Predators!

Fresh winter snows make it easy to keep track of our local predators. I hadn't seen or heard any coyotes in these woods for a few seasons, and thought maybe they had moved on or been hunted down. But the snow reveals a pack on the prowl.

Click on "Read more" for a close encounter with a curious coyote.

Our local coyotes are not strictly native to this region. In colonial times, wolves lived in Rhode Island, occupying the top-predator niche. Farmers drove out the wolves, but now there are fewer farmers and more woods, creating a niche for the wolf to return. But wolves haven't adapted well to living in close proximity to us humans, while the wily coyotes have learned to make the best of it. So, coyotes expanded their range to take over the wolf's top spot here in R.I. They have been here since the 1970s.

Shortly after I took the picture of the coyote tracks, above, I turned a corner to spot a lone coyote out hunting at the far end of the cove. He was at the limit of my digital zoom, so he's a bit fuzzy, but here he is, taking a good look at me. He stared for about a minute, thinking things over, then turned and loped off into the woods.

To learn more about R.I. coyotes:

"Where the wild things are," a Rhode Island Monthly story about our local coyotes and the scientists who study them.

The Narragansett Bay Coyote Study.

DEM fact sheet on coyotes (pdf).