Coyotes sure are wily

Can one be thankful for coyotes? I kind of am but I’ve never lost a pet or lamb to this wily predator to prejudice my thinking. If any animal could claim to be the Rodney (I get no respect) Dangerfield of the animal kingdom, it should be the coyote. So my normal inclination to pull for the underdog kicks in.

As I watched the Roadrunner cartoons, I wished that just once Wile E. Coyote would manage to grab the pesky Roadrunner by his scrawny neck and throw him off a cliff. It never happened. Poor Wile E. always got the worse of any scheme he concocted. But he always survived and came back for more. I doubt the creators of those cartoons intended to parallel the real life of coyotes, but they did. Like his cartoon namesake, the coyote has always gotten a rotten deal but keeps bouncing back.

Most Native Americans had great respect for the coyote’s intelligence and craftiness. Some tribes even incorporated him into their religious lore. The late arrivals, however, had little regard for the predator that they first labeled “prairie wolf.” Centuries would pass before the coyote could claim to have any friends among the non-indigenous population.

Only in recent years has the concept evolved that this “varmint/ pest” has any right to exist. Prior to that the full weight of government bureaus, hunters and ranchers attacked the coyote with the avowed intent of complete elimination. Using gruesome poisons that caused excruciating deaths, cruel leg traps and shooting from airplanes, almost two million “official” kills were recorded between 1915 and 1947. The killing goes on: about 90,000 per year. Ever resourceful, the wily “prairie wolf” has found a measure of safety in urban environments. City dwellers, say hello to your new neighbor.

In spite of his faults, I’m thankful he’s still around. JOHN McPHERSON Searcy