This coyote love story is wild
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 You think of a coyote and you think, "That's a really wild animal, a predator."
00:04 But she just snuggled up there. She curled up and she snuggled.
00:07 I'm Luann, and this is Stevie and Jack's story for GeoBeats.
00:11 We had the balcony built. It's just a platform on our hillside.
00:15 Just went up there to weed. And I think it was about a year ago
00:19 or so, we saw that Stevie, who's the female coyote,
00:23 started taking naps on the balcony. And it was just
00:27 so sweet because I haven't had that much interaction with coyotes.
00:31 We have cameras up on the balcony. I could just watch her
00:35 nap and it was so peaceful and calm and lowered my blood pressure.
00:41 Then Jack, the male, started showing up.
00:46 And now they nap together. When they come in and lay down for a nap
00:54 they both usually end up on their backs or bellies
00:56 touching each other and just slowly stretched out like
00:59 happy dogs up there. They're a very good looking couple.
01:04 Sometimes they get a little frisky with each other.
01:10 I don't leave anything up on the balcony for them except
01:15 a couple of dog stuffies, which they use as pillows.
01:21 They'll play with them and toss them around, but they always leave them on the
01:25 platform. I find this so remarkable. They never
01:28 tear up the stuffies. What has happened here?
01:30 Like my own dogs, they get a stuffy and it's eviscerated in like three minutes.
01:34 There you go. But they never tear them up.
01:39 Stevie seems to be younger. She's very playful.
01:46 Jack, I get the sense that he is a little bit older.
01:50 He's definitely the more serious of the two. Like,
01:53 I'm gonna take care of things if I need to take care of things.
01:58 We're in Los Angeles so there's people hiking,
02:04 walking, there's cars. The balcony, I think they've learned,
02:08 is they're not going to be disturbed. They're safe there.
02:13 How cool is it to share your space with something so
02:18 different and so beautiful and to get a glimpse
02:22 into this remarkable life? It's not anything I could ever buy.
02:28 Often on the platform when they are playing
02:32 or nuzzling, they whimper. For them, that vocalization is
02:36 they're just like playing or a sign of affection. And I've also heard them howl,
02:40 which is pretty cool. I don't know if Stevie and Jack
02:44 are the alpha male and female of their pack.
02:47 From what I've read, only the alphas have the babies.
02:51 That would be the best thing ever to see little coyote babies.
02:54 I don't know where their den is, but it would be somewhere around here. They
02:58 always leave when the sun sets. I definitely don't feed them because I
03:03 don't want them to become habituated to humans. I don't even talk to
03:07 them and it's very hard for me because sometimes I will see them and I
03:11 just want to say hello, but I don't because
03:13 the worst thing for them and their existence would be
03:17 for them to get used to humans. Not that long ago, they were gone for a whole week
03:21 and of course I worry, but all I can do is
03:24 continue to provide an oasis for them and hope they show up.
03:29 [Music]