Wild Tales About America's Top Dog - television documentary about coyotes - Brief Article

Not long ago in the Hudson River Valley, a young male coyote apparently struck out on his own and began migrating south toward New York City. At one point he crossed into Manhattan, probably on a railroad trestle over the Harlem River, and ventured south into Riverside Park. Turning east, most likely in the early morning hours, the coyote crossed Broadway and discovered Central Park, where he remained undetected for a few days. Local authorities eventually caught up with the coyote and dubbed him "Otis." They placed him at the Queens Wildlife Center, where he has become one of the Big Apple's most popular residents.

Otis' saga is one of several remarkable tales highlighted in a new, one-hour documentary called "The Coyote: America's Top Dog," premiering in March on TBS Superstation. The film, coproduced by the National Wildlife Federation and Turner Original Productions, offers viewers a close-up look at the world of this wily predator, from the fields near Wyoming's Grand Tetons to suburban yards north of New York City.

"This is a story of a very old inhabitant of the heartland of North America that has expanded its range over the entire continent," says Christopher Palmer, president of National Wildlife Productions. "We wanted to take a look at the coyote's resilience."

The coyote ranged west of the Mississippi River prior to the 1950s. But as people eliminated the coyote's more-dominant canine cousin, the gray wolf, from many of its traditional haunts and chopped up the eastern forests into fragments, they opened up new areas for the adaptable predator.

Today, the animal is found in all of the continental 49 states and from the Canadian tundra to Central America. Its numbers, scientists estimate, may have increased a thousandfold since the first European explorers came to North America. "When it comes to adaptability, the unprepossessing coyote is a champion," says NWF biologist Steve Torbit, who helped guide actor James Avery, the film's host, along some of the routes the predator has taken in recent decades as it expanded its range east.

During that expansion, Avery points out, the eastern coyote evolved into a larger animal. While a good-sized western coyote might weigh 35 pounds, eastern coyotes average closer to 50. The reason for the difference, biologists believe, is that coyotes may have interbred with wolves, which inhabit the upper Great Lakes region and eastern Canada.

The eastern coyote apparently is a more social animal than its western counterpart. Researchers have observed groups of the predators hunting together in the East. And because it often lives in close proximity to people, the eastern coyote has learned to hunt at night.

Filmmaker Larry Engel, who directed the film, didn't have to go far to find coyotes. "My wife and I moved to a small farm in the Hudson River Valley about five years ago," he says. "Our first fall there, we would lie in bed, listening to the howls of the predators passing near our house. I began to think seriously about making a film on coyotes."

Engel discovered that he could simply wait until his dogs barked in a certain way, then he would slip out the back door, move downwind and begin filming the predators on his own property. "I began to marvel at these uninvited guests," he says. "Why, I wondered, is the coyote so successful, despite persistent attempts by people to eradicate it?"

In the West, some Native American tribes traditionally viewed the coyote as a prankster. While filming in Yellowstone National Park, Engel couldn't help but wonder if there is indeed a basis for that reputation.

On one occasion, he was having trouble locating a coyote close enough to film. Yet when Curly Bear Wagner, a local Blackfeet Indian tribal elder, joined the film crew, a coyote suddenly appeared only 50 yards away. Was it a coincidence or some mystical connection?

"We circled around to try to get images of the animal," says Engel. "Then someone shouted, 'He's circling back toward us!' Sure enough, the coyote walked to within 20 feet of Curly Bear. I was so excited to get this footage. But when I got back to the studio, I discovered that in all the feet of film we shot, this was the only sequence with a defect in it, making it unusable. I don't know how, but that coyote got me!"

Writer Cynthia Barry lives in Maryland. "The Coyote: America's Top Dog" premiers on TBS Superstation on March 12 (check local listings).

COPYRIGHT 2001 National Wildlife Federation
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group