There is a bounty on coyotes in Utah. It is $50. The bounty was introduced as part of the Mule Deer Protection Act (MDPA) of 2012. The MDPA came with $500,000 to be used against coyotes. (Because, well, coyotes eat, among other things, mule deer.) By my calculations, that money would pay for 10,000 coyotes. Dead coyotes. Scalped coyotes. To collect your money, you need to turn in a pair of ears (paws work, too). So, the best way to get your cash is to scalp your coyotes. Like the ones in the picture above. 13 scalped coyotes. Dumped in view of the Love's truck stop. Worth $650. Good money in my world. I wonder if I can get in the coyote business? I've always been lucky when it comes to killin'. Of course, I'd need a coyote rifle, some ammunition, and gas in the truck. I wonder what that will cost. Besides, then I'd have to find some coyotes. Live ones. With ears and everything.
Hi Andrew, this is your third reader.
ReplyDeleteHaving affection for predacious mammals turned out to be a trait that knocked me down a few notches on the social acceptance scale in Southern Utah; before that came the detriments of being a vegetarian democrat who doesn't subscribe to Mormon doctrine. None the less, I hold my head high and continue the advocacy for coyotes and argue that the current management plan will surely place them on the list of threatened species. The Fed will be implementing protection and rehabilitation programs to restore populations before my life is over. Have they not learned the lesson of the grizzly bear, the wolf, or the mountain lion? If ranchers think a coyote is trouble now, wait until these mammals are listed as endangered they and join the lofty status of the once scoffed-at Utah prairie dog!
TF.
As an anecdotal note: I was out hiking the other day and from a high point where I sat I watched a coyote slink out of a river bottom and steal across the sagebrush. As he got closer to where I was, I played a few notes on my harmonica (which is what I was there doing in the first place). The coyote stopped dead, clearly puzzled by what it had heard. After looking around, he continued on his way. I’m sure he is now humming the blues. Over and out!
Soothing the wild beast with Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, and Muddy Waters, huh? Actually, the coyote advocacy people (and some of the scientists from Utah State) think the coyote bounty will have the opposite effect . . . it will make more coyotes. Instead of becoming endangered they will become more plentiful. The coyote is so clever and adaptable that the removal of several thousand will lead to rapid colonization of the area by the survivors as well as by coyotes from adjacent states. So, I'm not sure which way it will go. But, I suspect that your life will not be over for many, many decades, so we should have the opportunity to revisit the question in, say, 2040. BTW, I'm partial to John Lee Hooker, but I don't know what coyotes like.
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