Coyote Ugly « POWIP

29Oct/099

Coyote Ugly

So, I read this. Then I read it again. I keep reading it. There's so much to say about it, I don't even know what to say about it.

First, it's awful. I sincerely feel bad for the girl and her family. No one wants death by coyote. I'm not even joking, I'm being perfectly serious. What happened was horrible.

Before I get going, I want to say that the coyote did not "mistake her for a deer." I've spent a lot of time hunting wishing for a way to be "mistaken for a deer" or "mistaken for an elk." Coyotes have a pretty awesome sense of smell. People do not smell like deer.Â People smell like people.

So...what is the lesson here? To not walk alone in coyote-infested forests? Blame Canada?

I think one lesson is about appearing weak. I like this one because it works not just with coyotes, but with other animals, men, and babies. I used to sell beer, which is a male-dominated industry, and from the very beginning I knew I had to demand respect. Appearing weak or waif-like would just get me trampled on. Sure, people thought I was a bitch at first, but once they knew I was a competent bitch, we could develop a rapport and I didn't have to be such a hardass and we ended up liking each other for the most part.Â This may sound ridiculous but that's really how it went down. I got to watch my replacement in action and she fell back on the "I'm a silly girl, but I'm so cute, gotta love me" routine. That worked for about...two seconds. Then all the men thought she was, well, a silly girl and treated her accordingly. So then she flipped and tried to bring out the bitch routine and all that accomplished is now everyone thinks she's a silly bitch. You can start a bitch and then use your feminine wiles, but not the other way around. Machiavellian business lessons learned from coyotes.

Though I should note that feminine wiles don't work on coyotes.

The other lesson is about wildlife management. Before I tackled this topic, I wanted my dad's opinion. He was a lot calmer about the whole story than I was. I said, "It's just hard for me to imagine. All the coyotes I see are running away from me." He simply said, "That's because here, they'd get shot. There, no one can shoot them and they know it." This is a pretty common theme and you see it with protected predators everywhere: cougars in California (mountain lions, not older women), grizzlies in Montana, wolves in Wyoming, criminals in New York...

I'm just kidding about that last one. Kind of.

Falahime

Falahime Blah blah blah, Wyoming, blah blah, massage therapist, details cars, used to sell beer, blah blah, hunts big game. That’s about all there is to me; I’m pretty simple.

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serr8d
October 29th, 2009 - 11:05

Here. This might make it better.

Cold Coyote

It was one of my last images of 2008. I spotted this frozen coyote on the side of a gravel road on my way into town. This is exactly how I found the coyoteâ€”frozen stiff, sitting up, at the side of the road. Weâ€™d been having temps of below -30C for two weeks. I guess this is part of the natural selection.

From the National Geographic “Extremes of Nature” photography contest.

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K
October 29th, 2009 - 13:43

In the south OC in California, we have lots of coyotes. They usually satisfy themselves by picking off the local neighborhood pets, but every couple of years they attack a child. I complained to animal control about coyotes and bobcats roaming the UC Irvine campus utterly unafraid of the people there. The response I got was “Well, they were here first!”.

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- Falahime
  October 29th, 2009 - 15:09
  
  That argument drives me crazy. Then again, I’m insensitive to my response to “They were here first!” is “Well, I’m here now!” Balance is important; I’m not advocating eradication of coyotes. But common sense is important too.
  
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agile_dog
October 29th, 2009 - 13:53

My condolences to the young woman’s family. Such a tragic loss.

We have a large pack of coyotes in the woods behind our house – there is over 200 acres and a river of essentially unused land. When we walk our dogs out there, I always take a gun. Especially because of the dogs – the coyote will see them as competition and try to kill them. I have no use for coyote or chipmunks – shoot on sight.

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StickeeNotes
October 29th, 2009 - 14:36

Your dad is 100% right. When an animal no longer looks at people as predators, they will become bold. The Coyotes that lived around my home town were extremely skittish for a reason. Nobody with a gun would hesitate to take one out, if given the chance. In stark contrast, the kit foxes were extremely bold and would wander through town. Their status as an endangered species made them see human civilization as a source of food rather than a place filled with predators. Thankfully they are small and pose no threat to people.

The death of the girl is sad, but that sort of thing happens when people relinquish their position as the apex predator.

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Strawman
October 29th, 2009 - 19:26

I think some of these Canadian coyotes need to be water boarded… put a bit of fear in em.

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Stefan
October 29th, 2009 - 19:29

What happened to the days when all coyote’s would only chase roadrunners? But joking aside this is a very terrible story and another reason FOR hunting. Anti-hunting activists claim that the only reason wild animals attack humans is because we’re taking over their habitats – and while this is certainly true to an extent, they also attack because they’re wild animals, it’s in their nature.

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Joe
October 30th, 2009 - 07:18

I see coyotes all the time and they do generally run away, but my first guess on this would be rabies or something unnatural (like some hybrid coydog pet gone bad). There is not enough information to tell. But mistaking her for a deer is definitely not what is going on.

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- Cowboy
  October 30th, 2009 - 10:54
  
  Joe:
  
  We have many more coyotes in east-central Indiana than ever before. The first sign we had that they’d moved back into the area was when all of the barn cats disappeared. My neighbors have lost two of the dogs they let wander around all day–a yorkie, and a schnauzer.
  
  Many of them, according to my trapping friends, are coy-dogs. And these are the dangerous ones, not only to humans, but especially to livestock, because they pack up.
  
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