Yellowstone: Realm of the Coyote
It's a world forged
by fire and ice...
a wonderland with jagged edges.
Born of a cataclysmic eruption
nearly two million years ago
it's been exploding ever since...
...Yellowstone.
This is the first national park
on earth and perhaps
still the greatest.
A primeval landscape of water,
light - and extraordinary life.
Over the eons,
Yellowstone has become
an American Serengeti
home to one of the most diverse
communities of large mammals
on the continent...
...home to the great Wyoming herds.
For thousands of years
the call of one great predator
has rung out across the wilderness.
The call of the coyote.
It's not the largest or fiercest
of Yellowstone's creatures.
But it may well be
the most cunning
According to one proverb...
"Next to God, the coyote is
the smartest person on earth."
If it seems almost human,
that's because like us,
the coyote is both cowardly
and brave - a schemer...
...and an opportunist.
Above all, the coyote is a survivor.
It was present at the birth
of Yellowstone.
It has outlasted the Ice Age,
the Stone Age, famines, floods;
and still, it's going strong.
Nearly 1,000 coyotes live
in Yellowstone.
This could be the story
of almost any one.
Let's call this one Cain
short for the coyote's Latin name,
Canis latrans the "talking dog."
Over the next four seasons,
he will face the greatest trials.
This is the story of that year,
a year of perils...
...a year of struggle...
a year through the eyes
of Yellowstone's coyote.
Wandering across the vast horizon,
coyotes like Cain watch over
Yellowstone.
At three years old,
Cain weighs 35 pounds
big for most of North America,
but average in the park.
Like most coyotes here,
Cain is a member of a pack
not a leader, just an underling.
Usually, he hunts on his own.
But every day, he is pulled back
to his home, his family
the group that sustains him...
...his pack.
A family of up to a dozen coyotes
rules a territory of
a few square miles.
The top dogs - the leaders...
...are a single male...
...and his lifelong mate.
The rest are usually their offspring
a mob of siblings.
Packs are an uneasy blend
of competition and cooperation,
snarling and snuggling.
But for all the seeming affection,
when it comes to food,
there's always tension.
The young are the second-class
citizens of coyote society.
They must wait to eat...
...until after their parents
have had their fill.
Cain should know he'll also
have to wait his turn.
But sometimes the temptation,
the hunger is too great.
He needs to eat now.
It won't happen without a fight.
There's no welcome home here.
Bared teeth and arched back
show Cain's aggression.
But his tucked tail and other signs
tell the true story.
He's scared.
Now he'll have to learn
the hard way.
As in most coyote fights,
no blood is shed.
But the outcome is very real:
Cain will go hungry today.
Despite the conflict,
Cain gathers with his pack
his siblings, his rivals.
Life is more secure in a group
than alone.
Coyotes have more calls than any
other wild mammal of North America.
This group howl means
they're all still buddies.
As coyotes rule the land
in Yellowstone,
another animal dominates the water.
It's the one creature that
seems to enjoy this brutal season.
And it's having a blast,
an Arctic blast.
For the otter,
winter is a special playtime.
Any riverbank is an excuse
for a slide.
From the hills to the valleys
otters create their own highways.
For them, it's always rush hour.
Zipping along at about
it's clear they've raised
commuting to a high art.
With their insulating fur,
otters are as cozy beneath the ice
as on top of it.
And since open water can always
be found, even in winter...
otters don't face starvation like
most of Yellowstone's creatures.
Fish are abundant and sluggish
from the cold.
But catching the fish is
the easy part.
To eat it,
the otters have to surface.
And that's exactly where
the competition is waiting.
Cain's pack is on patrol.
Coyotes are patient hunters
with a talent for snatching
the prey of others.
But the feisty otters are
no pushovers.
Coyotes are most successful working
as a team.
The pack will stake out several holes.
But otters can usually find
an emergency exit.
And when menaced, they can work
as a team too.
Ever scheming, Cain sets his sights
on a new prize.
But there's no honor among thieves.
Cain's pack runs him down.
The dominant male has claimed
the meal as his own.
Once again, Cain is left frustrated.
Life in a pack can sometimes
seem unfair.
Winter for coyotes is breeding time.
Junior members of the pack are
supposed to spend this season
on the sidelines.
But tentatively, gingerly,
Cain begins to show an interest
in the top female.
The male leader won't put
up with it.
This is his mate - and his alone.
He lays down the law.
The ruling male has a dilemma.
Should he stay to guard his mate?
Should he head out after food?
Hunger wins out.
Or does it?
He can't make up his mind.
Cain sees an opportunity coming.
The leader has turned up a feast.
But Cain has turned up something
equally enticing.
As an underling,
Cain is supposed to help
raise the young, not sire them.
Cain has violated the laws
of the pack,
and now he's caught
in a compromising position.
The leaders head off,
but they're not through
with Cain yet.
The pack's sentence, when it comes...
...will be harsh.
The battered Cain will face
the worst penalty: expulsion.
The top male leads the final charge.
Cain's companions have cast him out.
Now exiled and vulnerable,
Cain will be forced to wander
the wilderness alone.
For a lone coyote,
the odds are never good.
Cain's chances of dying
this winter have just tripled.
All of Yellowstone's best turf
has been claimed by one pack
or another.
And so the outcast must now
prowl the borderlands.
Without a territory,
without partners,
finding food will be
a greater struggle.
In this winter's bleak landscape...
...even the carcasses are picked
to the bone.
Cain will have to take greater risks
to get meals that might have
come easily to the pack.
He is forced to go it alone against
creatures like the golden eagle.
With a wingspan of nearly
seven feet,
the eagle is a formidable opponent.
And it's not frightened of
a single coyote like Cain.
Cain's perils are, in fact,
just beginning.
Lone coyotes are wanderers
sometimes traveling 20 miles
in a single night
and Cain will have to travel far...
...to find food in a land
where he's not part of a pack.
His best hope is under the snow.
Rodents like the vole are
a coyote specialty.
Enough of these appetizers
and Cain will have a full meal.
Not that coyotes are finicky.
They'll eat almost anything
from grasshoppers to cows.
It's been said,
"a coyote's favorite food is
anything he can chew."
When it comes to hunting voles,
the coyote is a skilled performer.
But another wild dog is
a real virtuoso...
...the fox.
With its sharp ear,
the fox pinpoints its prey.
And when it strikes,
it strikes with style.
Foxes fight with style too.
It's a dance of dominance when
foxes gather at an elk carcass.
Foxes, unlike coyotes,
don't live in packs.
And encounters are usually testy.
In the lower valleys,
Cain is on the lookout for animals
in trouble.
Once the buffalo roamed the West
in the millions.
Then they were all but eradicated.
In the bison's most desperate hour,
Yellowstone sheltered the only
wild herd in the United States.
Winter has always been hard on
these great beasts.
But even in the lethal cold,
one thing has always made
Yellowstone a haven...
...the geysers
A single geyser like Old Faithful
can erupt with enough energy
to melt tons of ice.
Hot springs, mud pots,
steam jets, and fumaroles
these are the vents for
the earth's great boiling energy.
Yellowstone has more geysers
than anywhere else in the world.
In the depth of winter,
when the subzero winds bite,
the bison cluster around
these oases of warmth.
Here, grass still grows,
covered only by a thin layer
of snow that the bison can
plow with their heads.
But sometimes the snow hides ice
kept thin by the hot springs.
Buffalo can weigh up to a ton.
But their legs are
narrow and pointy.
On thin ice,
that's a treacherous combination.
Every step may be
a step toward disaster.
In Yellowstone, the things that
give life can also claim it back.
There's nothing the herd can do...
...no lifeline the can throw.
It will take the buffalo nearly
four hours to drown.
Death is a long time coming
on the high plateau.
Deep into the month of April,
winter lashes the park
one last time.
Yellowstone is chilled,
frozen under a great white cloud.
Temperatures drop to 40 below.
This is beyond cold.
This is an as*ault
on all things living.
If a coyote knows loneliness...
this must be the loneliest time.
But a new season is on its way.
With every passing day,
huge cracks rend the ice and
shatter the crust of winter.
Cain has made it through
a trying season.
But now he must do more than
simply endure.
He needs a mate, a pack,
a territory to call his own.
Sooner or later he must find these,
for without them,
his life will be desolate and brief.
With the coming of spring,
food is emerging everywhere.
And Cain is on the prowl.
As the snow retreats,
carcasses are revealed.
Among them, the bison that drowned
in the winter.
Freezing waters have preserved
the carcass, and with the thaw,
it's reappeared just in time
to catch Cain's eye.
The new season feeds
on the remains of the old.
A bear emerges from hibernation.
It's time for breakfast.
Only this fast has been
four months long.
And a solo coyote can figure
the odds.
The grizzly settles down
to enjoy Cain's meal.
As the thaw continues,
white turns to gold,
and then to green...
...and the dance of spring goes on.
With great urgent leaps,
the cutthroat trout migrate up
the Yellowstone River.
Many will end up as food
for predators along the banks.
Like the osprey
the magnificent fish hawk.
In a land of hunters,
the osprey is one of the greatest
with feet that grasp like pincers...
the perfect tool for holding on
to a slippery fish.
Every morning, the river
brings a new feast to
the osprey's door.
And for Cain, for all those that
dwell in Yellowstone...
...the first murmur of spring
has now turned into
a full-throated roar.
With so much food in abundance,
life is flourishing everywhere.
Newborns have also appeared
at Cain's old pack.
Two months of gestation
have led to this:
Five new members of the pack,
five potential partners,
five potential rivals.
All around Cain,
families are springing up.
But he has no pack, no mate,
no young...
His only companion: a badger.
In fact, the partnership of
coyote and badger is legendary.
Native Americans spoke of
an ancient bond between the two;
they called them "cousins."
What they are is something
like hunting partners.
Cain's keen senses locate the prey.
The badger - a master digger
flushes it from the earth.
Above ground, the coyote keeps
watch for fleeing prey.
Cain gets the meal this time.
But his deeper hunger endures.
He needs a mate.
At Cain's old pack,
the two leaders raise their pups.
But they have help:
other pack members pitch in
to watch over the pups
to teach them
to protect them from threats...
...like the grizzly.
A half-ton beast with five-inch
claws is an unwelcome visitor.
Led by the mother,
the pack uproots,
moving the pups to a standby den
they've prepared for just such
emergencies.
But nature holds other threats
for the coyotes.
Each year the park must face
a trial by fire.
The great inferno of 1988 was
the most ferocious
to scar the region in two centuries.
But almost every year,
lightning sets Yellowstone aflame.
In the aftermath,
Cain walks the smoldering earth.
His quest for a mate has
led him far.
But he still has many
difficult miles to go.
Fire is not only
a destructive force.
It also kindles new life.
After a blaze,
the grasslands send up new sh**t.
As if in response to
the k*lling flames,
everything comes to life again.
Fire brings a second spring...
It is a time of beginning for
the pups too.
They have survived the blaze,
and are growing rapidly.
Weaned in their second month,
they're too big for the den now.
They've moved into a kind of
fort tucked away under a tree.
This tug-of-w*r is just practice.
Today, it's a feather
one day soon - it will be a bone.
In the early hours of a new day,
a young pup sets out after a vole.
But he can barely handle a bee!
Success.
It's the pup's first catch,
a first taste of his new life.
The pups are becoming more assured.
But it's one thing to hunt
on your own,
another to work as a team.
And that's what they're
setting out to do.
Their target - a badger.
The pups aren't old enough to know
they're supposed to be partners.
They've still got a lot to learn.
But the pups seem to feel pretty
good about themselves all the same.
Year after year,
the drama of Yellowstone's seasons
play out on a grand scale.
For this park spans the decades.
It spans the continental divide.
It spans 2.2 million acres.
Yet for all the enduring panoramic
beauty of Yellowstone,
there is another face to this park
rougher, more unformed,
almost otherworldly.
Yellowstone has been a national
park for well over 100 years.
And yet in a sense...
...it is built anew every day...
...boiling up in great basins
of sulfur and mud.
Those that roam Yellowstone
day after day
find that each day takes them
over slightly different terrain.
Each day,
they find the horizon is new again.
After six months alone,
Cain catches sight of
a potential mate.
She was cast out from her pack
during the food shortage
last winter.
The lone female has been
wandering the park like Cain.
The two coyotes offer something
precious to each other
a partnership
the promise of a family.
Once paired,
most coyotes will mate for life.
And this first date
has gone very well.
Together they will hunt
through the grasslands.
Together they will search
for a home.
Finding one won't be easy.
In fact, it will be the challenge
of their lives.
All the surrounding territories
are held by large packs.
And turf won't be taken
without a fight.
In Cain's former pack,
the pups are six months old
almost fully grown.
Working with the adults,
they are now a well-coordinated
k*lling team.
And their target is
a sickly elk calf.
The mother does her best to
defend her young one.
But it's no use.
The coyotes claim their prey.
Long after her battle is lost,
the mother continues to fight.
But the coyotes won't be
denied their meal.
In the cruel equation
of Yellowstone,
the death of the elk calf means
life for the young coyotes.
The final days of summer turn cool.
As Cain and his mate wander,
the buffalo go head-to-head
in a violent mating contest
the rut.
The males are well-dressed for
battle; their heads and shoulders
padded with extra wool to
absorb the pounding.
And when it comes,
the pounding is ferocious.
For the losers,
the cost is sometimes death.
And there is no dignity to death
in a land of scavengers.
The colors of fall herald the
return of freezing temperatures.
For Cain and his mate,
now comes a critical test.
They've hunted side by side,
but now they must hunt as a team.
An injured mule deer seems
an easy target.
But the coyotes are cautious.
A mule deer's hoof can slash
like a Kn*fe.
The pair just can't get
the job done.
Two coyotes can't surround
their prey the way a pack can.
Their failure is a dangerous omen.
For a pair that can't make a k*ll,
winter will be an ordeal
a deadly ordeal.
With the first snows,
begin the battles of winter.
The bighorn sheep are fighting
for a chance to mate.
Now all of Yellowstone's creatures
must once more fend off starvation.
The thermal springs offer
respite for some...
...but the season will still
take its awful toll.
The odds against Cain and his
partner grow with each passing week.
Without a pack,
hunting is difficult,
holding a territory even more so.
Without a pack,
they stand less chance of surviving,
or of raising young.
Rivers are natural turf boundaries.
And to cross the line into
another pack's domain is to
risk confrontation.
But for the hungry pair,
now is the time for risk.
They can't resist the lure of
a bison carcass.
The resident pack can't afford to
share their food with trespassers.
A clash is coming...
And for Cain, it will have
a special significance.
This is his old pack.
These are his kin.
And Cain is still coyote non grata.
Vicious as it is,
this battle won't go to the limit.
It will stop
when one coyote proves strongest.
And one has.
It's Cain.
This is now his turf.
Defeated, the former leaders
wander off into exile.
Old and tired,
their prospects are poor.
Cain and his mate claim
one of their rewards
the right to eat first.
Confrontation becomes cooperation
as Cain's brothers
and sisters accept the takeover.
They all settle in for a banquet.
Cain will in time become a father.
And by helping raise his pups,
his siblings will make sure
the family line lives on.
Sibling rivalry turns to
revelry of a sort.
And Cain's pack begins life anew.
More adversity will lie ahead
this winter - lethal temperatures.
Punishing winds and
the never ending struggle for food.
But the coyotes will survive.
They have survived fire and ice,
survived the att*cks of
man and beast.
This too they will outlast.
There is an Indian tale that states
the coyote will be
the last animal on earth.
After the buffalo are gone,
after man has disappeared,
all that will be left is darkness.
And in the darkness will echo
the call of the coyote.
National Geographic: Yellowstone - Realm of the Coyote (1995)
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