Howling success/ The coyote draws fans, foes as it expands its range

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Oct 6, 2003 by BILL RADFORD

The coyote has played many roles in man's world.

It is a key figure in American Indian mythology - "God's dog" to some and the "trickster" to others. Ranchers often view coyotes as a threat to be eliminated. Southwestern artists have seized on them as an icon for their art.

Wildlife activist Gayle Hoenig views the coyote as an intelligent, beautiful creature that often has been what she considers an unfair target of hatred and persecution. So when she learned the Colorado Division of Wildlife recently issued a news release on coyotes, she feared the worst.

"When it involves coyotes, it is always a proposed slaughter at the least," she says.

The release, though, simply offered general information on coyotes and advice on how to avoid conflict with them. The news release was spurred, in part, by an Aurora woman's encounter with some brazen coyotes possibly in search of a handout. No one was hurt, but the Division of Wildlife saw it as an opportunity to remind people that coyotes are wild creatures - and to treat them as such.

The release also cast a spotlight on an animal that prefers the shadows. The coyote is found across the state, from the woods to back yards to urban alleys. Yet it's an animal that, with its haunting howl, is more heard than seen.

"I hear them out here every night," says Hoenig, who operates a 35- acre wildlife sanctuary north of Peyton. "I know they're all over out here, but I can't find one to photograph or film."

ACHIEVING UBIQUITY

Maybe it's the coyote's reputation for cunning. Maybe it's that eerie cry. Whatever the reason, the coyote clearly has grabbed our imagination.

So though you may never encounter the elusive creature, the coyote is hard to escape. Its image has become synonymous with the Southwest, found everywhere from restaurants to jewelry stores to beauty salons. The coyote is a selling point for Coyote Run, a development in Moab, Utah, that advertises the fact that residents can listen to the songs of the coyote from their porches.

But the ever-present coyote isn't limited to the Southwest. It's key to the identity of companies from coast to coast, from Pittsford- N.Y. based Coyote Eyewear to San Jose, Calif.-based Coyote Point Systems Inc., an Internet technology company. Coyote Run, a Williamsburg, Va., band that plays "full-throttle Celtic music," explains on its Web site it got its name from coyotes' display of energy and playfulness.

Through the coyote, people are satisfying a desire to tap into American Indian culture, says Louis Cicotello, a professor of visual arts at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. The fascination with that culture is far-reaching. When spending time in Paris in the past year or so, he saw everything from dream catchers to coyotes to Pueblo pottery.

"You name it, it's everywhere," he says.

The familiar image of the bandana-wearing coyote is far removed from the complex Indian myth, he says. But these kitsch versions, he acknowledges, "are cute. They're enjoyable."

While the coyote has worked its way into the worlds of art and business, it also has expanded its physical range. Once limited to the Great Plains and western regions of North America, coyotes now are found throughout the United States and most of Canada.

Their ability to adapt is one key totheir success.

"They're what we classify as a generalist," says Michael Seraphin, a spokesman for the Division of Wildlife's Southeast Region office in Colorado Springs. Because coyotes don't have very specialized habitat needs, he says, "they do very well when the habitat changes and humans come in and build subdivisions and communities and whatever."

As a result, coyotes can show up pretty much anywhere, Seraphin says. "I've seen them right in town, but they're more apt to be found in the outlying eastern areas."

RANCHERS' NEMESIS

Not everyone is happy to have coyotes around. Livestock interests and sportsmen's groups that blame coyotes for declines in deer herds long have pushed for a broad campaign to kill coyotes. Two years ago, the state Wildlife Commission rejected a proposal by the Colorado Mule Deer Association to offer hunters incentives to kill coyotes.

Despite the animal's ubiquitous nature, the DOW's Colorado Springs office receives few calls about coyotes. When a vanished pet is the apparent victim of wildlife, it's tough to determine whether it was taken by a coyote, fox or other creature. And ranchers take care of coyotes on their own if they pose a problem on their land.

"The biggest loss that ranchers have are calves," Seraphin says. "A couple of coyotes can pretty easily take down newborn calves."

Hoenig, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator specializing in bats and coyotes, works to educate ranchers about nonlethal forms of predator control.

"I've got chickens and ducks and turkeys and peacocks and cats and dogs and I've been out here for 20 years and never lost anything to a predator. That is because I have predator-proof pens. And we've got coyotes all over out here," she says.