Caterina’s Reviews > Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History > Status Update
Caterina
is on page 10 of 304
[For 15,000 years] Something about our lifestyle has always drawn coyotes to human camps, villages & cities. That something is ecology at its simplest, even if it makes us squirm a bit. A coyote's primary prey happens to be our close fellow travelers, the mice and rats that flourish around us in profusion.As for fearing us too much to tolerate our presence, coyotes have taken our measure far too perceptively for that
— Sep 18, 2026 05:59AM
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Caterina’s Previous Updates
Caterina
is on page 120 of 304
The ecological niche breakthrough [by Joseph Grinnell, 1924] was critical for understanding wild coyotes & appreciating predators generally. In nature a "niche" is analogous to an occupation in human culture..Niches for predators had existed across time as part of the balance of nature that ancient societies had marveled at. In scientese, the coyote trotting across America..occupied the niche of a mid-sized predator.
— Sep 22, 2026 05:31AM
Caterina
is on page 116 of 304
Humans are ancient veterans of..pushing fellow animals into the black hole of oblivion..Even so, few if any organized states have ever been so coldly calculating about species cleansing as to set into law..a strategy to exterminate a single mammal native to its continent. If the residents of [New York City] want to know why coyotes are sleeping in their flowerbeds..the interrogation can begin here...
— Sep 22, 2026 04:38AM
Caterina
is on page 79 of 304
[Mark] Twain..hit stride in what became a classic description with a long reach.."The cayote is a long, slim, sick&sorry-looking skeleton, with a gray wolf-skin stretched over it, a tolerable bushy tail that forever sags down with a despairing expression of forsakenness &misery, a furtive&evil eye,&a long, sharp face..He has a general slinking expression all over. The cayote is a living, breathing allegory of Want."
— Sep 21, 2026 05:35AM
Caterina
is on page 25 of 304
Coyote (capitalized to distinguish the deity from the ordinary coyote trotting by while you read) is the most ancient god figure of which we have record [in N. America]. No one knows when..or exactly how Coyote became a principal figure in so many different peoples' creation stories and ruminations on the human condition.No other native deity in America came anywhere close to inspiring such a vast body of literature.
— Sep 19, 2026 03:15PM
Caterina
is on page 6 of 304
But the range expansion of a wild animal for thousands of miles in every direction, often through dense settlements of humans who in recent history have been committed to that animal's eradication, is truly remarkable. ...
Southwestern Hispanos have a rich folk tradition about coyotes and have long said that the only thing smarter than a coyote is God.
— Sep 17, 2026 05:49AM
Southwestern Hispanos have a rich folk tradition about coyotes and have long said that the only thing smarter than a coyote is God.