Coyote America

Coyote America Plot Summary

Introduction

In the silver-blue twilight of a Louisiana morning, a young man reaches for his newspaper and finds himself face-to-face with a coyote that pauses to give him a knowing glance before trotting away with remarkable nonchalance. This encounter, seemingly impossible in the American South just decades earlier, represents one of the most extraordinary wildlife stories of our time. The coyote, once confined to the western deserts and plains, has become a continental presence, adapting to every habitat from frozen tundra to urban downtowns. This remarkable journey reveals profound truths about resilience, adaptation, and the complex relationship between humans and the natural world. Through the coyote's story, we witness the evolution of American attitudes toward predators, from ancient reverence through systematic persecution to grudging coexistence. The narrative encompasses the rise and fall of federal eradication programs, the emergence of ecological science, and the ongoing struggle between human development and wildlife conservation. Most remarkably, it demonstrates how an animal targeted for complete extermination not only survived but thrived, expanding its range across an entire continent while we watched in amazement. The coyote's biography mirrors our own national story of expansion, conflict, and adaptation, offering lessons about the limits of human control over nature and the unexpected consequences of our actions.

Chapter 1: Ancient Origins: The Coyote in Native American Culture

Long before European explorers set foot in North America, the coyote had already established itself as one of the continent's most significant cultural and ecological figures. Emerging from the evolutionary crucible of the American Southwest some 500,000 years ago, coyotes encountered the first human inhabitants of North America around 15,000 years ago. These Siberian hunters, crossing the Bering land bridge, brought with them ancient religious traditions, but something about the coyote's intelligence and adaptability captured their imagination in ways that would resonate for millennia. By the time of the Clovis people, who spread across the grasslands 13,000 years ago, coyotes had become far more than mere animals to be hunted or avoided. They emerged as Coyote, capitalized to distinguish the deity from the ordinary animal, becoming the most ancient god figure of which we have record on this continent. This transformation from predator to deity reflected the remarkable qualities early Americans observed in coyotes: their intelligence, their ability to survive catastrophic environmental changes that wiped out mammoths and saber-toothed cats, and their uncanny skill at living alongside human settlements. The Coyote stories that developed across hundreds of Native American tribes reveal a sophisticated understanding of both coyote nature and human psychology. Unlike the perfect deities of later agricultural societies, Coyote embodied the full spectrum of human traits, both admirable and flawed. He was credited with creating the essential topography of North America, placing stars in the sky, introducing fire to humans, and teaching the fundamentals of sexuality and death. Yet Coyote was also portrayed as vain, lustful, and prone to schemes that inevitably backfired, making him both creator and cosmic fool. These ancient stories served multiple functions that no modern media can match. They provided explanations for the natural world, taught proper social behavior, entertained audiences around winter fires, and offered profound insights into human nature. The Aztecs, whose empire flourished a thousand years ago, knew Coyote as Huehuecoyotl, the "Venerable Old Coyote," and established coyote cults complete with ceremonies featuring acolytes dressed with tails and pointed ears. Even in their sophisticated urban civilization, coyotes roamed the streets of Tenochtitlan, leading to neighborhoods named "Coyoacan," the place of the coyotes. The genius of these ancient stories lay in their recognition of coyotes as fellow survivors and their use of Coyote as a mirror for examining human nature. Through Coyote's adventures, Native Americans explored the tensions between individual desires and social responsibilities, the consequences of overconfidence, and the importance of intelligence in surviving an unpredictable world. This tradition would prove remarkably prescient, as both coyotes and humans would need every ounce of their adaptive intelligence to navigate the dramatic changes coming to North America.

Chapter 2: Conquest and Coexistence: European Arrival and the Prairie Wolf

The collision between Old and New Worlds fundamentally altered the trajectory of both human and coyote history in North America. When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark encountered their first "prairie wolves" along the Missouri River in September 1804, they were witnessing the beginning of a profound cultural and ecological transformation. Unlike wolves, bears, and foxes, which Europeans knew from their own folklore and experience, coyotes presented a puzzle wrapped in confusion, an animal that seemed to occupy a middle ground between the familiar categories of Old World natural history. Lewis and Clark's meticulous observations reveal both scientific curiosity and cultural bewilderment. They noted the animals' intelligence, their social hunting strategies, and their remarkable vocalizations, describing howls that were "precisely that of the small dog" followed by "a lengthened scream." Yet they struggled to categorize these creatures, initially calling them simply "prairie wolves" and marveling at their boldness around human camps. This pattern of fascination mixed with confusion would characterize European-American encounters with coyotes for generations. The formal entry of coyotes into Western science came through naturalist Thomas Say in 1823, who bestowed the scientific name Canis latrans, meaning "barking dog." Say's careful documentation established coyotes as a distinct species, settling debates about whether these animals were American jackals or some other familiar Old World creature. However, the more significant cultural transformation occurred through the writings of traders and explorers who introduced Americans to the ancient Aztec name for the animal. Writers like Albert Pike and Josiah Gregg revealed that these "prairie wolves" had been known as "coyotes" for centuries, giving Americans access to a name that connected them to the deep history of the continent. This linguistic evolution reflected broader patterns of cultural encounter and adaptation. As Americans pushed westward, they found themselves adopting not just Native American place names but Native American knowledge of how to survive in unfamiliar landscapes. The coyote's name itself became a kind of cultural hybrid, as English speakers gradually transformed the Spanish pronunciation of the Aztec word into something more familiar to Anglo-Saxon tongues. George Frederick Ruxton's spelling variations, from "coyote" to "cayeute," capture this process of linguistic adaptation in real time. Yet even as Americans learned to name these creatures, they struggled to understand their significance. Mark Twain's famous description in "Roughing It" established a stereotype that would endure for decades: the coyote as a "living, breathing allegory of Want," a "sorry-looking skeleton" that represented the harsh realities of western life. This characterization reflected broader American attitudes toward the West itself, seen alternately as a land of opportunity and a hostile wilderness that needed to be tamed and civilized. The stage was set for a conflict that would define the next century of coyote-human relations, as Americans brought not just new names and new perspectives, but new tools of unprecedented destructive power to bear on the ancient inhabitants of the continent.

Chapter 3: War on Predators: The Systematic Eradication Campaign

The transformation of the American West in the late nineteenth century unleashed forces that would forever alter the relationship between humans and predators. As bison herds that had numbered in the millions were systematically slaughtered for their hides, vast grasslands opened up for cattle and sheep ranching. This ecological revolution set the stage for what became the most intensive campaign to eradicate a native species in American history, with coyotes emerging as the primary target after wolves were quickly eliminated from most of their range. The Bureau of Biological Survey, established ostensibly to study American wildlife, transformed itself into an extermination agency by the early 1900s. Under the leadership of men like Vernon Bailey and E.A. Goldman, the bureau developed increasingly sophisticated methods of mass killing, establishing the Eradication Methods Laboratory in Albuquerque to produce strychnine tablets in industrial quantities. The agency's hunters blanketed the western landscape with poison bait stations, killing not just coyotes but countless other animals that had the misfortune to scavenge the contaminated carcasses. This war escalated dramatically with the Animal Damage Control Act of 1931, which allocated unprecedented federal resources to the complete eradication of coyotes. Bureau officials confidently predicted that a decade of intensive poisoning would eliminate coyotes entirely from North America, viewing these animals as incompatible with modern civilization. They deployed an arsenal of increasingly deadly chemicals, from traditional strychnine to new compounds like Compound 1080 and thallium sulfate, designed specifically to cause maximum suffering while avoiding detection by surviving pack members. Yet despite killing nearly two million coyotes between 1915 and 1947, the eradication campaign achieved the opposite of its intended goal. Rather than declining toward extinction, coyote populations remained stable or even increased, with animals beginning to appear in states where they had never been seen before. The campaign's failure stemmed from a fundamental misunderstanding of coyote biology and behavior. Intensive persecution triggered the species' evolutionary adaptations for surviving population crashes, including larger litters, earlier breeding, and colonization behavior that pushed surviving animals into new territories. The scientific community gradually recognized the futility and ecological damage of the eradication campaign. Pioneering ecologists like Joseph Grinnell argued for predator refuges in national parks, while brothers Olaus and Adolph Murie conducted groundbreaking studies that revealed coyotes to be primarily rodent controllers rather than the livestock killers they were portrayed to be. These studies found that over 70 percent of coyote diet actually benefited human interests, with genuine livestock predation being relatively rare and often exaggerated. The war on coyotes represented more than just failed wildlife management; it embodied a broader American impulse to control and reshape the natural world according to human preferences. The campaign's persistence in the face of obvious failure revealed the power of institutional momentum and economic interests over scientific evidence. Most ironically, the very persecution that was intended to eliminate coyotes instead scattered them across the continent, setting the stage for their eventual colonization of every major American city. The war on coyotes had succeeded primarily in making them a national rather than regional phenomenon.

Chapter 4: Biological Resistance: How Coyotes Defied Extinction

While federal hunters pursued their systematic campaign of extermination, coyotes deployed a suite of evolutionary adaptations that would prove more powerful than any human technology arrayed against them. The species' remarkable resilience stemmed from millions of years of evolutionary pressure, first from larger predators like dire wolves and saber-toothed cats, then from gray wolves that had returned to North America from Asia. This deep history of surviving persecution had equipped coyotes with biological mechanisms that bureaucrats in Washington could never have anticipated. The most crucial of these adaptations was what biologists call "fission-fusion" social organization, a trait coyotes share with very few other species, including humans. This behavioral flexibility allowed coyotes to operate as pack hunters when conditions favored cooperation, or as solitary individuals when circumstances demanded it. Unlike wolves, whose rigid pack structure made them vulnerable to systematic trapping and poisoning campaigns, coyotes could adapt their social behavior to whatever survival strategy worked best in their immediate environment. Even more remarkable was the coyotes' ability to adjust their reproductive output in response to population pressure. Biologist Fred Knowlton's research revealed that unstressed coyote populations naturally regulated themselves through smaller litters and lower pup survival rates. However, intense persecution triggered a biological response that dramatically increased both litter sizes and pup survival. Where normal coyote litters averaged five to six pups with modest survival rates, persecuted populations produced litters as large as nineteen pups with significantly higher survival to adulthood. Studies by biologist Guy Connolly produced the most stunning revelation about coyote resilience: even reducing local populations by 70 percent annually had virtually no long-term effect on coyote numbers. The combination of compensatory reproduction, immigration from surrounding areas, and behavioral adaptations meant that intensive control programs were essentially exercises in futility. Coyotes possessed what amounted to a biological insurance policy against extinction, one that had been tested and refined over millions of years of evolutionary pressure. The coyotes' intelligence added another layer to their defensive capabilities. Unlike wolves, which evolved as apex predators with relatively little fear of other creatures, coyotes had evolved in a world where they were both predator and prey. This evolutionary background produced animals of extraordinary wariness and learning ability. Individual coyotes that survived encounters with traps or poison baits quickly learned to avoid similar situations, and this knowledge could be transmitted culturally to their offspring. Perhaps most significantly, the persecution campaign inadvertently selected for the most adaptable and intelligent individual coyotes, while eliminating those that were more trusting or less capable of learning. Each generation of survivors was better equipped to deal with human persecution than the last, creating what amounted to an evolutionary arms race that humans could not win through technological means alone. By the 1970s, it had become clear that the most intensive predator control campaign in world history had succeeded primarily in creating smarter, more adaptable, and more widely distributed coyotes than had existed before European settlement. The species that federal officials had confidently declared would be extinct by 1940 was instead preparing to colonize cities from Los Angeles to New York.

Chapter 5: The Urban Pioneer: Coyotes Conquer American Cities

The most unexpected chapter in the coyote's American odyssey began not in wilderness areas, but in the heart of the nation's largest metropolitan areas. As early as the 1940s, reports began filtering in of coyotes establishing themselves in cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Albuquerque. Initially dismissed as isolated incidents involving confused or dispersing animals, these urban appearances soon revealed themselves to be part of a systematic colonization process that would fundamentally challenge American assumptions about the boundaries between civilization and wildness. The key to understanding urban coyote success lies in recognizing cities as ecosystems rather than nature-free zones. From a coyote's perspective, urban environments offered abundant food sources, particularly the rodents that had always formed the core of their diet, along with novel prey like geese, pet cats, and various urban-adapted wildlife. Perhaps most importantly, cities provided something that rural areas increasingly could not: refuge from human persecution. While rural coyotes faced constant harassment from ranchers, hunters, and government agents, urban coyotes found themselves largely protected by municipal regulations and residents who were either unaware of their presence or reluctant to harm them. The process of urban colonization followed predictable patterns across different cities. Coyotes typically entered metropolitan areas along transportation corridors like railroad rights-of-way and river valleys, then established territories in parks, golf courses, and undeveloped lots. Their smaller urban territories, averaging about three square miles compared to seventeen square miles in rural areas, indicated the rich resource base cities provided. Urban coyote packs raised more pups to adulthood than their rural counterparts, with survival rates approaching those found only in protected wilderness areas like national parks. Los Angeles became the prototype for urban coyote adaptation, harboring an estimated 5,000 coyotes by the early 21st century. The city's unique geography, with mountain ranges penetrating deep into urban areas through a network of canyons and creek beds, provided ideal habitat corridors. However, the initial human reaction was far from welcoming. The 1981 death of three-year-old Kelly Keen, the first recorded human fatality from a coyote attack in North American history, triggered panic and calls for wholesale eradication. City officials killed fifty-three coyotes in the square mile around the attack site, revealing just how dense urban coyote populations had become. Chicago's experience illustrated how urban coyote management evolved as cities gained experience with their new residents. Biologist Stanley Gehrt's fifteen-year study revealed a metropolitan population exceeding 2,000 animals, with residents gradually learning to coexist with their wild neighbors. The key insight was that most urban coyotes posed no threat to humans, with only about 5 percent of tracked animals ever exhibiting problematic behavior. Problems arose primarily when well-meaning residents fed coyotes, leading to habituation and occasionally aggressive behavior. The success of urban coyotes represented a profound shift in American wildlife ecology. Species that had been driven from rural landscapes by intensive persecution found refuge in the very cities that represented the pinnacle of human control over the environment. This ironic reversal challenged fundamental assumptions about the relationship between urbanization and wildlife, suggesting that the future of many native species might lie not in remote wilderness areas, but in learning to coexist with humans in metropolitan environments. The coyote's urban conquest was not merely a wildlife management issue, but a harbinger of a new era in which the boundaries between human and natural systems would become increasingly blurred.

Chapter 6: Cultural Resurgence: From Enemy to American Icon

The transformation of American attitudes toward coyotes represents one of the most dramatic reversals in wildlife conservation history. The same species that had been officially targeted for extinction in the 1930s found itself celebrated as an icon of wildness and adaptability by the end of the century. This cultural shift reflected broader changes in American environmental consciousness, from the utilitarian conservation of the Progressive Era to the ecological awareness and biocentric ethics of the modern environmental movement. The seeds of this transformation were planted in the 1960s, when the environmental movement began challenging fundamental assumptions about humanity's relationship with nature. Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" exposed the ecological dangers of the very pesticides being used to kill coyotes, while Aldo Leopold's "A Sand County Almanac" promoted a land ethic that granted other species an inherent right to exist. Walt Disney's series of coyote films, beginning with "The Coyote's Lament" in 1961, introduced millions of Americans to the coyote's perspective on western expansion and persecution. The political breakthrough came during the Nixon administration, when growing environmental awareness forced a reconsideration of federal predator control policies. The 1971 Cain Committee report condemned the poisoning program as excessive and scientifically unjustified, leading to Nixon's 1972 executive order banning the use of poisons for predator control on public lands. This decision, driven more by political calculation than genuine environmental conviction, nonetheless marked a turning point in the century-long war on coyotes. The passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 provided the legal framework for protecting wildlife from extinction, though coyotes themselves were never threatened enough to require listing. More importantly, the act represented the formal adoption of biocentric values in American law, recognizing that other species possessed an inherent right to exist regardless of their economic value to humans. This philosophical revolution created the intellectual foundation for a more tolerant approach to predators, including coyotes. Popular culture played a crucial role in rehabilitating the coyote's image. The Warner Brothers cartoon character Wile E. Coyote, despite his constant failures in pursuing the Road Runner, was portrayed sympathetically as a victim of technological hubris rather than a menacing predator. This characterization resonated with American audiences who increasingly saw themselves as victims of their own technological overreach, from nuclear weapons to environmental pollution. The cartoon coyote became an avatar for the human condition in the atomic age, simultaneously clever and foolish, persistent and doomed. By the 21st century, coyotes had achieved something approaching cult status in American popular culture. Environmental organizations like Project Coyote, founded by Camilla Fox, mobilized public opposition to government killing programs and coyote hunting contests. Urban residents in cities from Chicago to New York began celebrating their wild neighbors as symbols of nature's resilience and adaptability. The same qualities that had made coyotes targets for persecution—their intelligence, adaptability, and refusal to disappear—now made them icons of successful coexistence with an increasingly human-dominated world. This cultural transformation was not complete or universal. Wildlife Services continued to kill approximately 80,000 coyotes annually, and rural areas often maintained hostile attitudes toward predators. However, the shift from universal condemnation to widespread admiration represented a fundamental change in how Americans conceived of their relationship with wild nature. The coyote's cultural resurgence reflected a broader recognition that the future would require learning to share the landscape with other species, rather than attempting to eliminate those that conflicted with human interests.

Summary

The coyote's journey through American history reveals a central paradox of human-nature relationships: our attempts to control the natural world often produce outcomes opposite to our intentions. What began as a systematic campaign to eradicate an "undesirable" species ended with that species becoming more widespread and successful than ever before, eventually adapting to live among us in our own cities. This reversal demonstrates that nature possesses its own logic and resilience that consistently outmaneuvers human attempts at domination. The core tension running throughout this story is the conflict between two different ways of understanding our place in the world. One view sees humans as separate from and superior to nature, with the right and responsibility to reshape the environment according to our immediate needs. The other recognizes humans as part of an interconnected web of life, where our long-term survival depends on maintaining the health and diversity of natural systems. The coyote's persistence in the face of unprecedented persecution has forced Americans to confront the limitations of the first worldview and gradually embrace elements of the second. The lessons emerging from this history offer crucial guidance for navigating our current environmental challenges. First, we must recognize that complex ecological systems cannot be controlled through simple technological fixes or brute force approaches. The failure of the century-long war on coyotes demonstrates that nature's adaptability consistently outpaces human attempts at domination. Second, successful conservation requires working with natural processes rather than against them, understanding that species like coyotes play important ecological roles that benefit the entire system. Finally, the coyote's urban success suggests that the future of conservation lies not in segregating humans and nature into separate domains, but in learning to coexist with other species in shared landscapes. As we face unprecedented environmental challenges in the 21st century, the coyote's story offers both warning and hope: warning about the futility of trying to control nature through force, and hope that intelligence, adaptability, and persistence can overcome even the most determined opposition.

About Author

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Dan Flores

Flores interrogates the intricate connections between the natural environment and cultural identity in the American West, using a blend of literary narrative and scientific research. His work is rooted in a deep appreciation for the American West’s ecological and historical landscapes, reflecting his expertise as both a historian and an environmental writer. His narratives aim to reveal the complex interactions between humans and animals, thereby offering insights into how these relationships have shaped regional identities.\n\nThrough his unique approach that synthesizes storytelling with ecological science, Flores captivates readers who are keen on understanding the profound influences of natural history on cultural development. His acclaimed book, "Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History", exemplifies this method by exploring the historical and symbolic significance of coyotes in American culture. Meanwhile, "Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America" further extends his examination of the interplay between human and animal histories. Such works illustrate Flores's ability to marry scholarly research with engaging prose, making complex ecological concepts accessible to a broader audience.\n\nReaders interested in the environmental history and cultural dynamics of the American West will find Flores's books rewarding for their thorough research and compelling storytelling. His contributions have not only enriched public understanding but also earned significant recognition, including awards like the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award. Flores’s work serves as a vital resource for those who wish to comprehend how historical narratives and environmental realities intersect, shaping both personal and collective identities.

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