Too Clever By Half

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Pat_W

says:

I pretend to myself someone will notice this comment on an essay years old. Coyotes- My sister kept sheep on a farm in PA that backs up on state forest. When coyotes arrived back east in numbers defensive plans were needed. She got larger dogs from animal rescue, and when the coyotes made noise up in the woods the dogs went nuts in the kitchen. She would let them out and the dogs chased the coyotes back up over the ridge. That was their job. Great fun was had by all- the dogs did their job, the sheep stayed safe, and the coyotes likely chuckled about how much faster they were.

Coyotes are genetically and traditionally solitary hunters but they are also very social. When I used to camp in the SW desert they would start calling to one another after a night’s hunt, a sound that carries several miles in the dry air. After an hour or so I’d notice, in my 5 am lethargy, that some of the voices now sang from the same location. It’s the coyote coffee break after a good night’s hunt. I think they adapted easily to small scale pack behaviors once they moved east, where hunting is a different enterprise and often benefits from numbers.

It is sad, to me, to see the way animals and humans dummy down in domesticated circumstances, BUT I take heart hearing how cattle behave who escape their fenced in domestication. They become quite wily and easily outwit humans on horseback sent to find them. Even with smaller brains I suspect humans can survive in a post apocalypse world.

Ben, you are currently my favorite writer and possibly too clever by half.

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Pat_W. says: I pretend to myself someone will notice this comment on an essay years old. Coyotes- My sister kept sheep on a farm in PA that backs up on state forest. When coyotes arrived back east in numbers defensive plans were needed. She got larger dogs from animal rescue, and when the coyotes made noise up in the woods the dogs went nuts in the kitchen. She would let them out and the dogs chased the coyotes back up over the ridge. That was their job. Great fun was had by all- the dogs did their job, the sheep stayed safe, and the coyotes likely chuckled about how much faster they were. Coyotes are genetically and traditionally solitary hunters but they are also very social. When I used to camp in the SW desert they would start calling to one another after a night’s hunt, a sound that carries several miles in the dry air. After an hour or so I’d notice, in my 5 am lethargy, that some of the voices now sang from the same location. It’s the coyote coffee break after a good night’s hunt. I think they adapted easily to small scale pack behaviors once they moved east, where hunting is a different enterprise and often benefits from numbers. It is sad, to me, to see the way animals and humans dummy down in domesticated circumstances, BUT I take heart hearing how cattle behave who escape their fenced in domestication. They become quite wily and easily outwit humans on horseback sent to find them. Even with smaller brains I suspect humans can survive in a post apocalypse world. Ben, you are currently my favorite writer and possibly too clever by half.