Ice in Death Valley & a Coyote Close-up

[Cudedog]

I know a lot of people don't like coyotes, but I have always enjoyed listening to them "sing". When I used to live in the foothills, I would often hear them at night, and see them in the field below my house during the day as I looked out the kitchen window.

One time in the summer my dog was making a ruckus, and I looked out the door to the back yard to see what the fuss was about and there were two of them out in the field, and one just outside my (6' wire) fence. This is what my dog was reacting to. When I came out my back door, with a loud "HEY!", all of them ran off. I was glad that I always kept my dogs fenced, because I have heard stories of coyotes luring a dog away from a house and then. . . If you get my drift.

So do be careful with your dogs if coyotes are around. However, I don't blame coyotes for being coyotes. They need to make a living too. Do keep in mind, however, that another name for the coyote is the prairie wolf.

A year or so ago I was out on a long walk and where the trail crossed a road, there was a dead coyote by the side of the road that didn't look like it had been there too long. Probably hit by a car, but there wasn't a mark on the little female that I could see. Although I didn't touch her, I had a good close look - I had never seen one up close before. She was - perfect, in almost every way, and actually quite beautiful.

It made me sad to see her there.

Which brings me to a question that I have had rattling around in my mind for quite a while: Why is it that everyone gets upset and worried and up in arms about the vanishing predators (and other wildlife) in places like Africa, but no one seems to give much thought at all about our own vanishing wildlife here at home?

Anne

[Bethers]

Oh, Anne, I'm very upset with our vanishing wildlife here. And so upset that we think that we can take over their territory, then have the right to kill them off because they are just being them and hunting in what they still think of as free land. Um, sounds like something we've been doing for years, and not just with animals. It's sad and wrong ... and I learned so much my first time in Denali. They do not help or hurt animals there. They live and die on their own. A lot has been learned. We claim that the wolf kills off the caribou, for example. But they have discovered that when the caribou population is low, the wolf population goes down in direct proportion. When the caribou population rises, so does the wolf. It is survival of the fittest - but they need each other to survive. Just like us, the animals have to live or die based on their skills to do so - whatever the weather, etc. Yet, all they learn doesn't get accepted away from there.

Oh, and don't get me started on bears - I mean, we leave food out or get in their way, and they do what they need to to eat or protect their young and we kill them. If we were protecting our young, it would be okay.... but they are just animals.

I, too, love listening to the coyotes, and am happy to share space with them. I will beware of where I am when Peaches is out - I don't want a hungry coyote to go after her if I can help it. I dislike seeing one animal eating another, but know that is part of the wild - birds, etc ... and while I like actually to see the hunt, I hate seeing one lose. However that is the natural way of things ... until we step in. (Didn't I say I was getting off the bandwagon - see what you started, Anne lol!)

[SoCalGalcas]

What Beth said is so true....Our mountain lions need a diameter of 100 miles to find enough food..we continue to build homes in their territory and then shoot them when they come in to hunt. Horrible. lyn

[bluepinecones]

Thanks, Judy

[JudyJB]

I am sorry when predators take a pet, but we and our pets are in their territory, not the other way around. We also are responsible for keeping our pets safe on leashes and our cats indoors or on leashes also. (I saw some really neat cats in my travels that were in harnesses and loved going for walks! Takes some training, but is doable.)

Coyotes and wolves and even bears are just doing their things--trying to make a living, as Anne said. I love to hear animals at night because they remind me that we do have a few wild things left in our lives. Not sure I am crazy about the wild burros because they were introduced and make life difficult for native deer and animals, however.

[judi]

I love coyotes, and in fact my dog is half coyote. I have to put an orange vest on her when we go snowshoeing so a hunter doesn't shoot her.

[sharon]

Which brings me to a question that I have had rattling around in my mind for quite a while: Why is it that everyone gets upset and worried and up in arms about the vanishing predators (and other wildlife) in places like Africa, but no one seems to give much thought at all about our own vanishing wildlife here at home?

Anne

Probably for the same reason that we have fundraisers for the starving children of Africa and completely ignore the starving children here at home. But don't get me started on that one, either.

[sharon]

Wow, Judi, she's gorgeous, but she looks more wolf than coyote.

[monik7]

Wow, Judi, she's gorgeous, but she looks more wolf than coyote.

I was thinking the same thing Sharon. Her muzzle seems larger than a coyote's and more like a wolf's. She's beautiful. Love the red color.
Sandi

[judi]

She is definitely not wolf. She's a combination of the dogs that came across the Aleutian Strait with the native populations and coyote. The descendants of the dogs that migrated across from Russia bred with coyotes and eventually became the dogs of the Northwest Indians, or Native Americans, as some say. The Blackfoot Indian I got her from calls himself an Indian. Many of his dogs become Angel dogs that are helpers and companions for disabled children. Website indiandogs.com. My Koka has a photo on the site. I love her.

[BarbaraRose]

I agree about the lack of concern and compassion for wildlife (and starving kids) in this country. People in MN don't like the wolves here and are once again able to hunt them. Then they bi#%ch and complain that there are too many deer! HelloooO!?

If any larger wild animals are seen anywhere near the Twin Cities, instead of anesthetizing them and relocating them, they just shoot and kill them. There was a beautiful young bull moose wandering in my area several years ago and they just shot and killed him because it would have been too much work to dart him and relocate him up north. At the same time, our moose population up north is disappearing at a drastic rate and they don't know why. This young bull moose could have helped reproduce at least a few more moose in that area. The DNR here is a "shoot first, answer questions later (with lame excuses)" organization. They are the ones who are trying to sabotage and shut down the MN Bear Research program that has done so much great work (ie: Lily and Hope and the dencams) with education and amazing new information about bears because of their ability to work with wild bears and film them in their dens, etc.

I also remember a woman who was killed in California by a cougar while jogging in the mountains. The authorities found the cougar and shot it, only to discover it had a cub nearby. Very sad (for both losses). Jogging in cougar territory is never a good idea. Almost every cougar attack in California has been someone who was either jogging or riding a bike. That fast movement triggers a cougar's chasing instincts.

I know people who move out into the country or the woods and then trap "those pesky raccoons" and relocate them. And complain about the coyotes going after their pets.

I guess lots of us are passionate about this subject.

[monik7]

She is definitely not wolf. She's a combination of the dogs that came across the Aleutian Strait with the native populations and coyote. The descendants of the dogs that migrated across from Russia bred with coyotes and eventually became the dogs of the Northwest Indians, or Native Americans, as some say. The Blackfoot Indian I got her from calls himself an Indian. Many of his dogs become Angel dogs that are helpers and companions for disabled children. Website indiandogs.com. My Koka has a photo on the site. I love her.

She's beautiful Judi. I can see why you love her so much.
Sandi

[Bethers]

Love your dog, Judi - gorgeous. I'll accept she's mainly coyote, but agree she looks like she has wolf in her ... so many similarities - and they blur more when any animals are mixed breeds. And what a wonderful organization.

Love how compassionate so many of us are. I think doing what we do and traveling the way many of us like to (in nature) we want to know we still have nature - in all it's forms. And therefore we are more concerned about what's happening. With the little nature we have left, if I do hike or something in the territory of a cougar or bear or whatever - and something happens to me - I sure hope the animal doesn't get found or hurt. I know what I'm doing and if I get too close, etc, even if by mistake - it's not their fault. And like Judy, I love listening to them.

I even love the burros in southern AZ - loved them coming around my cg at night. Peaches would find them during the day for me when we'd be out hiking the desert - until they went over the low mountains to cool off as the sun got higher - only to return after sunset again that night.

[BarbaraRose]

I even love the burros in southern AZ - loved them coming around my cg at night. Peaches would find them during the day for me when we'd be out hiking the desert - until they went over the low mountains to cool off as the sun got higher - only to return after sunset again that night.

And it isn't their fault that they got left behind by the miners!

[JudyJB]

I have Site 11 reserved in Lake Pleasant regional park northwest of Phoenix for the second time. I liked it last year because it was up on a hill with a good view, and also there was a burro trail just behind it, where the burros went down to drink at the lake every night. I will say they startled me the first night they brayed in my window!

The problem with the burros is that no one hunts them like they do with the deer, and the deer are losing habitat and in numbers to the burros. They also don't have as many predators as the deer do so there is little control on their numbers. Got to be sympathetic to the deer also.

One of the best things about staying in state or regional parks for me is the wildlife. Even love the birds walking around on my roof, though I wish they would not have such big feet and not do it so early in the morning! Sometimes it sounds like a construction crew up there.