I came to an interesting notion a few years back, as I jokingly remarked that the best way to tell the difference between a Coyote and a domestic dog is that the Coyote will run away from you and the domestic dog will run at you. It seems to be true of most wild animals --- certainly wild dogs like Coyotes, Wolves, and Foxes. But, also true is the speed with which they flee. In the national parks, where there are hundreds or thousands of square miles of virtually undeveloped land and relatively few people they either stand their ground and watch you (and your movements) or continue about their business (whatever that was). But, in urban or suburban areas they flee as if their life depended on it. And, even though I have seen ten times as many Coyotes in Arizona as in Canada, I probably have ten times as many good Coyote photos from Canada as I do Arizona. The first photo below was taken in the Baboquivari Mountains of Southern Arizona. This very pretty Coyote stopped to look at me briefly before disappearing in the forest.
The next photo was taken at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona along the Mexico border. In this case the Coyote ran for cover once he saw me:
And, in this photo taken in the wide open highlands of the Galiuro Mountains (northeast of Tucson) the Coyote seemed to have no choice but to flee:
Compare those photos to the almost "portrait" type photos I've shown you from along the Columbia Icefield or Athabasca River in Alberta, and you'll see what I mean.
No comments:
Post a Comment