Incidentally, these are NOT "yotes", "yodeldogs", "brush wolves", or any other cutesie-tootise nickname that outdoor writers, wanna-be coyote killers, beginning callers, or any other ill-informed persons might call them. Cute is for little girls, puppies, and Teddy Bears, not for one of the most highly developed predators that walks the earth.

Coyotes here in the desert country are not large animals. They probably average closer to 20 lbs. then 30 lb., and a 50 lb coyote, like a Penthouse centerfold in your bed, exists only in your fevered dreams.

Coyotes eat anything that does not eat them first (and take it from one who had tried, you don't want to eat a coyote), including, but not limited to; mesquite beans, rabbits, cats, lizards, mushrooms, watermelon, lettuce, squash, garbage, roadkill, quail, deer, any sort of carrion, ground squirrels, chickens, calves, sheep, dogs, insects, frogs, toads, snakes, rodents, and for all I know rocks and dirt. Coyotes never get fat, except for the old carcass-eaters, but they thrive in this hard-scrabble country like Indian cattle, without the benefit of religious protection.

Coyotes are HARD to kill. That doesn't mean that you have to hunt them with an elephant gun, but it does mean that you had better hit them in the boiler room with an adequate caliber, or be prepared for a long stern chase with little prospect of success.

Coyotes see, hear, and smell as well as any animal out here, which means that unless you pay attention to camo, stand discipline, and the way that the wind blows, you are asking for frustration instead of a dead coyote.

Coyotes are predators, which is why you can call them with a varmint call. They are also omnivores (see above) but a dying rabbit works better then a clover imitation, even if you are sometimes mistaken by friends and co-workers for a vegetable.