Carol Cartaino

Cartaino's book is exactly what it purports to be - a basic unglossed and relatively neutral offering of information about coyotes. By neutral I mean, acknowledging that there are two attitudes toward coyotes (with nuances, to be sure). Some folks are either terrified by the idea of coyotes roaming the 'burbs and city parks and convinced they kill an unusual amount of wildlife and others think we should figure out how to get along and believe there are benefits to having coyotes living alongside of us. The emergent fact is that coyotes, like several other species of mammal, are flexible enough to have adapted to human presence, not just adapted but are thriving. Urban and suburban settings are also excellent habitat for some of their favorite prey from mice, squirrels, rabbits (and rats) to larger animals, like deer.... and..... unfortunately, since they don't make much distinctions - your pets. So what to do. They are in fact, so wily, that exterminating them is out of the question - and it is ethically and ecologically a pretty stupid idea anyway, as coyotes keep the rodent population (and also deer populations) in check better than any other type of predator. Without saying it openly Cartaino makes it clear where her allegiance lies (well duh, who would write a book about an animal they loathe - we only do that for our politicians!) and offers sound advice about how to live with coyotes sensibly and safely. Rule number 1 is NEVER EVER FEED THEM. In fact, don't feed any wild animals beyond birds. JUST..... DON"T! Feeding rodents encourages them to multiply and that will inevitably attract more predators, and if it doesn't you'll have a rodent population explosion you really don't want. If you are developing an interest in coyotes then this might be a good place to begin. The last two chapters, about fencing and hunting coyotes, was only scanned/skimmed by me since I have no interest in either. I wish the bibliography in the back was more extensive, but I can work with it. I'd like to read more about the suburban/urban coyote.

I do have one quibble which happens in the opening paragraph where Cartaino states confusingly that dogs originated in the Americas, traveling back over the land bridge to Eurasia at some point..... all I could think was..... wait, what? I think it is more unclear writing than bad information.... that wolves are #1, (and originate in Eurasia) then they spread out and the dog subspecies rises and does trek back over the land bridge, but it's complicated and as DNA testing gets better perhaps a clearer picture of just how it all worked will emerge. The main point being that dogs are very much a native animal to North America. And coyotes, canis latrans, are as much dog as wolf and deserve to live here as much as we do. Being me, I think, of course, perhaps more than we do. ***1/2… (más)

I was really excited to learn that I would be receiving this book as an Early Reviewer. I found it to be the most interesting of all books posted that month. However, I was greatly disappointed in it. My main issue was the writing. The grammar was horrible and it would have benefited greatly from an editor. I also found the material to be organized in a confusing manner. I’m afraid that I can’t recommend this book based on the content.

On the other hand, I would recommend it for anyone interested in the photographs. The pictures of the coyotes were wonderful. If you are looking for photographs more than content, this would be a good book to take a gander at.… (más)