Page 2 - Kind News, Jr Activity Guide November/December 2024
P. 2
ANSWER KEY
Critter Clues FROM PAGE 7
Our mystery critter is the coyote. After great persecution in their native
West and a decline in wolf populations, coyotes have expanded in recent decades.
The animal’s adaptability and resilience is iconic, allowing them to flourish in new
suburbs and cities across 49 states. While small prey like mice and voles are their food
of choice, coyotes are known to expand their diets tremendously when those food
sources don’t exist: to watermelon, lizards and snakes, insects, or slices from their local
pizzerias! (A coyote was found walking into a Quiznos in 2007; most find scraps at the
back door).
The character Coyote in several Indigenous cultures is based on the animal’s intelligence and
scrappiness, and is often a trickster figure. But it’s the coyote’s dedication to family that drives
everything. Coyotes are dedicated to the pack or family unit, creating lifelong bonds with mates and caring for and
teaching young as adult groups including aunts and uncles. Adults are known to “escort” people with pets if a den
of pups in nearby (in which case it's advised to calmly and slowly keep walking away). Their classic howl is used to
announce territory boundaries and in reunions with the pack.
Extermination efforts continue (about 400,000 are killed yearly) including government programs to prevent
predation on livestock, but so do efforts from their advocates, most notably Project Coyote, the Humane Society of
the United States, and National Wildlife Federation. Advocates harken back to naturalist Hope Ryden’s seminal 1975
work, God’s Dog, in which she shares her observations of these family-oriented animals across the west. Like Jane
Goodall’s meetings with chimps, coyotes allowed her to come close enough to touch, and she witnessed at their
sides many a pack member tip their heads back in a song of togetherness.
Caring Crossword
FROM PAGE 6 Where’s
1
F Raja?
Across 2 2 G R A Z E U RAJA IS HIDING
2. Graze E N ON PAGE 7!
3. Herd N 3 3 H E R D
THIS PAGE: GETTY IMAGES/UNSPLASH. Down 4 B O D Y L A N G U G E To access an interactive version
4. Body Language
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