The author wanted to see a coyote. Not in a zoo or research center (though she did visit one where litters of coyote pups were being raised), but out free in the wild. Near her house. This book is about all sorts of things circling around the coyote. Sometimes it doesn’t sit well with me when a book purportedly about an animal, tends to be just as much about the author’s personal life. In this case, I didn’t mind- I found that part interesting and relevant, but I can see why another reviewer complained about it. She talks about the landscape, her reasons for moving away from the area and back home again, her fears of the family’s reactions to her partner (she’s lesbian), her trans friend visiting, how she attempts to thwart deer and other animals from eating her garden (I can relate!), looking for a fox den, the history of wildlife management where she lives (and all over the States, really), etc. The parts about coyotes range from how they’ve been persecuted to their interbreeding with wolves. There’s plenty of musings on how close coyotes are related to red wolves or Mexican wolves, and where do you draw the line to define a species. Because is the Eastern coyote a coyote/wolf hybrid, or a coyote evolving into a distinct species- larger than its western counterpart, with subtle but distinctive differences in how it hunts, how its pups play, and so on. A lot of those differences align more with the habits of wolves, so thus the confusion. There was a lot in here about coyotes and wolves and their interrelationship with man (in general) that I hadn’t thought on before. I knew that coyotes eat cats and small dogs, I didn’t know they would attempt to make off with a small child- many incidents of toddlers being accosted by coyotes in here. And in the end, the very last chapter, she does finally catch a fleeting glimpse of a coyote, out in the wild. Pervasive, persistent, elusive creature. Like so many other animals– they are surviving around and in spite of us because they’re successful.
Borrowed from the public library.
2 Responses
Interesting, I wonder what state she’s in? Here in New Mexico, coyotes are everywhere. (We have a ton of open, “wild” land.) Sadly the number of “missing” dogs and cats is really high as well, though like you I hadn’t realized they were a risk to children as well.
In Massachusettes, I forgot to mention that. Coincidentally, just the other week I saw my first coyote around here- not nice that it was on the side of the road, but it really startled me because up until now I’ve only seen deer, foxes, raccoons, squirrels. Sometimes a possum or turtle. Had never seen a coyote before and that really made me sit up and notice.