Coyotes Ripping Babys Apart

[Bob Boze Bell]

January 9, 2013

For the past quarter century I have been trying to record a group of coyotes doing their screeching chorus. It's not like the movies where we hear a solo, cliche yippie-ay-yo. No, when you hear a pack of coyotes singing to each other and off of each other, it is more like The Beach Boys meet Marilyn Manson. It is very demonic, to me, at least. When I first heard it in the mid-eighties, when we moved out to Cave Creek, I told Kathy, "Is it just me or does that sound like coyotes ripping babies apart?" She agreed. Very unsettling.

 

Unfortunately, I could never get recording equipment in the right place to capture the sounds. Finally, this morning I was walking from the studio to the house and I heard the pack go off down the hill and across the creek. I realized I had my iPhone on me and I simply stepped to the edge of our back yard and pointed the phone to the sound. Halfway in, I realized I was looking right at two of the coyotes and stepped forward to see if I could capture them on video. Not sure you can see them (they're on the hiillside between the clump of trees), but check out this demonic chorus:

 

Coyotes Ripping Babies Apart

 

"The lonesome howl of a coyote takes me home again."

—Marilyn Manson

[anthony martin]

  Bob,

     To me it doesn't sound so demonic as raucous,more like feeding time at the kennel when my aunt used to breed terriers!As for Coyotes I do give them healthy respect.A few years ago and friend and I went looking up near Yosemite for an old,abandoned stage stop.We were being followed by at least 18-20 coyotes and they kept getting closer as we hiked.By the time that we reached the old building and barred  the entry with old junk the pack was right outside and remained there for at least an hour.It was rather disconcerting.

 

[Wolfgang]

That is coyotes alright.  But . . . . I don't think they make any sound while ripping the babies apart.  I think they do their "sing song" after having consumed the baby.  :)

 

When coyotes do eat small children . . . . and they do, . . . the parents will not admit that the wild animals have eaten their children . . . and so spend years pushing the authorities to search for the child molester that they are sure has kidnapped their child.   And there is no evidence left when the child is small as all the bones are consumed.  This happened about 15-20 years ago at a campground in the California desert.  One investigator did find coyote droppings with fragments of clothing it them that were probably from the child's clothing.  The fruitless search for a human abductor went on strong for over a year. 

[Mary L Fiore]

Where my cousin used to live in Ventura Cty CA they were on the edge of thousands of acres of range land. We would be wakened most mornings by the coyotes. The funniest was one time we were on the back patio at dusk and the pups were learning how to howl.

[Terry Boniface (Malpaso)]

Thanks for that, never heard it before.

[Sue Cauhape]

We had similar maniacal coyotes in Truckee and here in Minden. There was one who, for almost an entire summer, perched upon a huge boulder about fifty feet from our house and screamed. Not howled. Screamed. Here's a poem I wrote about it and got published in a local poetry book.

published in Ash Canyon Review Volume 1 Issue #2 2006

She screams tonight

I don’t know why I think it’s a female

males often run solo from the pack

not welping or babysitting pups 

but tonight she screams

shrill desperate  

in search

hoping her cries will be heard 

by those who sing across the valley

tonight  last night  last week

on a new moon night when 

my man is away

I splay myself across the bed 

to fill the cold spaces

and hear her cry

I remember a winter night 

when drifts of snow

hid the view of neighbors 

a canine face peeked  

into my circle of light

I ran to the door to see her 

standing next to her mate

facing me

unafraid

I could take chances like that

with my man close by

when alone

I clamp down hard on that shrill 

desperate scream.