Coyote Yipps

Hi Janet, 

As spring and pupping season rockets fwd, a sort of dilemma appears and really goes to the core of who we are. 

My pack and I do am approx 150 miles of ranches bordering vast public lands. It’s a place of many cultures and types of peoples lives. 

The same can be said of the Coyote.

There are people who will indiscriminately kill any coyote they can. There are areas of hard core incessant coyote warfare.

Then there are areas of careful land management. Ranch bisons or wheat farms or LGD premises where dogs control and repel predators naturally.

Hardcore Areas produce hardcore Coyote. Plain and simple. There are coyote that will become nomadic, erratically wild raiders of sheep ranches. They will bankrupt a ranch’s yearly lamb production. Ironically…left alone and allowed to have land of natural hunting (mainly rodents) you get structured packs. You get long bonded pairs. You get strict territoriality among coyote families that develop learned culture. They can be taught…do not go to certain areas. They can be influenced generationally. 

Humans create the local coyote. 

Coexistence and knowledge can create stable coyote, and structured behaviors.

Ceaseless persecution creates legendary canines ready and willing to become the wild erratic hardcore raider that brings financial and personal issues.

Anyhow….many coyote this year never seen. Fire refugees likely.

One pack is called Bad Ears. From a ranch hunted ceaselessly. Hemmed in to hold territory in swampy refuge. The bugs in summer bite ears ceaselessly. Hence bad ear pack. The Bad Ears seem to produce hard core behaviors.

Left: Kinky! Right: Kinky saying she sees us.

Wheras Kinky tail and others…rodents and deer killed and lost by hunters are their mainstay with berries and grasshoppers. Kinkys family hasn’t killed livestock in 30 years.

A local rancher asked us to help locate the bad ears and others for greyhounds to hunt.

We simply can’t do that. To scatter our local packs will create unstable coyote for many years. So..it kind of reveals who you are and how you feel about coyote, land, and culture. 

Who am I creating or betraying? Going after all Bad Ears means endangering Kinky, Slim Jim and every coyote who never did any livestock wrong. 

We won’t do that. 

Anyway….coexistence. It is our pack mantra. 

Lou