Coyote America

A Natural and Supernatural History

By: Dan Flores

Narrated by: Elijah Alexander

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

With its uncanny night howls, unrivaled ingenuity, and amazing resilience, the coyote is the stuff of legends. In Indian folktales it often appears as a deceptive trickster or a sly genius. But legends don't come close to capturing the incredible survival story of the coyote.

As soon as Americans - especially white Americans - began ranching and herding in the West, they began working to destroy the coyote. Despite campaigns of annihilation employing poisons, gases, helicopters, and engineered epidemics, coyotes didn't just survive, they thrived, expanding across the continent from Anchorage, Alaska, to New York's Central Park. In the war between humans and coyotes, coyotes have won hands down.

Coyote America is both an environmental and a deep natural history of the coyote. It traces both the five-million-year-long biological story of an animal that has become the "wolf" in our backyards and its cultural evolution from a preeminent spot in Native American religions to the hapless foil of the Road Runner. A deeply American tale, the story of the coyote in the American West and beyond is a sort of Manifest Destiny in reverse, with a pioneering hero whose career holds up an uncanny mirror to the successes and failures of American expansionism.

An illuminating biography of this extraordinary animal, Coyote America isn't just the story of an animal's survival - it is one of the great epics of our time.

©2016 Dan Flores (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Intelligence, Adaptability, and Persistence

I found this book absorbing in its description of our wonderful, fascinating native critter, the coyote--its evolution, ability to adapt and survive, and its incredible intelligence. Our attempts to totally destroy this animal, to wipe it completely from the face of the earth, with unbelievably horrendous poisons and other unspeakable methods make me deeply ashamed. It was engaging to read about the coyote, but almost impossible to read about what the government, in our name, has done to kill it.

But the coyote has continued to thrive and increase its range into our cities and suburbs. The author tells us how to live with this wild creature in our midst, to avoid contact but to simply enjoy occasional sightings of something from our wild past that is with us in spite of our efforts to remove it.

Interesting, entertaining, edifying

I thought I was going to get some info on behavior, breeding, territory . . . the usual educational stuff.

Nope - there's all that and more. First of all, the narrator was great! Some of these non-fiction audio books get stuck with dry monotone-ish readers, but this narrator was really into the book and made the audio book a pleasure.

Secondly, what in the world did they forget to teach me in history in school? A lot. I must have gotten the redacted version of western history. Along with the story of coyotes comes the story of the West. And, while some of it isn't pretty, it is by knowing things that we can change things for the better.

The book starts with a great foundational introduction, covering geological, geographical and species across time and lands. And we get some entertaining Native American coyote mythology, and the situation of urban coyotes in New York and Los Angeles (I think Chicago too), and then in the middle of the book we go back to the plains and deserts and even Yosemite and there is a whole lot of information on what's been going on - been done - to animals, millions and millions of animals and most of us have no idea about it. Killing of coyotes has been honed to a science, but studies that include examination of stomach contents and scat have shown what percentage of what animals coyotes really eat and while being blamed for many kills, not all kills attributed to coyotes are correct.

It appears that a lot of the coyote killing is not for correct reasons, or even effective due to how coyotes breed, but it does make certain people feel better. And provides jobs.

Studies are shared - layman level. And we consider the types of people who interact with coyotes. And, near the end we go back to the Greater Los Angeles area and see how coyotes are doing. Especially interesting to me also, near the end, was the discussion of hybrids, the red wolf, wolves, and the results of genetic studies. And, Wiley Coyote was not left out . . .

This is a science book for layman, but written in a very interesting and entertaining style. I learned a lot - kind of a Coyote 101 experience. If you are a person who lives in an area where there are coyotes, where you can hear them if not see them, you may especially enjoy this book too.

A overlooked resourceful creature

Great book and great narration. If you're like me and have overlooked coyotes my entire life as a crafty pest, then this will complete change your mind. Brilliant book

Very interesting but rambling

Great info and some sections are very grabbing but the story tends to ramble in sections and it became very difficult to become fully engaged after. Cant say i would recommend

coyote extraordinaire

i thoroughly enjoyed this book. would highly recommend this to wildlife lovers or anyone. thanks audible.

Delusional hunter from Utah swayed.......partly.

enjoyable and entertaining, well rounded and informative. made me reconsider my attitude towards coyotes. surprisingly good sience backs up our flawed policies regarding coyote "managment".
good mix of historical info and context. not my favorite narration, voice inflections, tone of voice. i plan on looking at American Serengeti now.

Not what I expected

Though this wasn’t exactly what I was expecting this book was very interesting and intriguing. It’s a topic very few people discuss and not in very much depth, if you have any interest in these animals or America’s predator hunting history this book is a great read.

Good, but could have been better with more science

Dan Flores waxes rhapsodic about coyotes, delving into the name, history, man's interactions with coyotes, and how humans have created the conditions that have allowed the spread of the coyote population eastward across the whole country. While all of this was interesting, he also strays a bit too far from science for me. He uses folklore, mythology, and anthropology to point out how humans and coyotes share many characteristics, like adaptability and intelligence, (which I think they do, but I wouldn't base that conclusion upon folk stories). I think that the author could have spent some time with ranchers and farmers to better understand their intense feelings towards coyotes as predators and not just claim that our "hatred seems hard to square with anything rational.” I think that Mr. Flores could have written a better book if he had written about coyotes in a far less anthropomorphic way, and more about their biology, behavior, and how nature is always a fine and delicate balance.

Amazing

Fantastic book. Loved every minute of it . Learned so many interesting things and stories.

Thoughtful, well researched - provoked reassessment

Decided to listen to this after some coyotes were seen on our and neighbors’ property. Really liked the research presented here as well as the mixture if facts and anecdotes. I found this reset some if my reactions to those nearby coyotes and definitely caused me to rethink some if the actions taken in the neighborhood, although since many neighbors keep chickens and small herbivores, people’s fear are logical .

However this book did cause re-evaluation and some introspection so it was a worthwhile read that I will try to share with neighbors.

Just wish my dogs were as obedient as the author’s malamute!