Yellowstone Coyote

The short version of this image is that my wife and I were in Yellowstone, a coyote crossed the road in front of our truck, continued up a small hill, stopped, turned around and laid down. Simultaneous to this, I rolled down the window, clamped the window mount on, locked the camera onto the mount and fired off six shots. Elapsed time, about thirty seconds. Moral: Always have your camera ready when photographing wildlife.

The longer version begins sixteen hours earlier as we were driving along the Madison River searching for photo ops. We came upon a large group of people in a parking area looking at something in the river. Investigating, we saw a deer standing in the water on the far side. A coyote had chased the deer down a rocky hill and the deer had broken a rear leg. It was now in a literal life and death struggle, which we assumed, it would ultimately lose to the coyote. We watched for several hours. The deer would hobble out of the river when the coyote retreated a safe distance, only to be chased back into the river again. This cat and mouse continued until darkness fell, and with no conclusion.

Rising early the next morning, we went straight back to that area of the river. I had my wife drive and I had my camera, on my lap and mounted to the long glass. As we approached the pull-off, a coyote ran right in front of the truck across the road. Gayle immediately braked as I rolled down the window. I was surprised when Mr. Coyote stopped at the top of a small rise and turned around. Perhaps he knew I had tried in frustration to photograph him for hours the day before. Knowing that wild animals always run when big white lenses are pointed at them, I was stunned when he calmly laid down facing me just a few feet away.