Canis Latrans

My tortoise shell cat, Lily, climbs into my lap. She will not let me write. She demands that I stroke her chin and forehead, stimulating all those scent glands that were she a wild cat, she would be rubbing against trees and rocks. Instead, she is content to mark me as I tell her about Coyote. It is important that she listen because she is prey and Coyote is predator. It is a primal, inextricable relationship.

Canis latrans is an ancient being. Older than the wolf, Coyote has walked this planet for some sixty million years. Long before our own arrival, Coyote first appeared in a time called by those who chronicle eras, the Eocene. Coyote evolved on the open plains of the North American continent after the decline of the dinosaurs. They flourished from the Arctic tundras to the high plateaus of Central America, advancing and retreating with the glaciers. While all that remains of the sabre-toothed tiger of that era is a fossil, the ancestors of Coyote that feasted on that tiger's flesh still roam the landscape.

The appearance of Coyote in these eastern hills is still somewhat of a mystery. It was not until 1957 that the existence of the first coyote in Massachusetts was confirmed. The tale of its travels from the central plains west and south and finally north and east is one of adaptation and interbreeding with other canids. One hypothesis has lone coyote dispersers mating with feral dogs. This coydog was the first of the eastern coyotes. This scenario, however, is unlikely since such a breeding does not result in a strong viable species. The habits of feral dogs do not support the proliferation of the species. Coyotes are pack animals and they rely on both the male and female to raise midwinter litters. Male dogs are not motivated by paternal instincts and single parenting is risky business in the competitive world of the coyote. Such litters would have low survival rates. A more probable theory is that the western coyote bred with the eastern Canadian wolf. This makes for a larger coyote than its western cousin and would also account for the different colorings of the eastern coyote.

I continute to tell Lily that there are fewer coyotes in the woods this winter. There are not nearly as many tracks as in past years. I have also seen more snowshoe hare and red fox prints. I remember the dead coyote that I carried out of the brook last spring. It had been shot. I also remember the farmers that I met early one morning. They were shooting coyotes at the edge of their fields. They were protecting their livestock. Hunters have been out killing coyote to protect the deer that they hunt in the fall. Coyote is on the most wanted list and in many states, they are hunted year round. They get no respect.

I tell Lily that she is in far greater danger from the coyotes than the livestock and the deer are. Coyotes take house cats. Still, I believe there is a place in these woods for the wily predator. It fills the niche of the wolf and the cougar and man. We are all predators and prey in the natural order of things. This competition for survival is what strengthens the species.

Lily sits up and stretches. She kneads her claws on my legs. She jumps from my lap and heads to the front door, scratching to go out. I open it and let her into the wild.