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“That coyotes eat rats is a big fat plus for them as far as humans are concerned (while we rarely see coyotes, we might notice the uptick in rat populations if they were gone)…There is something else coyotes add to the urban landscape. Something intangible, and unquantifiable, and difficult to put into words. They bring something that we modern humans both lack and need, that we both avoid and long for. They bring wildness. Wildness comes naturally to undomesticated animals, but for humans, the concept is more complex”
“The coyote, on light feet, traverses our urban-wild boundaries, challenging our preconceived ideas of both. The presence of the coyote reminds us that our connection to wildness, within and without, is worth our daily remembering. And that even if we forget, it’s still there.“
–The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild
From the introduction:
“My intent was not to be all-inclusive, but rather to treat species that are common in most urban places and those that have a particular lesson for coexisting with wildlife that can be extrapolated to other species, including the many that are not directly considered here...nearly everyone reading this book will be able to say, “I wish she’d written about __________.” But my goal, my dream, actually, is that this is just the start of a huge, earthen bestiary, an invitation to wild intimacy, written daily by all of us, through attention to the creatures in our midst.“