Like a page out of a child’s storybook, a coyote and a badger trot side by side, seemingly the best of friends. The remote camera video clip was captured recently under a busy highway in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains. It’s gone viral on Twitter, showing just how much people love to cheer on unusual animal bonds.
“Do not feed coyotes,” the police implored people heading into Central Park this week. If you see one, they added, try to “appreciate” it “from a distance.” And, of course, “Protect your pets.” The New York Police Department’s message, shared on Twitter, prompted a wave of news reports, along with a few questions on social media. So, we talked to some coyote experts.
One morning in the 1930s in Yellowstone, biologist Adolph Murie watched a trotting coyote joyously toss a sprig of sagebrush in the air with her mouth, adroitly catch it, and repeat the act every few yards. Murie was conducting a study to prove that coyotes were “the archpredator of our time.” But the biologist, whose work ultimately exonerated the animals, was more impressed by that sprig-tossing — proof of the joy a coyote took in being alive.
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Wildlife killing contests, where contestants kill coyotes or other animals en masse for entertainment and prizes, were banned by the St. Paul City Council in an ordinance Wednesday. In a unanimous vote, the council passed the ordinance banning, “the indiscriminate killing of wildlife in the form of wildlife killing contests.”
The St. Paul City Council just issued a resolution condemning wildlife killing contests, in which participants compete to kill the largest, the smallest, or the greatest number of coyotes, foxes, and other species for cash and prizes.
It happened quickly and quietly. In fact, it was the silence that made David Brosh wonder why the family’s two white Westies, taking a quick bedtime potty break, hadn’t barked to come back inside.