The Cull of the Coyote
The coyote is often described as wily and clever. One look at the animal’s alert eyes and
sharp features, head hunched and ready for movement, one might agree. But perhaps the coyote
is one of the most environmentally adept creatures on the planet. Opportunistic and adaptable, he
can subsist on just about any food, conform his behavior to be active at night instead of day to
avoid humans, and easily live in different habitats. Like Coyote in Native American lore,
younger brother to Sinauf, the Ute half man, half wolf Creator, and Wolf, today’s coyote is a
shapeshifter.
One thing that doesn’t quite fit the sustainability mold is the animal’s mini population
explosions. In an undisturbed coyote pack, only the alphas breed, and at an average of six pups
per litter, they bear more pups than can survive, so that when there is a death in the pack, another
can step in to take that spot. But it is when the pack is subject to indiscriminate killing –– killing
as many coyotes as possible in an area, given the resources available –– the real population
explosion begins. Dr. Robert Crabtree, expert on undisturbed coyote populations and founder
and chief scientists of Yellowstone Ecological Center says, “It cannot be overemphasized how
powerfully coyote populations compensate for population reductions. Indiscriminate killing
triggers a response in which other pack members begin breeding in larger numbers. Hunting
outside the normal food range becomes necessary to feed the large number of puppies. Solitary
pack members often strike out on their own.”
Since their earliest fossil records from the Middle Pleistocene, about a million years
ago, coyotes have lived in the American west. Only in the past 50 years, since their natural
predators –– wolves, bears and cougars –– have nearly disappeared, have coyotes thrived to their
current numbers. They are now in every state in the US except Hawaii.
Now the coyote’s biggest predator is man. In Utah, the country’s largest predator
control program is waged mostly at the coyote. Officially to improve hunting of the mule deer,
the “Mule Deer Protection Act” offers a $50 bounty for each coyote killed.
Each month, at 21 locations across the state, hunters present a scalp with both ears
attached, along with the lower jaw of each coyote killed. More than 7,000 coyotes have been
turned in for each of the years since the program began in 2012, plus about 250 more from
contracted hunters who were each paid $10,0000. Although the total number of coyotes in the
state are unknown, the law allows for 10,000 of the animals to be killed each year. Utah allots
$500,000 yearly for bounties, and another $600,000 to Wildlife Services to gun coyotes from
aircraft.
The concept behind this program is simplistic: if we eliminate coyotes, mule deer
populations will increase. But is it working? Utah State University study on the state’s bounty
program says no: “Overall, these results suggest that while Utah’s coyote bounty may provide an
enhanced, subsidized recreation program for a small segment of Utah’s citizens, it’s unlikely to
have any beneficial effect on populations of livestock or big game.” In other words, the study
says the program is contributing to sport hunting for big game enthusiasts.
“I think the main strength of the program is that people that hate/blame coyotes feel
better that coyotes are being killed. That Utah tax payers provide the funding does not seem to
be an issue for them.,” says John Shivik, PhD, mammals coordinator for Utah’s Wildlife
Resources. “Bounties are at most extremely inefficient, but quite likely to be ineffective for
producing beneficial effects for big game or livestock
In the state’s own audit on the “Mule Deer Protection Act”, loss and degradation of
habitat are said to be the main culprits for mule deer population declines in western North
America over the last few decades. Crucial mule deer habitat is continuously being lost in many
parts of Utah and severely fragmented in others due to population expansion, development and
natural events. When there is a rebound in deer numbers, credit is being given to expansive
habitat-restoration efforts. “Limited by habitat, cold, and drought––and not predators––fawns
that aren’t eaten die later that winter,” says Shivik. “No actual increase in deer populations occur.
…Many wild habitats where deer now occur are more or less saturated, and a certain number are
destined to die every year. The proximate cause is irrelevant. If coyotes do not kill the surplus
fawns, the deer will die from other causes, especially starvation or exposure.”
It is clear that they often prey on weak or sick animals, improving the overall health of
the species. This could have a beneficial effect by reducing disease transmission.
Out of Balance
When we look at coyotes, we must look at wolves. They are part of the same
ecosystem, each affects the other. Is the bounty program throwing the ecology of the region out
of balance? There is no doubt that removal of wolves has increased coyote numbers. But the
indiscriminate bounty killing is reducing those numbers across the state, often in localized
regions. Since coyotes eat mostly rabbits and rodents, the numbers of those species are now
increasing. A recent study in the Journal of Applied Ecology has shown that an increase in
lagomorphs (mainly jackrabbits) due to coyote hunting in Utah’s Henry Mountains has
contributed to competition with cattle for grasslands. In an ironic twist, the ranchers in the area
had assumed the competition came from bison, but an investigation into the breakdown of
grassland loss showed lagomorphs ate 34%, bison 13% and cattle 52%. When we remove one
part of the food chain it resounds to many others.
In another example, biologists were stumped at the disappearance of aspen trees in
Yellowstone National Park. When they looked at the tree rings, they found that the trees had
stopped regenerating in the 1930s––the same time that all the park’s wolves had been killed for
bounty. The missing wolves resulted in elk overgrazing the aspens and the subsequent loss of
trees, along with stream side vegetation, and beaver and songbird habitat.
Collateral Damage
Wolves are federally protected as an Endangered Species, but last December, a female
wolf who traveled from the Northern Rockies to the Grand Canyon was shot and killed by a
hunter in Utah who claimed he thought she was a coyote, even though she was wearing a radiotracking
collar. Just weeks before, school children around the country celebrated the “first wolf
seen in the Grand Canyon since the 1940s” by naming her Echo.
An investigation into the killing of a protected animal is ongoing, but under the highlydivisive
McKittrick Policy, an act that prohibits prosecuting individuals who kill endangered
wildlife unless it can be proved that they knew they were targeting a protected animal, the
shooter will likely not go to trail over the killing.
In a statement, Kirk Robinson, executive director of the Western Wildlife Conservancy,
based in Salt Lake City, said, “This is a very sad day for wolf conservation and for Utah. All
competent wildlife biologists already know that coyote hunting, including our state bounty
program, is ineffective, and therefore a waste of money – and now we see that it is also a threat
to other wildlife and to wolf recovery.”
While environmental groups act to litigate the Department of Justice to stop the
McKittrick Policy, sport hunting groups seem in no hurry to leave the wolves alone. The special
interest group Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife has received more than $800,000 in funding from
the state to “delist” or turn the management of wolves to state control, which would usurp the
federal government’s oversight of all gray wolves in the US, which are listed as an endangered
species. An October 2013 audit of the Division of Wildlife contract with the group recommended
greater accounting and performance transparency.
Resilience
The coyote’s resilience is legendary. They do eat deer and livestock, but it is often
carrion or from scavenging hunter or other predator kills. They mainly subsist on rodents,
rabbits, carrion, fruit. Analysis of coyotes stomach matter regularly shows such contents as grass,
hay, insects, leather, paper even tinfoil. Not only are coyotes uniquely adaptable to almost every
environment in the country, but they keep their ecosystems in balance. It’s a finely calibrated
system. And coyotes, not the strongest or the largest, are perhaps the most persistent. Trapped,
poisoned, shot at, electrocuted, the list continues. But the coyote prevails. Crabtree continues,
“Just think of the selective pressures, when you think about 100 years of control. In a lot of
areas, you’re killing off half the population. That leaves the smart ones, which reproduce. The
next year you kill half of those. Do that for 100 years and ask yourself, what kind of species do
we have now?”
Shivik is similarly skeptical, “All of the scientific evidence collected before the
program
and then after the program was initiated indicated that it is a tremendous waste of
money. The Mule Deer Protection Act does not have a sunset that I know of. I have not heard
anyone fighting against it. The general public appears to be apathetic about it.”
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The Ute legend goes that the when the earth was young, it was time for it there to be
people. The Creator, Sinauf crafted many sticks, all different but the same size. He put them into
a magic bag and gave it to Coyote. “Carry these over the far hills to the valleys beyond.” He
gave specific directions Coyote was to follow and told him what to do when he got there. “I am
giving you a great responsibility. Do not –– under any circumstances –– open the bag, until you
reach the sacred grounds.”
“What do I carry?” asked Coyote
“I will say no more. Now. Go.” Sinauf answered.
But Coyote was curious, that is his nature, after all. As soon as he was out of sight, he
placed the bag on the ground. He looked at it, nosed it, nudged it. He walked around it, walked
away. Looked at it over his shoulder. “Just one peek into the bag couldn’t hurt,” he thought. But
of course he was wrong.
The moment he untied the bag, all the sticks rushed out, which were now people. They
yelled and hollered in many strange tongues. Coyote tried to gather them back up, but they all
ran off in different directions. He took the bag up and carried it on with him to the sacred valley.
There were only a few stick people left in the bag by the time he got there, but those were the
ones he dumped out in the sacred valley. And those were the true Utes.
Sinauf was angry. “Those you let escape will forever war with the chosen ones, They
will be the tribes which will always be a thorn in the sides of the Utes.”
The truth is, we rarely ever know what will be the consequences of our actions. Pandora
couldn’t put the chaos back into the box, just like you can’t put the cat back into the bag –– or
the people, as is the case with Coyote. Maybe some of those people sticks that Coyote let out of
the bag were the ones that are warring with the coyotes of Utah today.
Works Cited
Shivik, John. The Predator Paradox, Beacon Press, 2014. Print (plus interview)
Utah’s Division of Wildlife, Utah's Predator Control Program, http://wildlife.utah.gov/huntingin-
utah/hunting-information/762, https://wildlife.utah.gov/pdf/fact_sheets/predators.pdf
Utah Indians, http://www.utahindians.org/archives/ute/earlyPeoples.html
Crabtree, Robert, Dr., Letter for Predator Defense, http://www.predatordefense.org/docs/
coyotes_letter_Dr_Crabtree_06-21-12.pdf
Project Coyote, www.projectcoyote.org, Letter opposing Mule Deer Protection Act, http://
www.projectcoyote.org/UT_SB_245_S1_sign-on_letter_to_Gov_Herbert_3-12-12.pdf
Utah Division of Wildlife Services, Department of Natural Resources, Utah Mule Deer
Protection Plan, http://wildlife.utah.gov/hunting/biggame/pdf/mule_deer_plan.pdf
Utah Division of Wildlife Services, Department of Natural Resources, Report, Utah Contract
136039, Big Game Forever, Wold De-listing Efforts http://wildlife.utah.gov/wolf/pdf/
utah_contract_report_2014.pdf
Report to the Utah Legislature, A Review of Appropriated Wolf Management Funds, http://
le.utah.gov/audit/13_11rpt.pdf
Ranglack, Dustin, Durham, Susan, du Toit, Johan T, Competition on the Range, Journal of
Applied Ecology, 26 Jan 2015
Ripple, William J, Wirsing, Aaron J, Wilmers, Christopher C., Widespread Mesopredator Effects
After Wolf Extirpation, Biological Conservation, Apr 2013
Smith, Douglas W., Rolf O. Peterson, and Douglas B. Houston. "Yellowstone after wolves."
BioScience 53, no. 4 (2003): 330-340.