![\"coyote](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/coyote-5881-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWe’ve had mostly gray, wet skies for almost a week now and I’ve done very little shooting in that time so these coyote images are from my archives.\u00a0\u00a0Both were taken on Antelope\u00a0Island on\u00a0the same day last August.<\/p>\n
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\u00a01\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I’ve always been a fan of monochromatic images and I love all the shades of similar colors here – even those beautiful eyes fit the bill.\u00a0 The warm light of the early morning sun helped to pull it all together for me.\u00a0 This coyote had been hunting and paused for a brief moment at just the right angle to the sun to put interesting light on almost the entire body.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a01\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS USM +1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n An hour and a half later the light wasn’t nearly so warm but I thought this shot was interesting for a couple of reasons.\u00a0 It is not unusual\u00a0for coyotes to hang around bison but unless they have calves the behemoths\u00a0generally ignore them entirely.\u00a0 I thought the relative size perspective of the two mammals was interesting,<\/p>\n The coyote is a young one, probably born that spring.\u00a0 I was struck by the “saddle” marking on its back which I thought was somewhat unusual (a Google image search of “young coyotes” didn’t bring up any images that show similar markings).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Two years ago the Utah Legislature\u00a0established the\u00a0euphemistically named\u00a0“Mule Deer Protection Act” which provided $500,000\u00a0of taxpayer money\u00a0to pay hunters $50 for every coyote they kill.\u00a0 The\u00a0stated purpose of the act was to increase\u00a0our\u00a0Mule Deer herds, despite the fact that many professionals warned that it wouldn’t work (I have strong suspicions that one of the primary motivations for politicians to pass the act\u00a0was to placate the all-powerful\u00a0livestock industry).\u00a0 To date 7119\u00a0coyotes have been\u00a0killed for bounty and\u00a0$355,950 have been paid to hunters but our Utah Mule Deer populations have not increased – not a whit.\u00a0 In addition there are strong suspicions that many of the coyotes turned in for bounty were not taken in Utah but in Nevada\u00a0or Idaho instead.\u00a0 And at least some hunters have attempted to turn in the same coyotes for bounty twice, thus scamming and double-dipping the system.\u00a0 See this\u00a0recent story <\/a>from KSL for more information if you’re interested.<\/p>\n For now at least, coyote hunting is not allowed on Antelope Island.\u00a0 But given the pressure from hunters, the susceptibility of our\u00a0State Parks to being seduced by money provided by “trophy hunts” and other forms of hunting\u00a0(some large mammals are already hunted on the island, a State Park) and the gun-happy tendencies of\u00a0our myopic Utah State Legislature it wouldn’t surprise me to see some form of coyote hunting allowed on Antelope Island at some time in the future.<\/p>\n I fervently hope it doesn’t happen.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two years ago Utah established the Mule Deer Protection Act which provided $500,000 to pay “hunters” $50 for every coyote they kill. <\/p>\n![\"coyote](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/coyote-5935-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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