wild things
Land of the Song Dog
BY ELLEN GORDON illustration by Kai Krensler
Would it bother you to know that until the law was changed last year , Maryland allowed wildlife killing contests , in which participants competed to kill the most , the heaviest and the smallest animals for prizes ? Would your feelings alter if you knew that these nowillegal contests targeted coyotes ?
Even with those killing competitions outlawed , Maryland hunting and trapping laws reflect the coyote ’ s status in the state as less-than-desirable . While trapping season is limited to November through February , coyotes may be hunted year round , day or night , using firearms , archery or air guns , with no bag limit — a dubious honor shared only with groundhogs .
Why so much rancor for this ultimate American survivalist ? Hunters may view them as competitors , pet owners may view them as dangerous and livestock farmers may perceive them as threats . There ’ s both merit and misunderstanding to these concerns . Meanwhile , there are those who thrill at the chance to hear their yip-howls in the night , with its otherworldly edginess and echoes of wilderness .
Coyotes were not present on the East Coast when Europeans began arriving . They were only found west of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers , most commonly on the Great Plains and in the arid southwest . So how did they come to inhabit the East ?
Upon settling the new world , Europeans energetically set about eradicating major predators — particularly wolves and cougars — wherever they encountered them . This landscape-scale extirpation in the East left an oversized gap in the large carnivore ecological niche . Add to that the fragmentation of forests as they were cleared and converted for agriculture , reducing wolf and cougar habitat while creating the more open environment that coyotes prefer . havE A LISTEN ...
If you ’ ve never been fortunate enough to hear coyote ’ s voice , here ’ s a link to a minute long recording . Just be sure , as the website warns , to lower your volume ! www . nathab . com / blog / video-listen-to-the-howls-of-coyotes-the-song-dogs /
18 plenty I spring sowing 2022