MOUNTAIN LIFE - Blue Mountains | Winter 2019

WINTER 2019 ML BLUE 101 words :: Laura Raimondi Dusk is falling as I bike along the gravel trails in Collingwood. I turn a blind corner and find myself heading straight towards a very wild-looking dog. I come to an abrupt stop and quickly realize that that this is no domestic dog but the wild canid known as Canis latrans —the coyote. We both stop in our tracks. Our eyes meet briefly; we’re both curious. Seconds later he (or she) trots away, gives me a hasty sidelong glance, and within moments is out of sight. This isn’t my first encounter with a coyote and it likely won’t be my last. Human-coyote encounters have resulted in a polarized and emotionally charged culture in both urban and rural Canada. Animal advocacy groups, community groups and local governments have struggled to find common ground on how to manage the “prairie wolf.” This isn’t the first time humans and coyotes have struggled with the terms and conditions of their ecological contract, and our present situation is by no means new or unique. The human-coyote relationship has spanned thousands of years in a complex mix of ecology, biology, and folklore. The coyote has lived in North America for more than a million years and can now be found roaming the landscape from Central America to above the Arctic Circle. The coyote is a central character in Indigenous art and myth, often appearing as a “trickster” spirit. Over the past 500 years the coyote has expanded its territory from western parts of the continent to the east, including the Great Lakes region. “Clearing of land and availability of resources, mainly food, made conditions good for an expansion east,” explains Brent Patterson, Research Scientist and Adjunct Professor at Trent University. “The hybridized eastern coyote occurs in southern Ontario. Although it carries wolf genetics, from a physical, behavioural and genetic perspective, it remains more coyote than wolf.” The first reported coyote in Ontario was found dead in Lambton County in 1919. Since that time, coyotes have spread throughout the province as have accounts of attacks on livestock and pets, and property damage. Humans have invested much time and energy into the eradication of the “desert dog.” “There was a provincial bounty on wolves and coyotes in Ontario until 1972,” says Brent Patterson. “This bounty originally applied COYOTE CONSCIOUSNESS This survivor species has a lot to teach us ENVIRO