Coyote America

With its uncanny night howls, unrivaled ingenuity, and amazing resilience, the coyote is the stuff of legends. In Indian folktales it often appears as a deceptive trickster or a sly genius. But legends don't come close to capturing the incredible survival story of the coyote. As soon as Americans--especially white Americans--began ranching and herding in the West, they began working to destroy the coyote. Despite campaigns of annihilation employing poisons, gases, helicopters, and engineered epidemics, coyotes didn't just survive, they thrived, expanding across the continent from Anchorage, Alaska, to New York's Central Park. In the war between humans and coyotes, coyotes have won hands-down.

COYOTE AMERICA is both an environmental and a deep natural history of the coyote. It traces both the five-million-year-long biological story of an animal that has become the "wolf" in our backyards, as well as its cultural evolution from a preeminent spot in Native American religions to the hapless foil of the Road Runner. A deeply American tale, the story of the coyote in the American West and beyond is a sort of Manifest Destiny in reverse, with a pioneering hero whose career holds up an uncanny mirror to the successes and failures of American expansionism.

An illuminating biography of this extraordinary animal, COYOTE AMERICA isn't just the story of an animal's survival--it is one of the great epics of our time.

“"Think of Coyote America as a biography of our continent's most enigmatic and successful predator, but don't stop there. It is also a meditation, eloquent and insightful, on our relationship to wildlife, to nature, and even to our national culture. When you've read it, you won't sing the book's praises, you'll howl them." --William deBuys, author of The Last Unicorn and A Great Aridness "A biologist once told me, 'When the last man dies, a coyote will be howling over his grave.' This splendid book makes it clear why that's true, and why the persistent, enduring wildness of this remarkable neighbor should give us great delight." --Bill McKibben, author of Wandering Home "With a deft blend of science and history, Dan Flores shows us the coyote as trickster, survivor, and, ultimately, a reflection of ourselves. Coyote America paints a vivid and long overdue portrait of an iconic animal. It's a terrific book." --Thor Hanson, author of The Triumph of Seeds and Feathers "A wily writer meets his natural subject. With erudition, pathos, and seductive humor, Dan Flores tells coyote stories that expose the animalism of Americans, and humans everywhere. The pleasure of his book is the cross-species love of being alive." --Jared Farmer, author of Trees in Paradise: A California History”

"[An] engaging study."--New Yorker
"A beautifully readable and meticulously researched book."--Forbes.com
"Compassionate and captivating."--Christian Science Monitor
"A spirited blend of history, anthropology, folklore, and biology that is capable of surprises.... Well written throughout and just the right length, Flores' book makes a welcome primer for living in a land in which coyotes roam freely - in, that is to say, the Coyote America of his title."--Kirkus
"Wide-ranging, engaging, informative... Flores is both a fine scholar and a most engaging writer. He argues most persuasively that we need to learn to live with coyote and the other beings with which we share this earth." --National Parks Traveler
"[An] absorbing book.... The coyote stories in this book are among the best, and Flores is a master storyteller."--Natural History
"[A] fascinating scientific and cultural history.... Deft prose and wide-ranging research do their part to carry Flores through the grimmer chapters of his narrative.... Whatever the coyote may still be wanting, that list no longer includes a book to do it justice." --New Mexico Magazine
"Captivating. Dan Flores looks at a creature whose howl sent shivers down the spines of generations of farmers and ranchers. They responded by waging war on an animal that not only refused to disappear, but began showing up in places like Central Park. The coyote turns out to be the Road Runner in disguise, and is having the last laugh after all. A masterly synthesis of scientific research and personal observation."--Wall Street Journal
"A must read for all Americans, whether you are a farmer or rancher, a suburban or city folk." --Mother Earth News
"A must-read book if you are interested in knowing more about this persecuted critter, revered by Native Americans long before the settlers arrived." --Virginian Pilot
"Fascinating... essential literature in university courses on environmental studies, wildlife management, and general ecology and public policy. This book will appeal to ecologists as well as to a general audience seeking to better understand how modern humans have treated coyotes and build a new paradigm for a reformed and more holistic vision of how to manage coyotes with respect and compassion... A copy of Coyote America should be given to all legislators to help in making informed and more cost-efficient and humane wildlife policies." --Ecology
"A biologist once told me, 'When the last man dies, a coyote will be howling over his grave.' This splendid book makes it clear why that's true, and why the persistent, enduring wildness of this remarkable neighbor should give us great delight." --Bill McKibben, New York Times bestselling author of Wandering Home, Eaarth, The End of Nature, and Deep Economy
"A wily writer meets his natural subject. With erudition, pathos, and seductive humor, Dan Flores tells coyote stories that expose the animalism of Americans, and humans everywhere. The pleasure of his book is the cross-species love of being alive." --Jared Farmer, author of Trees in Paradise: A California History
"As I was reading Coyote America by Dan Flores, a coyote walked through our backyard. Magic occurs in these pages." --Terry Tempest Williams, author of the New York Times best-selling The Hour of Land, Refuge, When Women Were Birds, and Erosion
"Dan Flores's Coyote America is an utterly fascinating look at the life and range of Canis latrans. It brilliantly blends environmental history with old-fashioned storytelling. Flores is a master of the American West and a personal hero. A must read!"--Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University and author of the New York Times bestseller, American Moonshot, and The Wilderness Warrior
"Flores's mix of edification and entertainment is a welcome antidote to a creature so often viewed with fear." --Pulishers Weekly
"Historian Flores has written about the American West for decades, so it's no surprise his gaze should turn to the region's scrappy mascot. Over the past 500 years, the original desert-dweller has expanded its territory as far north as Alaska, south into the tropics and deep into many cities. That ubiquity has created a host of problems for both the animal and its neighbors, human and otherwise. Flores captures all sides of the situation in this detailed portrait of an American icon." --Discover
"In a straightforward style, the author unpacks the myths and urban legends surrounding the coyote and conveys his admiration and respect for this incredibly intelligent predator.... Highly recommended for natural history enthusiasts interested in moving beyond the conventional wisdom about coyotes to gain a deeper understanding of their presence in our midst."--Library Journal
"In this brilliant book, Flores traces the wane and wax of the coyote. Their story is interwoven with our story, but it is also like our story, that of a species that has faced challenges and overcome them. Read this book if you want to understand the wild canids among us and also, perhaps, a little bit more about yourself." --Rob Dunn, author of Never Home Alone and A Natural History of the Future
"It is often impossible to separate how animals behave 'wild' from how they behave around humans. Coyotes are a startling example.... Historian Dan Flores has fun describing how coyotes make a mockery of our attempts to put nature in order: 'It turns out, the coyote really is The Dude, and The Dude absolutely abides.'" --New Scientist
"The coyote should have been TIME Magazine's Person of the Year. This deeply engrossing study is part scientific, part mythological, and part personal observation. It is fully fascinating." --Lit Hub
"Think of Coyote America as a biography of our continent's most enigmatic and successful predator, but don't stop there. It is also a meditation, eloquent and insightful, on our relationship to wildlife, to nature, and even to our national culture. When you've read it, you won't sing the book's praises, you'll howl them." ----William deBuys, author of The Last Unicorn and A Great Aridness
"With a deft blend of science and history, Dan Flores shows us the coyote as trickster, survivor, and, ultimately, a reflection of ourselves. Coyote America paints a vivid and long overdue portrait of an iconic animal. It's a terrific book." --Thor Hanson, author of Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid, Buzz, The Triumph of Seeds, Feathers, and The Impenetrable Forest
Finalist for thePEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
Winner of the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award

Dan Flores is the A. B. Hammond Professor Emeritus of Western History at the University of Montana, and the author of ten books on various aspects of western US history. Flores lives just outside Santa Fe, New Mexico.

With its uncanny night howls, unrivaled ingenuity, and amazing resilience, the coyote is the stuff of legends. In Indian folktales it often appears as a deceptive trickster or a sly genius. But legends don't come close to capturing the incredible survival story of the coyote. As soon as Americans--especially white Americans--began ranching and herding in the West, they began working to destroy the coyote. Despite campaigns of annihilation employing poisons, gases, helicopters, and engineered epidemics, coyotes didn't just survive, they thrived, expanding across the continent from Anchorage, Alaska, to New York's Central Park. In the war between humans and coyotes, coyotes have won hands-down. COYOTE AMERICA is both an environmental and a deep natural history of the coyote. It traces both the five-million-year-long biological story of an animal that has become the "wolf" in our backyards, as well as its cultural evolution from a preeminent spot in Native American religions to the hapless foil of the Road Runner. A deeply American tale, the story of the coyote in the American West and beyond is a sort of Manifest Destiny in reverse, with a pioneering hero whose career holds up an uncanny mirror to the successes and failures of American expansionism.An illuminating biography of this extraordinary animal, COYOTE AMERICA isn't just the story of an animal's survival--it is one of the great epics of our time.

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