I have a confession to make. I secretly like Coyotes. That admission would get me a beat down from a lot of hunters, livestock owners and pet owners in our area.
Maybe it's that they resemble the much more respected Wolf. Maybe it's that they are so resilient. Maybe it's because I see "man's best friend" when I look into their eyes. Whatever it is, I always stop and take a double-take when I see one peaking out of the woods, or wandering the shoreline of a marsh island.
And although they don’t fit into the worldview of many people, the fact is their expansion is a natural one. And it’s a response to our own human expansion. You can’t be angry at an animal for doing what it was designed to do…move in response to pressure and opportunities
I found this particular Coyote while on a fishing trip with friends, in the fall of 2019, in South Louisiana.
He was living on a small island 5 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico. How he got there, I have no idea. He had a pair of Otters for neighbors, and hundreds of birds to chase on the small island. Other than that, he had a pretty solitary existence, and seemed very interested in checking us out when we pulled the skiff up to the shoreline. I couldn't help but wonder if he regretted his decision to swim out to that island, and if he called for his pack each night.
The fishing was pretty good along this particular island, so we returned three or four days in a row. Each day Wile E. would pop his head up from the marsh grass, and make his way down to the shoreline to watch us. Every day he seemed less afraid of us and more interested in what we were up to.
I had my Canon and a 70-200mm lens on the boat, so each day I would snap a few pictures of him. On the last day, I wished him well and hoped that nobody with a disdain for Coyotes would ever find him.
Fast forward to fall of 2020.
We made our annual trip back to Louisiana to fish for Redfish along the Gulf of Mexico. Along with all the fishing gear, I packed my Sony Alpha and 200-600mm lens, as I knew there would be plenty of opportunities to photograph wildlife. Wile E. was also on my mind.
On the second day of the trip, we made our way out to the little island in the Gulf in search of Redfish…and hopefully a Coyote. We didn’t see him anywhere on the island. Louisiana had suffered heavy winds and flooding from several hurricanes since our last trip. Maybe he had been washed away. Maybe he had been shot. Maybe he moved back to the mainland. Either way, he wasn’t where we left him.
On the fourth day of our trip, we were motoring along a small island out in the Gulf, when we spotted a Coyote drinking at the water’s edge. Could it be? Was this Wile E.? In actuality, we were only a mile away from the island where we saw him last year. We hadn’t seen another Coyote on any of the other islands. It made sense to me. As far as I was concerned, this was Wile E., and I was stoked to see him!
I pulled my camera out of the bag as we idled along the island. Wile E. walked alongside us, never taking his eye’s off of us, and I fired away with the photos.
He looked really healthy, so obviously island life was not treating him too bad. I figured he was probably taking advantage of the abundant bird and small mammal life on the islands.
I took about 100 images in the few minutes we spent with Wile E., then we wished him luck as we moved on to a nearby bay to hunt for Redfish. As I poled the skiff along the bay, I looked over my shoulder and watched him, as he watched me from a distance.Â
*Side note: In editing the picture above, I noticed something I didn’t see when taking the photo. Just to the left of the Coyote is a dead Pelican. Wile E. seems to be protecting it, as though he thought we were going to take it from him.
One other interesting fact:
I have had several people comment that they think Wile E. looks like he is part Red Wolf. I brushed those suggestions aside, since the few remaining wild Red Wolves are located in Eastern North Carolina. Upon further research, I discovered that those NC wolves were captured from the last natural occurring population, which was located in…drumroll…Louisiana (and Texas). Scientists have done genetic testing on the Coyotes in Louisiana, and found that 55% of the Coyotes there have at least 10% Red Wolf ancestry. So there’s a very good chance that Wile E. may be a Coywolf, and a half cousin to our NC Red Wolves!