Staring into the Eyes of the Eastern Coyote

A complicated story and a complicated canine.

It was a bright Saturday afternoon in March when my son and I were driving home from a fairly remote spot in Hancock. We were on our way back from pulling a disk of images from my game camera. 

We turned a corner and saw standing in the road a light blonde canine staring back at us. For the few seconds that it stood in the road, we could see it was big, maybe over 50 pounds, with front legs tight together and ears thick with fur.

And then it turned and confidently strode into the woods, brisk but unhurried.

“Was that a dog?” Ben asked.

“Nope,” I said. “That was a coyote. A nice, healthy one. And a great view of it.”

When we got home and checked the game camera images, I saw more coyotes staring at me. It didn’t take long for me to see that the camera had photographed three coyotes over the past few weeks. There were shots of all three together, and many more images of each individual.

Tawny, Scruffy and Healthy

After a few more weeks of setting up the camera at this spot, I got to know each coyote little. I could see their individual characteristics, a little personality and patterns of behavior.

There’s the tawny one, generally shy, who stopped appearing in late-February. I’m not sure, but I theorize that Tawny could be a female who’s now with pups in the den.

There’s the scruffy one, who’s smaller than the other two, with a bad coat and loss of fur at the base of its tail. Scruffy’s problematic coat could be mange, malnutrition or both. Scruffy seems to take risks, doesn’t have rigid timing patterns and appears less confident than the others. Maybe I’m wrong, but Scruffy could be an 11-month old who has remained with the parents as a pack.

And finally there’s the healthy one. This coyote is bigger than the others, appears at predictable times and seems cautious and confident. Healthy has a nice, shiny coat, a bushy tail, and a black streak between its bright yellowish eyes. I think Healthy is the elder male, and he is very handsome.

The Advantage of Crust

My camera can’t follow this pack everywhere, but if it could, it might show their den, typically just a small hole in the ground that goes back into a larger chamber. On a cold mid-winter night, you might find all three in there. By April or May, it could also be holding Tawny’s litter of four to eight pups.

The past few weeks before snow-melt have been tough on coyotes. This omnivore has few dining options during a good chunk of winter. But by late-winter, the snow gives coyotes an advantage. This winter was a good example. The snowpack of 1 to 2 feet can form a crust that coyotes can navigate easily, but deer cannot. While deer are near the end of their rope by late-March, coyotes – whether single or in a pack – can take down even the healthiest buck.

I saw this recently when a neighbor showed me a deer that had just been killed by coyotes. This healthy buck had a puncture wound in the neck, and its back end had been eaten out.

The thought of coyotes killing deer is just too much for some deer-hunters to bear. A vocal set of deer hunters say killing more coyotes will help the deer herd, thus improving the hunters’ chances of tagging a deer in the fall.

Despite the good intentions of helping both deer and hunters, this misguided approach doesn’t work. Coyotes that dodge the bullet tend to respond to increased mortality by having larger litters.

Cold Eyes from a Postcard

We’ve learned plenty about Eastern coyotes in the past few decades, and there’s plenty more to learn. The Eastern is a lot bigger than its western cousin. We know it hunts in packs, though not as often or as organized as wolves.

And we know that the Eastern coyote is part-wolf (some refer to it as coywolf). We know it appeared in New Hampshire in the mid-1940s.

This point about the Eastern coyote’s emergence into New England touches home with me by way of a 1953 postcard that’s tacked to the kitchen wall at my family’s old camp in Cherryfield, Maine. It shows a Maine game warden inspecting the carcass of a big canine. On the back, the caption says that this was the “first timber wolf shot in Maine in over 100 years.”

Sure, maybe so. Or maybe not. Also possible that the mysterious canine was actually one of the first coyotes to be seen in that part of Maine. Part coyote, part wolf. A complicated story and a complicated canine.

The eyes of the coyote in that postcard are lifeless and cold. Nothing like the bright, alert eyes of the blonde, healthy coyote that glanced at me and my son a few weeks ago. And nothing like the eyes of Tawny, Scruffy and Healthy, whom I’ve come to admire over the past few weeks.

I hope to get to know these coyotes a bit more in the coming months.

Eric Aldrich writes from his home in Hancock.

A Vision, a Mountain and a March 20 Deadline

Forest Society hopes to protect 390 acres on Mount Monadnock

More information at forestsociety.org/monadnock.

Amazing things happen when people identify an urgent need, express their vision and pull people together for action.

That’s exactly what happened in 1915 when visionary leaders from the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests looked at the challenges facing Mount Monadnock. Seeing the potential that this treasured mountain could be irreversibly changed by development, they worked with scores of folks to protect 650 acres on its slopes.

It was a remarkable story in itself, and since then, the Forest Society has gradually protected some 4,100 acres on the mountain. These publicly accessible lands -- along with tracts conserved by the state and other organizations -- are arguably among the most treasured natural assets in the region, if not the state.

They did it tract by tract, piece by piece, and all with tremendous grassroots support.

Today’s Challenge

Now the mountain faces another challenge, another opportunity, where the Forest Society’s vision needs that grassroots support again.

The Forest Society is working to protect nearly 400 acres on Mount Monadnock and has until March 20 to raise funds to seal the deal. So far, the organization has raised a little more than half of the $760,000 needed.

If successful, the project will be the largest acreage protected on the mountain at one time since 1915.

“This is a real challenge,” said Dave Anderson, the Forest Society’s director of education. “It’s an incredible opportunity, but we have until March 20 to make it happen. And in this economy, we are working hard to raise the money.”


The Project in a Nutshell

The project involves two landowners, with tracts on opposite sides of the mountain.

In the northwestern corner of Jaffrey and a little bit in Marlborough, the Forest Society hopes to purchase 335 acres from the Stowell family. This tract includes a stretch of the Marlborough Trail, one of the mountain’s nicest trails and in the late 1800s it was one of the most popular routes to the summit.

Aside from excellent habitat for moose, black bear, bobcat and other mammals that require wide ranges, the piece has remarkable forests for forest-loving songbirds and many other species. It also holds some cultural resources, like the site of a former Shaker farm with links to Shirley, Mass. Remnants of the farm, established in 1793, can still be seen.

The Stowell family has owned the land for three generations and now needs to sell.

A Hand in the Future

On the southeastern end of the mountain, in Jaffrey, the Forest Society seeks to purchase a conservation easement on 55 acres owned by Charles and Ann Royce. Charles Royce is a former manager of Monadnock State Park and a longtime, tireless and passionate advocate for conserving the mountain.

Under the conservation easement, the Royce family would continue to own and manage the land. They could sell or transfer the tract, but the Forest Society’s easement would permanently protect the land and its natural resources.

“It’s about preserving the land as both a part of the natural view shed, but also ensuring that it is available to future generations,” Ann Royce told the Ledger-Transcript last fall. “The easement will be passed on to future owners of the property, with us having a hand in that future.”

The Royce tract also has important cultural resources, like home sites of some of Jaffrey’s early settlers and a road that was once the main road between Jaffrey and Keene.

March 20 Fast Approaching

Because of the urgency of the challenge and the importance of lands, the project has attracted some respectable support. Among the contributors so far are the Jessie B. Cox CLT - Cox Family Fund, the N.H. Land and Community Heritage Investment Program (for the Stowell tract), the N.H. Conservation Plate program, the Conservation Alliance and the town of Marlborough.

“We’ve raised $430,000 so far,” Anderson said. “We’re more than half-way there. But we’ve got a hard deadline of March 20 that’s fast approaching and an opportunity to do something that’s going to help protect the mountain for future generations. It’s an urgent appeal, but I’m hopeful we can do it.”

A plaque at the base of Monadnock’s White Dot Trail honors the vision of Forest Society leaders who helped protect the mountain, Philip Ayres and Allen Chamberlain: “…May it always remain as it is today. Free and wild and beautiful. The unspoiled heritage of the past. A haven of refuge for those who seek its peace in years to come.”

Amazing things can happen when people pull together.

To learn more about this project, visit forestsociety.org/monadnock.

Eric Aldrich writes from his home in Hancock.

Everything Rots

Even rot-loving fungus decomposes.

A quiz about decomposition

Not to sound like Debbie Downer, but let’s face it: Without death, there is no life. It’s the cycle of life.

And as that cycle goes round, the process of rot starts right after death.

Fall is a great time to celebrate rot. Leaves are falling. Vegetation is dying back. And the cycle of life is in full, glorious swing.

With that in mind, here’s a little quiz about rot.

1. The carpet of dried leaves, twigs and other plant debris on the forest floor is called the:
a. recycling layer.
b. leaf litter.
c. spread.
d. canopy.

2. The process where dead vegetation, animals and scat are converted from complex carbohydrates and proteins to basic atoms is called:
a. fission.
b. recycling.
c. decomposition.
d. recomposition.

3. Before rotting vegetation becomes soil, it goes through a transition stage known as:
a. humus - with one m.
b. hummus - with two m’s.
c. leaf litter.
d. photosynthesis.

4. Microscopic organisms that decompose organic matter include:
a. slime molds.
b. mycorrhizal fungi
c. mites and wood lice.
d. bacteria and protozoans.

5. One of the forest’s hard-working decomposers are called hyphae. These are:
a. tiny insects that eat dead plants and animals from the inside out.
b. worms that eat dead vegetation.
c. long strands of fungi.
d. mushrooms that sprout up in moist woods.

6. What rots faster?
a. skunk carcass.
b. maple leaf.
c. Twinkie.
d. oak log.

7. Consuming 80 to 90 percent of the energy in fallen debris are:
a. flies and maggots.
b. snails and slugs.
c. fungi and bacteria.
d. mice and moles.

The rotten answers:

1. b, leaf litter. This is where the recycling begins. Probe just a few leaf layers down and you see leaves riddled with holes by insects and mites, fungi and bacteria.

2. d, decomposition, though it is a form of natural recycling.

3. a. humus with one m. Hummus with two m’s is a Middle Eastern food spread. And there are two types of humus (one m): “mor,” which is seen in forests with thick litter layers, and “mull,” which is usually in forests with few conifers and has soils of low acidity.

4. d. bacteria and protozoans.

5. c, long strands of fungi that grow on or into their food sources, including leaves and other vegetation, carcasses, logs, scat … you name it. Just under the forest’s layer of leaves is a whole network of hyphae, called a mycelium. These networks are the main body of a fungus and may live for decades or longer. 

6. a, a skunk carcass, or most animals in general, because of their low ratio of carbon to nitrogen. Carbon represents the hard to decompose stuff, like cellulose, while nitrogen represents the easier to digest stuff, like proteins. An animal carcass is pretty easy to decompose and has a carbon/nitrogen ratio of about 3:1. By comparison, sugar maple has a carbon/nitrogen ratio of about 52:1. It can take years for a leaf to decompose. The Twinkie: Urban legend holds that they have a shelf life of decades, but folks who’ve studied rotting Twinkies (not me!) say they actually last about 25 days. So, if your answer was “Twinkie,” we’ll give it to you! 

7. c, fungi and bacteria. The rest of the plant and animal material, along with the fungi and bacteria themselves, form the food base for animals in the soil.

Eric Aldrich writes from his home in Hancock.