Coyote
COYOTE
COYOTE (Canis latrans) is a wild dog species, smaller than wolves but larger than foxes. The subject of many Native American creation tales and myths, coyotes came under attack during the twentieth century. Livestock ranchers, aided by government bounty hunters, used poison, traps, and aerial hunting to kill 428,849 coyotes in 1988 and an estimated 20 million during the entire century. Nevertheless, coyotes have expanded their numbers and domain from the trans-Mississippi west to every state except Hawaii because they are omnivorous, adaptable, and freed from competitors and predators by those same hunters. Coyotes demonstrate that humans often cannot control nature as they wish.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ryden, Hope. God's Dog: A Celebration of the North American Coyote. New York: Lyons and Burford, 1989.
David C.Hsiung
See alsoIndian Oral Literature ; Livestock Industry .