Coyote's Den

Why Coyotes Live Alone

Coyote tells this story. Maybe it is true

Hey. I have a story for you:

It's about why Coyotes are lonely. I thought it might be something you'd care to hear.

Everyone knows you don't ever see a bunch of coyotes in one spot. Almost never. They get together, mate, and when the cubs get a little older, they all split up. They come back and visit each other sure, but mostly they live apart. You hear naturalist types always saying "Coyotes are solitary... they aren't like wolves. They just aren't gregarious."

They howl to each other though. To say where they are, and talk about some things coyotes talk about. For such "solitary, non-gregarious" critters... they sure do like to keep in touch. If you hear poets and storytellers talk about coyotes though, you'll hear them say that the coyote's howl sounds lonely, or lonesome.

A lot of human people don't know this, but coyotes used to live together in big families, just like wolves, their cousins. They liked it too. But it's really easy for people to find big groups when they want to shoot them. It's harder to find you and keep track of you when you split up. It's a lot harder to find one coyote than ten. When people started shooting coyotes, they realized they'd have to not live the way they always had. They had to change it. Now they can't be with each other, because humans will kill them if they can catch them.

Not all humans of course. Just a certain kind without connectedness. The kind there are a lot of.

And so coyotes wait. They howl to each other from far off. But they aren't completely unhappy, because they know that loneliness won't last forever. If they can wait long enough, things will change, and they can go back to their families. Coyotes know this inside down deep. But while they wait, still they are sad and lonely. You can hear that when they howl, if you know how to listen.

If you ask people in the east of Turtle Island now, they'll tell you that coyotes don't live too solitary. Sure enough, you'll find that they've started being able to live together again.

Coyote tells this story.