preventing overpopulation of animals such as deer, rabbits, and rodents. The extermination of problem Canis latrans individuals has been an effort by “coyote haters.” There has been a clash between agriculture and wildlife ever since civilization began. Will there be enough space left for big animals as human colonization occupies the land?

I am reminded that the CA mountain lion became imperiled in the 1970's, and a “Save the Mountain Lion” group formed to save the species. I did the art work for their flyer. Regulations were enacted. The cat was saved in the state...but not the grizzly. Only recently the use of dogs was banned from hunting bears.

It is remarkable that the canny coyote has survived in the face of intense prosecution. High on the ridges of the Mayacamas Mountains I once found a coyote trap that propelled a lethal projectile when tripped. Even in rural Missouri where I lived as a boy in the 1940's, wolf and coyote 'drives' would be conducted by the community when one was spotted in the farmlands. There was a “Little Red Riding Hood” fear of their presence, just as all snakes were immediately killed, in a mistaken belief that they were all dangerous.

One time I was hiking around Glen Pond below Oroville Dam, and a most magnificent coyote stood watching me from an overhang. It melted into the thickets, but I had noticed its beautiful fur and intense alertness. We would be deprived of even the expectation of such a sterling moment if the species, or any wild species, becomes extinct.

“The universe would be incomplete without man; but it would also be incomplete

without the smallest transmicroscopic creature that dwells beyond

our conceitful eyes and knowledge.”

--John Muir