Outdoors : Still Too Wily for Man : Clever Coyote Has Managed to Survive--and Prosper--in a Human World

A strange figure in camouflage clothing and hood is hunkered down in the sagebrush of the Anza-Borrego desert. He is waiting for the coyotes.

“It’s a funny sport,” says Mike Mathiot, who is armed with a four-inch rosewood flute. “We dress up like bushes and make funny noises to get coyotes to come.”

But, if he blows it, they will come--quickly at first, then cautiously when within 30 or 40 yards, until they determine that the odd figures aren’t what the the sound indicated: a rabbit in distress. Free lunch.

“There he comes,” Mathiot whispers. “There’s two . . . three. One’s a big one.”

The first coyote has checked out the scene, found it suspicious and starts to retreat. But as the two others continue, he follows them in, against his better judgment.

Coyotes are colorblind, but their sight, hearing and smell are extraordinary, and when approaching prey, their senses are on full alert. Then, as quickly as they appeared and for no apparent reason, they vanish back into the sage.

“I think they winded us,” Mathiot says--meaning that the animals have picked up human scent. A coyote will almost always approach its prey from downwind to see if it smells right.

And this day a human has made himself the prey. That’s how the coyote game is played.

The idea, Mathiot said, is “to induce him to violate his survival instincts by exposing himself in broad daylight.”

The stakes are only photographs, but sometimes the game is more serious--deadly serious for the coyotes, as hunters lure them to within range of their bows or .22 rifles. In California and most states, it’s a game anyone can play. No closed season. No license. No limit. There are plenty of coyotes, everywhere. Some value their winter pelts for women’s coats.

Dr. Frederick Knowlton, head of the Predator Ecology and Behavior Project at Utah State, said the cry of the coyote is heard throughout North America.

“Historically, they were considered primarily a Western animal,” Knowlton said. “The evidence suggests they were present in the East but in very low numbers. In the last 35 years, numbers in the East have increased appreciably, and they are currently found from Alaska to Costa Rica.”

Hawaii?

“There are three swimming that way now,” Knowlton said, deadpan.

The coyote--pronounced KI-oat by the experts--continues to confound man with his persistence to survive. Where other wildlife has yielded to urban sprawl, the coyote has held his ground and thrived. There are more coyotes than ever.

Nobody knows how many there are, but Knowlton said that throughout the West, including urban and rural environments, despite lack of protection--indeed, bounties--and attempted eradication by poison and mass shootings, coyotes average from one-half to five or six per square mile and are gaining. They are a plague to sheep ranchers.

Why so many? Where have they come from?

“They’re a real survivor because of man--not in spite of him,” Mathiot said.

Mathiot, the Western regional director for Quail Unlimited, also has produced a 43-minute videotape, “Hunting the Predators ($19.95),” in which the art of coyote calling is demonstrated. A former producer of ESPN’s “Outdoor Sportsman” series, he is a man less comfortable at a desk than walking the outdoors with a long-legged lope, lifting his feet to avoid holes and roots, which are there to trip up shuffling city dwellers.

He follows coyotes’ tracks as if they were road signs, reading their motives as well as their movements. Mathiot has learned this about coyotes:

--They will eat almost anything.

--They are not cowardly, just cautious.

--If they were as dumb as Wile E. Coyote, who still hasn’t caught the Roadrunner, they wouldn’t have lasted this long.

“There is no other animal on the face of this earth that is any more of a survivor than a coyote,” Mathiot said.

“Anything that we throw away, he’ll consume. And anything we don’t guard, he’s going to have--like pets.”

Sometimes it seems they have read the hunting regulations, such as those prohibiting hunting or trapping near cities.

“In essence, you’ve protected him and he can move right in and say, ‘Gee, look at this, I don’t have to go chase a rabbit for 30 minutes until my tongue hangs out. I can get this stupid cat that doesn’t know any better. Or that little dog--and when I’m through eating him, I’ll eat his food.’ ”

Mathiot said one of his neighbors in Pine Valley has lost 14 cats in the past few years--presumably to coyotes.

“Like any other predator, they’re an opportunist. They’ll take the sick and the weak. I’ve seen ‘em around orange groves, where the surplus crop has fallen to the ground. They’ll eat avocados, road kills.”

The coyote also is a clever hunter.

“Once I was watching a fawn in a meadow, out there feeding with the doe,” Mathiot said. “I heard a coyote yap once and another one answer on the other side. One coyote went in and hazed that doe away. The animal was too big for him to drag her down, but while he was doing that, the other one had that fawn.”

Since coyotes are a non-game species, they are classed as varmints by most fish and game departments.

“I hate that term,” Mathiot said. “A varmint’s a rat. A coyote has more distinction.”

Even if they do eat garbage. Their casual diet is one reason they survive.

“But part of it also is their adaptability in being able to learn to adjust to live with man,” Knowlton said. “The wolf can’t.”

Some people think the coyote can be domesticated, like a dog. Not so, Knowlton and Mathiot agree.

Knowlton said: “You have to get ‘em early enough . . . before their eyes open. They can be raised that way, but you can’t trust ‘em. Sooner or later people will violate their rules, and they’ve got one response to that: bite.”

Mathiot added: “People have made pets out of ‘em, but you’d have to be with ‘em day and night. I know some people that bottle-fed ‘em, but as soon as their eyes were open they were snappin’ at anything that moved.”

Adult coyotes have been known to attack humans--particularly, small children--but, Mathiot said, they also have been wrongly blamed for attacks by other animals, including dogs. Generally, unlike most wildlife, they won’t take on anything larger than themselves, which is one reason they shy away from people dressed like bushes.

“The only time I’ve ever seen them get aggressive is when they’re caught in a trap,” Mathiot said. “Then I’ve seen ‘em lay their ears back and snarl. And they do bite quick.”

Otherwise, given an escape route, Mathiot said, “They think, ‘Oops, too big, I’m not fooling with this.’ If a person is confronted by one in his yard or is out hiking and happens to come across one, the best thing to do is stand still. He’ll leave. If you make an aggressive move at him, 99 times out of 100 he’s going to run.

“The coyote really doesn’t have an enemy. The only one might be a mountain lion. But he’s not stupid enough to let himself get in that situation where he could be overpowered.”

Mathiot spends no more than 10 or 12 minutes at any stand, figuring that if coyotes are going to respond to his call, they’ll do it almost immediately.

When they do come, they come silently and suddenly, unseen until they raise their heads above the sage, ears straight up.

“They’re looking,” Mathiot said. “They’re not looking around. They’re locked in. It’s like a stare-down. If they’re walking, they move (laterally) . . . analyzing.”

At one stand, Mathiot sensed a movement out of the corner of his eye and turned his head. That’s all it took. Checking the spot, he found tracks leading in--and divots leading out, where the coyote burned rubber escaping. “I blew it,” Mathiot said. “I should know better.”

Later, under a full moon, that coyote would be heard for miles.

“They’re not howling at the moon,” Knowlton said. “They’re howling at each other. They’re saying, ‘This is my territory, and I’m home. You’d better stay away.’ It’s also a communication between members of a group.”

They also howl, Mathiot said, “to find out if there are any others in the area. If they’re getting ready to travel and they hear another bunch respond, they’re thinking, ‘Why go hunt over there?’ ”

Indians attributed supernatural powers to the coyote.

Douglas Inkley, an expert with the National Wildlife Federation, said: “The coyote continues to do well despite the attempts of people to do him in.”

Maybe the Indians were on to something. Maybe, when the coyote howls, he is laughing.