Nature finds a way... welcome Canis latrans

Here is one of my more recent columns for Cub magazine, the Indian environmental magazine for kids published by my good friends at Sanctuary Asia in Mumbai:

Dear Cub kids,

My neighborhood is going to the dogs. Coyotes, to be precise. In the last few months, there have been many reports of coyote sightings in my leafy green neighborhood. What is a little amazing is that I live in New York City! We have predators again, and things feel just a little bit wilder… perhaps not quite so wild, though, as the Mumbaikers among you enjoy, with your leopards in Sanjay Gandhi National Park!

What is a coyote, you ask? I think the closest creature in your animal kingdom is the jackal. In fact, the coyote (Canis latrans) is also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf. It is a species of canid (dog) ranging throughout North and Central America. Its cousin, the gray wolf, originated in Eurasia, but the coyote evolved in North America during the Pleistocene epoch 1.8 million years ago. Though coyotes continue to be persecuted as vermin, unlike the wolf, the coyote’s range has expanded despite human hostility. These adaptable dogs are moving into suburban and even urban areas with ease.

I wonder when a predatory species last lived in the area now occupied by bustling New York City? There have been occasional visits by wandering coyotes, but nothing like the recent influx of what may amount to a substantial pack. It’s so interesting to learn about the natural history of the area you live in, particularly if it’s an urban area that has changed drastically over time. A scientist named Eric Sanderson has researched what the island of Manhattan was like in 1609, in the days before the first ship bearing Europeans sailed into what is now New York harbor, and up the Hudson river west of Manhattan.

Dr. Sanderson learned that on the day the European explorers arrived (they were looking for a water route to China), Manhattan’s luxurious forests were home to many predators, including humans, coyotes, wolves, gray and red foxes, bobcats, lynxes, mountain lions, otters, minks, fishers, wolverines, short- and long-tailed weasels, martens, and black bears.

Of all this wealth of predatory creatures, only humans remain in New York City… humans, and now, coyotes.

Nearly every day, I go for a long walk around my neighborhood. It’s no accident that coyotes are being seen with increasing regularity. There are large wooded areas here, including swathes of not-too-disturbed forest right along the river. A few weeks ago, while walking my dog, I encountered a man who said he’d seen four coyotes together the previous morning. (My dog Sadie is a collie-shepherd mutt who looks quite a bit like a coyote herself… these days, she causes my fellow woods-walkers to stop dead in their tracks!) And a couple of days ago, as I was driving home along a quiet road bordering a stretch of forest, I saw a coyote dash just a few meters in front of my car. It ran into the forest through an opening in a fence. When I reached the opening I brought my car to a stop, hoping for a glimpse. Sure enough, there was the coyote – brown eyes, long, pointy nose, pointed ears, shaggy brown and cream coat, and bushy tail hanging down. I made clucking sounds and it turned and gazed at me for a moment. Contact.

Coyotes typically live in packs of six adults, yearlings and young, but tend to hunt in pairs. They eat small mammals, including voles, prairie dogs, rabbits, ground squirrels and mice, and ground-nesting birds. They prefer fresh meat but will eat carrion, and consume lots of fruits and vegetables in the fall and winter months. Part of their success is due to their ability to eat nearly anything available, including human rubbish and domestic pets. Their calls consist of high-pitched howls, yips, yelps and barks. A few years ago, I heard a small pack of coyotes howling near my sister’s farm in northern Vermont, and was struck by the wolf-like beauty of the sound.

Coyotes have moved into areas where wolves have been killed or forced out by humans, much the way leopards in India move into areas where tigers are absent. Like all predators, coyotes have played an important role in the stories and particularly the creation mythology of native peoples… sometimes appearing as wily “tricksters,” sometimes as soulful heroes.

There have been only two recorded fatalities in North America from coyote attacks. And yet, the coyote continues to be viewed by ranchers, the government, and many wary urban- and suburbanites, with disdain and suspicion. (The U.S. government routinely shoots, traps, and poisons 90,000 coyotes each year to “protect” livestock). In the mountainous region of Vermont where my sister lives, anyone can shoot a coyote, any time.

I can already sense a great deal of unease among my friends and neighbors about the presence of coyotes in our remote corner of the city.

I wish them well.

Your friend,

Jen