God's Dog

by Hope Ryden

For two years naturalist/photographer Hope Ryden camped in remote areas of the West observing and photographing coyotes. With eloquence and clarity, she describes the private life of this much-maligned animal in a book that has been heralded as the classic treatise on the subject. While observing her controversial subjects, Hope endured hardships and peril, events she weaves into her beautiful story.

"Full of charm and tenacious inquisitiveness as the appealing animal she pleads is allowed to live."

--The Washington Post

"A faultless and reasoned attitude."

--The New York Times

Genres: Natural History, Nature, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Author-Naturalist Hope Ryden has spent years in the field, studying and photographing North American wildlife. Her behavioral findings have been published in National Geographic, Smithsonian, and Audubon magazine, and her books have been translated into German, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and Russian. To date she has twenty-three books to her credit, all of which are illustrated with her own photography. Her most recent titles can be ordered through Barnes and Noble.com or Amazon.com. Some of her earlier books can be ordered directly from her or from iUniverse.com. Hope is available for school programs, and she also lectures for adult audiences. Her wildlife photographs are handled by the National Geographic's Image Collection or can be ordered directly from her.

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book after reading Hope Ryden's Lily Pond several years ago and absolutely loving it. I was not at all disappointed. Ryden brings a clear, extremely comprehensive, understanding of the natural history and social aspect of the coyote through a multi-year intensive field study on the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming. I have read the two other primary books that she references, Jack Olsen's Slaughter the Animals, Poison the Earth and J. Dobie's The Voice of the Coyote, so some of the history of government-sponsored eradication programs wasn't as shocking to me because I was prepared for the heinous deeds conducted during misaligned "wildlife management" policies in the mid-twentieth century. Reading this book made me want to spend time out in nature observing a species as in-depth as Ryden has. It was a wonderful transport outdoors during the grip of the cold winter when being outdoors for any prolonged period of time is very difficult.

[Don Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book and read it shortly after it was published in 1975 and I have considered it a special book that I should reread someday. The recent death of the author, Hope Ryden, prompted me to pull it off the top shelf and execute my intentions. It is a fine book and the contrast it makes with more recent books about the same species especially Dan Flores's COYOTE AMERICA was starteling. America has made remarkable progress in understanding and protecting this remarkable canine in the 40 odd years that seperate the publishing of the two books. The contrast was so stark that I had the creepy sensation that I had never read Ryden's book in the first place. Read both of these books!!

[Karen Emanuelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read more non-fiction than novels and as everyone knows, a lot of the writing can be dry as a bone in that category. I know it's been a while since the book was written, but it was extensively researched and coyotes are coyotes--highly adaptable opportunists. Hope Ryden did exhaustive research and actually spent two years out "in the field" studying and photographing coyotes. Her writing is absolutely lyrical. I was sad to read that she has died. She was a great friend to the wild ones. I intend to read her other books about Mustangs and other wild animals in peril.

[Chris Ostrowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book. Ms. Ryden has spent so much of her life learning and living with the animal so we may understand it. The Coyote is a vital part of the Eco-system and the Author tries so hard to get that across to us. She breaks down old superstitions and disinformation.
I dare anyone, with a basic education, to read this and not have a better understanding of how Nature keeps Her Balance and how much the Coyote is needed for that.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love canids and expected to enjoy this book, but I was really blown away. The behavior that Ryden observed, especially watching adults rearing pups, was so fascinating and so beautifully described that I couldn't put the the book down. Coyote social dynamics are so much more complex than I expected. My only complaint about this book is that it isn't twice as long - you get the sense that all of this great information from two seasons of watching dens is just the beginning, and that there is so much that we don't know. But given how difficult this information was to get, I can't be too greedy (Ryden lived in blinds and out of a van for weeks, taking great care not to spook these very wary animals...and that was after being lucky enough to find the dens in the first place).
Few (if any?) have attempted this close observation of wild coyote behavior since, so although the book is now over 35 years old and some general information is out of date, it may still be best look into the lives of this species.

The book also contains a heartbreaking, but useful, account of the government's history of "managing" coyotes using ineffective and cruel methods, largely due to constant pressure from the wool industry. I would like to know more about what has happened since - clearly the coyote is still here, despite all efforts to remove it.

[Cindy Poli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written book. Should be required reading for all high schoolers, ranchers, and all who hate coyotes for reasons that have been proven totally FALSE. The author spent many years watching and studying the coyotes in every aspect of their lives, and this book is the result. I always knew the coyote to be a highly intelligent, flexible, adaptable creature, but I’ve learned from this book, just how loving and respectful they are to each other. Coyotes play a very important role in our ecosystem. They keep the rodent population down, as well as cleaning up carrion. Then the author turns to Man. How despicable humans can be to God’s creatures. And our government had been corrupt for a long time.

[Kristen Gast · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coyotes are full stop the most misunderstand animal in America

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hope Ryden spent two years among the Coyotes, observing and writing about their lives. This book has real insight into the life and history of the coyote, and is a bit of history itself, reflecting the challenges environmentalists faced when it was written, in the 1970s. I also found myself mulling over some of the human questions she raises in the book – does a creature need to be capable of cruelty or violence to be capable of love? Of generosity? Some of the philosophical musings come off as just so much mush, but, in combination with the heaping helpings of detail, some of them add up to real questions to ponder.

In the physical domain, I found it particularly fascinating to consider the horrible effects of the attempts to eradicate the coyotes from rangeland. There’s a neat Teddy Roosevelt connection – he wrote a letter to General Young, the superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, suggesting that killing off the predators might not, in the end, be good for the wildlife in the park. It was ignored, as would be generations of others with similar messages. The chapter Man, The Predator, although ill-named (is it really predatory to kill something without intending to eat it), is a study in wastefulness and environmental ignorance. The wholesale slaughter of coyotes yields, if anything, a slight increase in sheep deaths, along with a path of destruction that went beyond the bodies of coyotes to include persistent poisons and other environmental damage. The really sad part was how ineffective it was – coyotes rarely killed sheep, preferring rodents, and lacing dead bodies with poison essentially trained (by selection) them to avoid carrion – which probably led to a few more lamb kills. And coyotes have a great deal of reproductive variability – only a few pups, or many, depending on the food supply. So, short of eradicating the whole species (which was, actually, the aim), the fecundity of the coyote was hard to defeat.

Other interesting tidbits:

The contrast between the picky mating habits of the coyote, where the male helps rear the pups, with the relatively indiscriminate mating of dogs, where they generally don’t. A footnote says that some male huskies have been known to try to help raise their puppies, but no other dogs. I wonder how much of this is because there is no role (and usually no opportunity) for them to help out in the domestic situation? Perhaps we would see some different behavior if dogs had to find food for themselves?

The details of how difficult and testy pet coyotes are, always sensitive to even tiny changes in their environments and unwilling to fully place its trust in a human. There’s a blog-cum-book that I’ve read about someone raising a coyote (under what seemed particularly appropriately circumstances) that had similar more detailed descriptions, but I’m most reminded of Shrinking the Cat, where the presumptive anscestors of modern cats, were (although not identical) raised as pets.

Coy-dogs, coyote-dog hybrids don’t mix back with the coyote population, since they come into heat at the wrong season. This also means their offspring are born in a poor season for foraging.

This book is successful as a work of natural history and well worth reading despite its age. I’m leaving out describing the meat of the book, the everyday lives described with some verve.

I also recommend Lily Pond, by the same author, which I read some years back – although beavers may not have the sex appeal (or even the cuteness-factor) of coyotes and their pups, there was a lot more for me to learn about them, since coyotes are already such an integral part of the popular bestiary.

[Leslie Patten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Few people today, even field biologists, take the time to do what Ryden does--lay in the field, day by day, for over 6 weeks and observes coyote dens. Ryden observes a coyote family for two years, and writes about it in an engaging way. She begins to know each coyote, gives each one a name, observes their interactions and the pups. I learned a tremendous amount about coyotes and their coming and goings from this book. Although written in the 1970's, its even more relevant to today.

For the second year's observation, Ryden locates her den in the undisturbed Elk Refuge near Grand Teton Park, parks her van, and lives out of it, using the van as a 'blind' for 2 months. I really admired Ryden's perseverance and patience.

[Judy]

This book was very well written and was interesting but it was written in 1975 and is now outdated. The author states that coyotes are found mainly west of the Mississippi and in some NE states. Now they're almost everywhere and snacking on lapdogs in the suburbs. I guess I will have to find a more current book to read about behavior of coyotes in Ohio.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read. A bit dated - I had to buy a used copy online. The author was a very good observer of natural life, and for this book, coyotes. It was a little disturbing with some of the accounts about how humans treat this "varmint" and the history of this abuse at the end but that is all good to know, I suppose.

- read about author in NYTimes

[Tulara]

California had coyotes where I lived and the village where I live in New Mexico has them too - maybe I can find out why they always know I am not a coyote when I howl with them...

[Chuck Self]

Nana and I Shared ... a book in Yosemite ...

[Michael]

I read it years ago,couldn't put it down,if one wants to understand "pack" unity,natures ability to adapt,it is very good read,and just to admire a person "Hope Ryden",to take the time to observe part of Natures greatness