Coyote Crucifix
by Kent Staubus
The relationship between landowners and wildlife is often a complicated one. They now see a value to providing some quality habitat for wildlife on their property since it's widely known that increases its value. While landowners welcome an increase in populations of "desirable" creatures, there is still a very deep seated prejudice against other species. These include rattlesnakes, prairie dogs, porkypines, and all of the larger carnivores. Such as coyotes. "Undesirable" animals are often shot on sight.
The near hatred of coyotes is long standing in ranch country. When I ask about it, I'm told that coyotes kill young calves. I personally have my doubts just how often this happens and wonder if the ranchers are simply seeing coyotes eating calves that were stillborn. Over the years I have made a point to mention that coyotes have their role in the ranch's management as they mostly eat mice, rabbits, and especially the "dreaded" prairie dogs. Some ranchers cede the point, althought grudgingly. Many others continue the war begun by the first homesteaders, as is evident in this photo. (In contrast, Lakota people revered the coyote for its cunning and hunting skills.) Despite the unrelenting carnage, coyotes have actually flourished here once their own main predator, the wolf, was eliminated.
My purpose in most of my photos is to show life on the Northern Plains during my life & times. My goal is to take a quality photo that illustrates an aspect of that. My goal is not so much to make a photo of something "beautiful" since not all I see is beautiful.
Perkins County, South Dakota
Nikon F100
Nikon 18-30mm
SB-28 flash on sync cord
Gitzo tripod
Kent in SD
Comments
29 commentsThe problem with photos like this is they are often used, as in this instance, to cause people to think with their hearts and not their heads, which isn't always the best even for the animal in question. I can see both sides of the issue, I hope everyone else can too.
Thanks for sharing.
thanks for sharing,
Bill Meikle
Colorado
Kent in SD
Steak cows= exotic species
Canis latrans= indigenous
Just a reminder that cattle graze on borrowed land. One should expect to lose a calf every now and again. Perhaps ranching isn't the best job for somone who feels compelled to murder the natives....
As long as this sort of behavior continues, coyote populations will continue to expand. Anyone hear of "fight or flight"? A little education and and study of non-lethal alternatives might do some ranchers a lot of good. Learning to coexist with the native wildlife is a lot richer and more rewarding of an experience....
All in all, I share many of your sentiments. This particular land was what's called "deeded land," which means the rancher actually owned it. It wasn't BLM. Still, my message to the farmers and ranchers I come across in my travels is that every creature has it's place, it's role, it's job. As we've learned from the past indiscriminate extermination creates bigger problems than what there was to begin with. The coyotes do have a role in keeping the prairie grazing land healthy. And, I point out the West would be a little poorer if we no longer heard the lonesome howl of a coyote as the moon rises in the evening. Right?
Kent in SD
If this doesn't get recognized as a Moderator's Pick this week I will rip my shirt off, beat my chest and run through the neighborhood screaming about the unfairness of life. Well, on second thought, maybe I'll just be disappointed. I think the man and nature forum has an often unserved purpose: to illustrate the interaction of man with nature. As you know better than I do, what this photograph shows is not some special, rare event. You are showing us something that is done all the time. I've seen many of these guys on the fence.
Regards, Pete D.
Joe.
This photograph is SO powerful. It is also very disturbing; makes me sick. No creature deserves to die like that in disrespect and humiliation all because of the ignorance of a "superior being." This coyote (and too many others) is a martyr.
Thank you for posting this along with your comments.
in the case of the consumer wanting fesh meat on the table at a rock-bottom price, well...this is part of the "price"...in enlightened economic theory, it is called "the hidden cost of goods"...
most would prefer that those "costs" remain hidden, or, if not, then place the blame for them on someone else...
Ranchers have a hard time making it. I know this is true. I've herded cows for them and ridden on roundups and lived in ranch country. They eke out their profit on a slim margin. So anything that reduces their ability to produce saleable livestock is a direct threat, and coyotes do kill calves. However, I have no doubt that most times when someone sees a coyote lunching on a calf or cow, it died for other reasons and the coyote is just doing what coyotes do to make a living.
And, on an ironic note, biologists tell us that the surest way to get coyotes to produce larger litters of coyotes is to start killing them and reducing the population. Natural processes kick in then, and more young are developed and born.
There's a place SW of Presho (Lyman county?) that I love to go for winter raptors. A couple of winters ago, the rancher there had taken the time to take two coyotes he'd shot, and duct-taped each one, spread-eagle, on telephone poles. Lovely.
This is right by a pheasant-hunting operation, with thousands of bred and released pheasants milling around in winter (hence all my raptors I like to come photograph). I wonder if it's the same rancher who was convicted 5 years ago or so for shooting eagles, Gyrfalcons, and hawks because they were eating "his" pheasants.
Sigh.
Jim
Thanks for sharing your capture.
~Henie~
Sometimes there simply aren't any new words to add other than to say thank you for posting this photo.
Hatred of wolves and coyotes is so common and the animals are so misunderstoodl.
Again, thank you.
Carol
http://hy-tec-training.com
David M. Cobb
I am truly sorry I stumbled across these images.
Michele