Reviled predator, often a target of 'coyote whacking,' is gaining a flicker of respect
JACKSON, Wyo. - It's a small speck of brown moving across a seemingly endless valley of snow. The valley is so silent and so frigid, it feels as if the slightest sound could crack the sky.
Franz Camenzind is unbothered by the cold. He lines up his spotting scope atop a tripod and moves it slowly, left to right. He stops, focuses. A smile creeps beneath his beard.
A trio of coyotes is trotting around the carcass of a dead elk. Ravens flit around, taking nibbles. One coyote dives in and pulls at the meat. The elk around them barely even glance over.
"Coyotes are incredible," the biologist says. "They're smart, cunning and incredibly adaptive. I admire them."
That has scarcely been the main sentiment aimed at coyotes, seen as villains in popular culture and vermin by cattle ranchers and killed in myriad ways.
But things finally may be looking up for the coyote.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is awaiting the arrival
