here’s the book, if anyones interested. It’s a very good read. I’ve got a hardcover and I’ve listened to it on audible. Both are good.
https://www.amazon.com/Coyote-America-Natural-Supernatural-History/dp/0465052991
Mostly through the book. The author is a competent writer but also seems to be left leaning in his characterization of the reasons for different pronunciations of the word coyote. But he has a good narrative, and after his initial political jabs, seemed to be down the middle. Whether the narrative he weaves is true or not I cannot tell, but the story he weaves sounds feasible.
All I know is in my area we had coyotes one year, no rabbits the next summer (a good thing for our garden). But then the missing "do not chase" dog signs with phone numbers started popping up. I still didn't mind the coyotes. Until they started messing with my dog.
On the whole, I think I agree that if you have coyotes in an area, and they are not causing problems with pets and livestock, let them be. Better coyotes that aren't causing trouble than killing them and having other less well behaved coyotes moving in.
The part about coyotes having larger litters when there is a lot of pressure, as during the times when the federal government was using strychnine laced bait by the millions to kill them, wolves, and mountain lions, is something I am still trying to wrap my head around, specifically, the mechanism. Maybe when they howl at night, and hear no return howls from other coyotes, it triggers some sort of hormonal release in the coyote bitches to produce larger litters.
Anyway, good book, but due to politics of author, its hard to tell how much of it is true.
One thing he did not cover is the left's wildification of urban parks giving coyotes places to live in the city. On the one hand, they might keep rat populations down, but on the other, they kill dogs that they perceive to be competitors.
