Then, the phone rang.
Somehow, when I started at FortWhyte, I chose the desk next to the Education Team's communanal telephone. Perhaps it was a natural penchant for answering inquiries...perhaps it was an expression of my need to be connected to people...perhaps it was the proximity to the coffee station...whatever the reason, I usually answer the phone.
So, I did, as is my custom.
It was my colleague Melanie, calling from her cel. I immediately thought some problem had befallen her school tour.
Melanie did not have an emergency. She had tracks in the freshly-fallen snow.
She wasn't quite sure what kind of animal had left the tracks - and had to lead a program. She could not investigate the tracks.
The tracks at first appeared to be in a parallel line. My first thought was mustelid...some member of the weasel family.
As I got closer, and could see the track pattern and size, I knew my inital guess was wrong. Way wrong. These were canid tracks - dog family.
I followed the tracks down a hill behind our Interpretive Centre. The wind was starting to feel a little cold through my toque (this fall has been too warm, I'm still not acclimatised to cold!) but the quality of the tracks, and the story they told, were worth the chill.
Very little to no sign of coyotes had been seen at FortWhyte Alive for some time. The official line in the fall had been we had no resident coyotes on site. I still cannot say if we have resident coyotes, but sometime early in the morning of December 4th, we had two coyotes pass through FortWhyte Alive, very near the Interpretive Centre.
Coyotes have been on the receiving end of some negative attention lately, with a suspicious attack in Cape Breton this fall. Some people may feel uncomfortable knowing coyotes are in Winnipeg.
I think it's kind of cool. Coyotes are predators - we must always respect that fact. They are wild members of the dog family - we need to give them space, and, in a chance encounter, remind them we are the bigger, stronger animal by standing our ground, and not harassing the animals in any way. They are not cute and cuddly - they are wild.
It is this wildness I find enchanting. I think it is absolutely amazing that we humans can share Winnipeg with wild animals the size of coyotes. To me, these tracks are also a reminder of the fragile nature of wild habitat in the City...if we want to continue to have wild species within Winnipeg, we must keep wild spaces healthy.
Wild Spaces = Wild Species.
No Wild Spaces= (I'm a writer, not a mathematician. I'm sure you readers, many times more brilliant than I, can figure out the equation.)
