This is a coyote pup. We didn’t get his name, we barely got this picture before he ducked down into the grass and was gone. Just to the right of this image is a large jumble of rocks all piled on top of each other. There are brambles and mountain mahogany and other plants growing all over and around them making an almost impenetrable barrier keeping everyone one out except Mom and the oldest of the pups.

At first glance this doesn’t look like prime coyote nesting area. Usually the dens are dug into a hillside on the many sunny-sided slopes throughout the park. Lately however there has been a change and  now the coyotes have been denning in the roughest country they can find. The entrance to this den here in Brambleville is so cunningly hidden, that even though hours were spent here photographing this coyote family, we still could not make out where the actual entrance was.

The reason for this abrupt change in coyote behavior is not readily noticeable to the average observer. But then the average observer has probably not seen a wolf pack digging up a coyote den and methodically killing everything in it. I know, there’s going to be a collective gasp from the general population at the thought, but this is Nature, and it has different rules than we do. Even though coyotes are the “Hey! Can’t we all just get a long?” bunch in the canine family, wolves aren’t. They’re more the “Alright people listen up. We told you once this place ain’t big enough for the both of us, so here’s the deal. We ‘re going to hunt you down and wipe out every last one of you, no exceptions. The only exceptions are those of you that can get out of here before we get to you.” and that’s that.

But coyotes are not dummies. They’ve managed to survive every bit as long as the wolves and they are nothing if not adaptable. So they change where they put their dens, they teach the oldest pups to stand guard and they hunt and bring back food for their young by using a different path each time they leave and return and by being very careful.

This young coyote has been taught well and saw us as two-legged wolves and in moments was gone leaving behind nothing but a small bark of warning. The pups didn’t show themselves for twenty minutes or so but then Mom returned with takeout and after giving a little sound of all clear the pups came out and Mom divvied up the food and stood watch while the kids ate. She wasn’t worried about us but she never let up searching the surrounding area for the wolves. After everyone ate their fill she sent all but one down the coyote hole and left to hunt again. This time junior stood guard in a place where we couldn’t get a clear picture of him. But you knew he was on duty.