One evening when I was about six years old my father woke me up to hear coyotes howl. We were living in Kingsville, Texas, out in the brush country near town. Dad told me that he grew up listening to coyotes. And he thought that development in the West meant the end of coyotes. He wanted me to hear them, before they were gone forever.
Boy, was he wrong! Coyotes are adapting to rural areas across America. You don’t have to go too far from Athens, Georgia to hear coyotes. At my Cabin on the Ridge we see signs. I haven’t heard them but my daughter has (I don’t hear so well). And I did see one, one afternoon, while sitting on my porch. It sat on its haunches, about 30 yards away, motionless, eyeing me. When it suddenly vanished I got a glimpse of its bang-tail.
True, there are dogs in the woods but this was no dog! I’ve heard that Coyotes are interbreeding with dogs.
In “The Voice of the Coyote,” Texas historian J. Frank Dobie brings together a bunch of tales about Coyote behavior, habits and interactions with people. Fun to read but with raised eyebrows. Old Texans are tellers of tales, tales that grow with repetition.
There’s a message here. Don’t be too soon to write off any group of animals. True, we’ve lost some, improbable losses of abundant species. Yet, given any chance at all, animals have this drive to survive. Think – well, Chernobyl, the radioactive zone in Russia where big mammals do quite well.
But please, no more Chernobyls!
Dac Crossley
February 12, 2017
“Ignorance allied with power is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.” – James Baldwin.
Frequently hear and sometimes see them here in Greene Co. and back in Sumter Co.
Pleasant music indeed.
Posted by: William "Hap" Tietjen | February 13, 2017 at 04:12 PM
Dac,
I ended my work as a Navigator for the Health Insurance Marketplace Dec. 31st and now have more time for personal enjoyment. I just read all of the blogs attached to this latest one. Loved them, particularly the one about our mutual grandmother. I used to have the article she wrote about being held up as a young girl on a stagecoach by the James gang. Do you have a copy of that.
Your cousin, Stephen Baird
Posted by: Stephen Baird | February 12, 2017 at 02:53 PM
When I was a boy there were rumors of coyotes in my area of Pennsylvania. The idea was dismissed by 'smart people' who insisted they might be feral dogs. No one now dismisses the fact Coyotes are here.
There are also reports people have seen cougar, which the game department dismisses. Hey, guys, a friend and I saw a cougar here when we were in our early teens. And it wasn't our imagination.
Posted by: J. R. Lindermuth | February 12, 2017 at 02:00 PM
Dac, I looked up an obituary for Bob Mengel and found this:
"According to several of Mengel’s friends, his pack of semidomesticated coyotes occasionally escaped.
On more than one occsion his study subjects were captured and returned by the police. Thus his study
of dog-coyote hybrids (Journal of Mammalogy, Vol. 52, 1971, pp. 316-336) may be unique among
scientific journals in giving thanks to the local chief of police!"
Posted by: Dale Hoyt | February 12, 2017 at 10:23 AM
Dac, did you know Bob Mengel, the ornithologist at KU in the 1950s? He was breeding what he called "coy dogs," a cross between coyotes and dogs. I don't remember what breed of dog he used. I was at a party at his house once during the winter and looked out at the kennel in his back yard but didn't see anything.
Posted by: Dale Hoyt | February 12, 2017 at 09:53 AM
Dac
I have heard you mention about your Coyote sightings near your cabin and possible ones in Athens.
In 1995 around this time I began compulsively walking nearly 7 days a week every morning for exercise for 40 to 90 or more minutes.
After a week or so I began walking in many places in Clarke County for variety.
Stopped walking in the dark because of dogs barking or wild dogs, foxes, deer, amarillo, raccoons and who knows .... maybe a coyote.
Posted by: alan | February 12, 2017 at 02:51 AM