Coyote Talk
November 29th, 2006Once upon a very long time ago there was a younger geezer named Jimmy. Jimmy lived with his Mama and Daddy on a farm just a few miles from Hesper, Mt., which is located 12 miles west of Billings, MT. For two summers a hired man by the name of Johnny, worked for and lived with Jimmy’s family. Johnny, a gentle but rough tough cowboy kind of guy, was Jimmy’s hero, ’cause in Jimmy’s mind, Johnny knew something about everything and could do most things better than anyone.
For one thing Jimmy was convinced that Johnny the hired man, could understand “coyote talk”. He was able to tell ya exactly what a coyote was sayin’ when it was a’ howling………… “Yip Yip Yahoooooooo”
There was no in-door plumbing or electricity on the farm and of course TV hadn’t been invented yet, or game boys, or MP3’s, etc. So, there wasn’t a whole lot to do in the evenings except read by candle light or kerosene lantern, play cards or board games, talk to one another, OR listen to the coyotes howl. Since there were many coyotes running wild in those days, you would hear lots and lots of coyotes a’ howling at night.
Some nights when Johnny would get tired of reading his western dime novels, he and Jimmy would just sit and listen to the howling coyotes. And of course Johnny’d interpret what the “coyote talkin’” meant. For example he’d explain that the higher pitched sounds might be a lonely female coyote saying, “I’m here…..I’m here…. Please answer me, coyotey man, and let me know where you are so’s we kin git ta gether.”
Or, a mama coyote might be heard howling, “Wiley Coyote, you git out’a of that cactus patch right now and git on over here or I’m gonna nip ur behind good and hard. Ya hear me? And tell ur brother ta quit teasin’ ur sister.”
The lower pitched and more strung out howls might be a male coyote, sometimes marking his territory. He probably would be howling something like, “Dis is my territory. See? If anybody steps over dis line without me a sayin’ it’s OK is gonna git in a heap a trouble.”
A short yelping sound might have been pups just happily playing or, depending on the sharpness of the sound, be crying because they were being criticized or punished by a mama coyote for something they did wrong. If it was a very loud, sharp, whining cry of a yelp it could have been a young pup trying to get out of the way of an older grouchy male who just bit it, saying, “Git out’a my way, pup. Ur buggin’ me. Next time I’ll do more’n jest bite ya, if ya don’t clear the way fer me.”
Sounds like coyotes can be pretty ornery sometimes, doesn’t it? Do ya ’spose it’s ’cause they know they are such scroungey, mean lookin’. stinky smellin’ critters or is it ’cause they just think every human being is out to get them for being such a nuisance?
Would you like to be a coyote? No? Me neither……… Since none of us would really want to be a coyote, what kind of animal or bird would YOU like to be if you could be anything besides a human bein’?…………………..And why would you like to be that?
Papa (Jim Diede)