NORTH HILLSDALE—The annual meeting of the Roe Jan Alumni Association (the first in several years due to Covid-19) will be held Tuesday, November 14, 2 p.m. at the North Hillsdale United Methodist Church, 1012 County Route 21C Extension, off Route 22. All alumni are welcome and encouraged to attend. Questions? Email Dan Duchardt, treasurer and acting president, at roejanalumniassociation@gmail.com.
By NANCY JANE KERN
COYOTES ARE OFTEN HEARD AT NIGHT and the eerie yips, barks, and howls send instantaneous shivers down the spine. There were a few glimpses of them at dusk and then one came in daylight. She was large, thin, yellow and very wary. It was spring and I correctly assumed she was feeding a family. By June she brought her two half-grown young to teach them to hunt. They were much less cautious and would come closer to the house as they watched her work the back portion of the field. Eventually, they all were hunting. Their technique was to walk across an area and freeze if a mouse was located.
Coyotes can hear higher-pitched sounds than domestic dogs, and their incredible sense of smell helps them find prey. They leap in the air and pounce down like a cat. The daughter was the best hunter, catching one mouse after another. Freeze, pounce, bite, and then toss the dead animal in the air, grab and swallow. While she was busy, her brother sat and watched. A couple of times he got up and poked around, but mostly waited as if he expected to be fed. She did not oblige. Females may stay with the mother in a small group (called a band, pack, or rout) of about five or six coyotes who may hunt together to cover about two square miles per night and a total territory of more than 10 square miles. The young males go out of the territory to start new family groups. Coyote mortality is high through the death of young, by hunters and trappers, and from cars. A pack can kill a deer, and we find the remains of fawns in our woods.
Coyotes are scavengers and pets and livestock can be coyote prey, as well as colonies of feral cats. And yes, they will rarely mate with domestic dogs. The usual combination is a male coyote and a female dog. The offspring are called coydogs. A family member unknowingly raised a puppy that was a coydog. They constantly hunt, resist training, and do not make good pets. It is rare, but coyotes have attacked humans, and children in particular can be in danger. It is recommended not to feed coyotes or allow them access to pet food or garbage because they lose their fear of humans.
Coyotes in our area have some wolf blood which may make them darker and larger than western coyotes. One fall a nephew was sitting on the ground resting against a tree when he felt something by his elbow. He turned to see a coyote sniffing his sleeve! He jumped to his feet and the coyote took off in the opposite direction. He could not believe how quiet it had been to creep up on him through the dry leaves. Our Indigenous People called the coyote the trickster for good reason. From his yellow eyes to his thick fur and bushy tail the coyote is a handsome and intelligent fellow who knows how to take care of himself.
