Mike in the Wild

The metronome of chirping crickets are a close second to an owl's hoots as the most calming notes in an Arizona night's soundscape.  But every once in a while, this dreamy peace is broken by the din of coyotes in a seemingly frantic pursuit of prey.   This noise is not the long and mournful howl we associate with wolves and westerns, but a cacophony of yips and yowls that make you think a pack of ten canines are terrifying their unlucky prey.  But experts say this vocalization is often just one or two coyotes fooling their victim into thinking he's greatly outnumbered. So it's not surprising that in the folktales of some Native Americans, especially in the southwestern United States, the coyote often portrays a trickster or some other kind of deceiver.   In the canine's historic range of what is now mainly Mexico and the deserts and plains of the United States and Canada, he is the most common predator for herds of cattle and other livestock.  The ...