Coyote on the shoreline of the frozen Great Salt Lake
Media outlets (TV stations and newspapers) jump on stories where a Coyote kills a cat or a dog and sometimes even when a hiker and their dogs are surrounded by Coyotes.
Two fairly recent news cast and one newspaper article come to my mind easily, the articles on the TV were played each time the news came on:
I feel really bad for the woman who lost her dog. I love dogs but I certainly wouldn’t be walking a small dog off leash in an area that the DWR says is an on leash area. That is pretty much a no-brainer.
Alert Coyote pup
But those news articles made me wonder why it is we don’t see articles about the senseless slaughter on Coyotes, is it too gory for prime time news? Does it offend the viewers to see a Coyote’s guts fly into the air after it has been shot? Or is it considered insensitive by the news agencies to show a Coyote suffering when it is being mangled by a steel trap? Why is it that these news agencies rush right out to interview people who lost a dog or were in involved in a close encounter with Coyotes but I haven’t seen the news agencies rush out to follow around a Coyote hunter killing the Coyotes?
The news agencies can demonize Coyotes but don’t write a thing about their deaths? That hardly seems fair or right.
Last year I wrote a post about people in North Salt Lake complaining about the vole irruption they had titled Farmington Utah’s Voles – Just My Opinion and in that post I wrote about some of the suggestions that people had made in the comment section to a) get an outdoor cat and b) use poison to control the voles, both suggestions are not wise at all. And as I suspected the vole population decreased; I might even call it crashed, around fall. I wrote about natural predators, about getting a Kestrel nest box because those little falcons love to catch and eat voles. I also wrote about Coyotes and how many voles they can eat in just five minutes.
Coyotes are predators but they hunt to find enough food to survive.
They aren’t out hunting just to senselessly kill, they aren’t killing for the fun of it and they aren’t killing out of some uneducated or unreasonable fear of their prey.
They aren’t doing it to be famous on YouTube. Last night I was doing some research on Google and came across a link to a video there that made me angry, disgusted and yes, it made me cry towards the end. The title of the video is “110 Coyote Kills in 220 Seconds!!”
If you have a weak stomach, please don’t watch it because it is gory and very disturbing but I think that reputable news agencies ought to report on the senseless slaughter that videos like this one shows. Why haven’t they if they can write articles and show news stories when Fido goes missing?
By the way, at 1:51 seconds into the video the animal that is shot isn’t a Coyote, it is a Bobcat.
I forced myself to watch the whole horrible video and at the end I was very disturbed that some humans; we who are supposed to be the most intelligent beings on earth, find this amusing or entertaining.
I don’t, I find it revolting because I am a compassionate person. I am a humane person. I’m someone who gives a damn about nature, our planet and all of the animals it holds.
Adult Coyote
I dare news agencies to write factual articles about the inhumane practice of slaughtering Coyotes which has been proven by science to be largely ineffective in controlling their population, to observe the Coyotes being blowing up in their dens and to witness the suffering of these animals when they are caught in traps. I dare them to watch these intelligent creatures have their ears cut off for a bounty and see them skinned. I dare them to shadow a Coyote hunter for a few days and show the public just how sickening it is.
An estimated 400,000 Coyotes a year are being killed and you have to dig to find that information in the news, but one dog gets killed by them here in Utah and it was on the 4, 5, and 10 o’clock news, probably the noon news the next day and in the newspapers. Seems a bit skewed to me.
I dare them.
But I won’t hold my breath waiting for them to report on it because they know that many of their viewers will be repulsed by their articles or news reports and will change the channel or skip the article.
Mia
PS, nasty comments by Coyote haters will not be approved by me. This is my blog and I won’t tolerate rudeness here.
Lately I have been seeing more Chukars (Alectoris chukar) than I have through the winter when the Rough-legged Hawks were in the area in large numbers. Rough-legged Hawks primarily eat Lemmings on their breeding grounds and vole when they are not but they will also eat rabbits, ground squirrels and birds year round. So perhaps with fewer Roughies the Chukars feel safer to forage more out in the open. I thought I would share a few older images along with some taken this past week.
Chukar walking through Sagebrush – Nikon D200, f7.1, 1/125, ISO 320, 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 333mm, natural light
Chukars are not native to North America, they were introduced as game birds and in some areas they have thrived, one of those locations is Antelope Island State Park in northern Utah. Chukars in the western United States can be found in various habitats including wide open grassland prairies, steep slopes up to 8,200 feet in elevation, brushy canyons, hillsides with loose rocks and boulders and in amongst low bushes and on the island I often spot them in Sagebrush. I simply adore the spicy, astringent aroma of Sagebrush.
Chukar in grasses – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/2500, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light
Chukars cluck like chickens so there are occasions when I hear them coming before I see them. With their pale buffy, tan and grey coloration they can blend in very easily with their habitat, even the black stripes on their flanks can be mistaken for shadows in the grasses.
Chukar wing flap – Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/1250, ISO 640, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light
I often call Chukars “Rock Hoppers” because in the spring I see them hopping from the ground on to the tops of rocks and boulders to call. Other times the Chukars on top of the rocks appear to be sentinel birds, there to warn the other foraging birds of danger from predators. Even on the top of rocks and boulders they can be hard to spot, thankfully I have excellent long distance vision which usually serves me well because frequently I see birds long before anyone else.
Chukar on snowy hilltop – Nikon D200, f6.3, 1/1600, ISO 400, +0.7 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light
These birds do stand out well against snow and blue bird skies, though it is not often that I find them in those conditions. I am very fond of the series of images I took along with the frame above, the Chukar looks vibrant against the snow covered rocks and the clear blue of the sky.
Chukar on the rocks – Nikon D300, f8, 1/1250, ISO 500, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light
The grasses have begun to push green shoots from the ground here and the Chukars are calling more often from the tops of the rocks and I have witnessed a few skirmishes between the males. They will be nesting before too long.
A piercing stare Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah
Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/1000, ISO 540, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited
This morning I braved going out to Antelope Island State Park knowing full well that this weekend is the “Antelope Island Stampede Festival”. Traffic is up during events like this but because it was the first day of the festival I thought I could get some photography in early in the morning before the masses started arriving. Except for the causeway to the island bird photography has been a bit slow, but the causeway is full of gulls, shorebirds and long distance views of a Peregrine Falcon.
As much as I love and am addicted to bird photography I also enjoy taking photos of other wildlife, scenery and the flora of the places I visit, so when a coyote steps into view I’m always happy to photograph them.
Coyote (Canis latrans) in a prairie grassland Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/1250, ISO 640, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited
It is my opinion that Coyotes; like Wolves, have an undeserved ”bad” reputation. In some places they are shot on sight or caught in metal traps to suffer a slow, agonizing death. I honestly don’t get it. I know they can attack pets and livestock and I feel for the owners of the pets and the for the ranchers the financial loss of the live stock.
Pets often kill the native birds and other wildlife and I believe that the estimates of bird deaths caused by domesticated pets is grossly under estimated. And it isn’t shouted from the roof tops either.
But coyotes and wolves are predators and without those predators nature is pushed out of balance. Coyotes kill rodents which include mice, voles and rats, etc., and by doing so they keep nature in balance. Earlier this year I saw a coyote hunting; and possibly eating, the chicks or eggs of a pair of Short-eared Owls. I adore Short-eared Owls and it caused me distress to watch the event but I did nothing to interfere with what the coyote was doing, it was only doing what comes natural. I had no right or business to intrude.
The Hunter Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/1250, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at325mm, nautral light, not baited
Coyotes and wolves help to cull out the sick and weak animals in herds of deer, antelope and elk which in turn can help to keep those herds in better health and the populations in fewer numbers thus increasing the likelihood that those healthy animals survive and thrive.
What isn’t natural are all the chemicals that are used to kill those same mice, voles and rats when they bother human beings with their presence, droppings and the diseases rodents can spread. Those chemicals can sicken the workers at the production plants and the other pets and humans who come into contact with them.
A Noble Beast Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah Nikon D300, f6.3, 1/1600, ISO 640, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited
These are just my opinions about coyotes and wolves and how they are needed to keep a healthy balance in nature, I know other people feel differently.
I know that I could never shoot them with anything other than my camera. Just saying.
Coyote on the shoreline of the frozen Great Salt Lake
Alert Coyote pup
Adult Coyote
