The Cool Coyotes of Cochise County #4 : Sunshine Girl

Here at the Border Fort in southern Cochise County, Arizona, our cool coyote saga continues. One young lady coyote in particular seems to be trusting us more as more and time goes on. At first, I thought this was most likely a younger critter. Then I came to believe it was the pack's Mommy Coyote.

Now we've come to suspect--strongly--that my first hunch was right. There's a "feel" about her presence that says she's perhaps a yearling and certainly no more than two years old.

The latest escalation of trust happened today in two installments. Pam and I had to run to Sierra Vista on errands. We left in the Subaru Outback around 8:30 a.m...and Sunshine Girl watched us go. As we headed down the dirt street toward the dirt road that leads eventually to the paved highway, the young coyote stood in plain sight some sixty feet to one side, watching us go and looking as forlorn as anything.

It was like she was saying, "Mommy, you going too? I'll be left here all alone! Daddy goes all the time, but you? Tell me it ain't so!"

When a wild coyote's body language can fill you with guilt....we're hooked, okay? This Sunshine Girl (so dubbed because she was standing right out there in the sunshine) has obviously taken to sleeping somewhere on our twenty acres, probably no more than (at most) a couple hundred yards from the house.

There was no real opportunity for a photo right then, but we had hopes for later in the day.

Right at noon, we made it back home. No sign of Sunshine...until a few seconds after the Subaru had rolled to a stop. We were barely out of the vehicle when our friend trotted into the yard clearing. Not that she came up to lick on us or get petted or anything like that, but she didn't exactly leave, either. Just meandered (over time) to the far side of the clearing, barely out of sight.

But we knew she was still observing us.

Enter the water tower. There have been episodes when the entire pack of four would allow me to snap photos for many long minutes at a time from a position on that tower. They always know I'm there, but they don't seem to care.

Much, anyway.

This time, the Tower Power gambit produced results exceeding all expectations. Our coyote buddy watched me standing up there for a few minutes as I occasionally clicked the camera to capture her standing position back between clumps of winter-dead bunchgrass. Then she heard Pam come out of the house to finish unloading the Outback...and her (very obvious) love for my wife won out over her instinctive caution.

She came forward until she could see Pam doing whatever Pam was doing. Watched her. Watched me. Did other coyote stuff.

Today's coyote photo op was the best yet. We learned a lot. For example, Sunshine Girl has an owie on the right side of her long muzzle. A nasty nip from a bossier coyote, maybe, or perhaps an encounter with a dinner critter who didn't like the idea of being lunch.

The ability of a coyote to keep an eye on its overall environment is impressive. During the numerous minutes she spent in the open, she clearly paid attention to both of us Border Fort humans, but she also swung around periodically to watch her own back.

When coyotes are on the move--as we've learned from our local furry residents--they tend to hold their heads low and seemingly pay a lot of attention to the earth in front of them. This makes sense when you consider that both food sources (like the scent of a rabbit trail) and deadly dangers (such as scorpions and rattlesnakes) are most easily detected when the senses are directed toward terra firma.

Sunshine sometimes "pace-walks" with both feet in the air on one side of her body while the feet on her other side remain planted...but at other times, she lifts diagonally. Wow.

What is "ambidexterous" when feet are involved? Ambifooterous?

Whatever the term, the ability to change one's foot placement pattern without thinking about it must be an awesome advantage for a predator. Come to think of it, any critter that chases fast food (zig-zagging, fleet-footed bunny rabbits, for example) had better be able to do that--and to make high speed crossover turns as well.

Guess what? Sunshine Girl clearly demonstrates that ability. Check out her crossover walk in the photo below.

Our girl got fangs! Not to mention a tongue long enough and flexible enough to keep that owie on her muzzle clean.

Does this seem like a lot of coyote photos? It may be...but not when compared to the more than 400 snapshots taken this afternoon that were not posted on this page. In the end, however, even our superstar, way cool coyote of Cochise County, decided she'd entertained us long enough for one day.

Not that the day itself was finished. Not yet. Shortly after sunset, as dusk began to fall, one of our bunny rabbits emerged from his PVC pipe hide to give me the Evil Eye.

"What do you think you're doing," his glare seemed to say, "talking to that nasty coyote? I'm ticked!"

He knows Pam and I may be the only people for miles around who nurture both bunnies and bunny-munching coyotes in the same yard. He's not impressed.