It's what we do!

Pardon me seriously geeking out here, but... Have you ever read the stories of the Montana cattle ranchers who discovered that their local coyotes apparently understand the concept of "bargaining" and "if you're bribed you stay bribed?"

This was like a decade ago that I read this, but apparently the clever little buggers had started incorporating poison traps into their dominance rituals-- making it a rite of passage to learn which bait is toxic and which isn't. They'd just... er... "physically desecrate" the toxic ones, in the way you'd expect a canid to desecrate things. n.n; As if to say "we know exactly what you're doing, screw you."

So the ranchers consulted some wildlife specialists and just started leaving out unpoisoned meat bribes for the coyotes. And it worked. Beautifully. They lost far less meat that way-- the coyotes would eat their tribute and leave the ranch's livestock alone. The coyotes had put a cartel together and they seemed to know it.

Inspiring, huh? I have no idea if any of this true or not, but it sure sounds plausible given everything else I've heard about coyotes. I may be a cat person, but my money's on coyotes for winning the Take Over For Humanity Derby...

We certainly try at least!

This is really lovely, Lockheed <3

Yeah even when we're at our lowest, I think the coyote is a great inspiration to remind us to keep our heads up :3

Nice picture. They're better survivors than wolves, as it happens.