One thousand six hundred were killed in their dens, either by digging them out and shooting them or by gassing them. Between killing contests, Wildlife Services actions, and state, local, and private agencies, it is estimated that 400,000 coyotes are killed each year. Coyotes are the most maligned mammal in the United States. The North American Coyote. When killing a certain species becomes a matter of human policy and concerted effort, the fight is almost always one-sided.
Coyotes pose a different challenge altogether.
Despite almost a century of uninterrupted killing, despite increasingly sophisticated hunting methods, despite hundreds of millions of government dollars devoted to coyote removal, today more coyotes are living in more places than ever before. And coyotes are spreading not just in ranching country but in metropolises nationwide, from the suburbs of Los Angeles to the streets of New York City. A few days after the campbell County contest, in another part of Wyoming, Bob Crabtree and I are standing behind spotting scopes in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park, observing a pack of coyotes feeding on an elk carcass. He is the founder and research director of Yellowstone Ecosystem Studies, a nonprofit foundation that conducts long-term research projects in the Yellowstone area. Crabtree is a tall man who seems continually surprised by his tallness.