- photo by Janet Tangney
What happens when these two Coyote parents leave their pups safely behind, in order to go hunting for food for them…and the parents never come back? They never come back because they have been killed by individuals who have no understanding of the value of this important carnivore, and the laws in Maine give coyote NO protection from these violent individuals.
Several people in Maine have contacted me, and shared with me that they have observed small coyote pups wandering around by themselves. What will happen to them? Either they will die slowly of starvation, or be preyed upon by free roaming dogs or other wldlife, OR, if they are survivors, they will live.
But without having the opportunity to learn adequately from their parents on how to be a healthy, socially competent coyote, and also possibly seeing their parents being killed in front of their eyes as they hid, these young coyotes may end up acting very differently in their relationship to us. So it is so important to understand that intelligent, social wildlife like coyotes are greatly affected by the dysfunction we create in their world through violent human behavior.
So to broaden your view, let me share with you a poingnant example that researchers have observed in another intelligent and social wild animal…the Elephant. Elephants in Africa have endured decades of habitat loss and poaching, along with systematic killing and translocation of herds. Baby elephants see their mothers shot and killed in front of their eyes….and refusing to leave her dead body. During the reign of Amin in Uganda, fighters would throw hand gernades at them and kill an entire herd.
“This highly unethical treatment by humans has completely frayed the fabric of Elelphant society, disrupting the web of familial and societal relations by which young elephants are raised and established herds are governed. The number of older matriarchs and female caregivers has drastically fallen, as has the number of elder bulls, who play a significant role in keeping the younger males in line.” quote from Charles Siebert in Wachula Woods Accord
As a result of this cruel human behavior Dr. Bradshaw has observed what is perhaps the first ever documented instance of another species cultural collapse, societal breakdown and dysfunction. With their complex social lives disrupted and in chaos, researchers are observing never before seen behavior of elephants toward humans. Outright violence to humans, and purposeful destruction of their vegetable growing fields is a blatant sign of the dysfunction humans have caused in these intellegant beings.
And so we come back to America, and to Coyote. So in our cruel and dystfunctional behavior to this socially complex and intelligent canine, how can we expect them to carry on in the same behaviors they pacticed before the first Europeans set foot on this continent. How do we as a society allow these human behaviors and lack of protection to continue? Our silence allows it to continue. Let us speak up!
