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April 9, 1993When I woke up this morning, I could hear Pat Goodmann's voice saying, "If you don't do it now, you will never be able to." So, I decided to jump in with both feet and get it done.I had been planning for three months to introduce two of my tame coyotes to each other. I was out of pens and I needed to get these two coyotes into one pen. In order to introduce into a pen that was neutral territory for both animals, which would be the proper way to do this to cut down on the odds of a big fight where one of the coyotes could become severely injured, I was going to have to move two females out of their pen into carrying crate, put them in the barn and then move them into pen that Marianna was living in. The coyotes I wanted to introduce are: Maiann, a three year old female and Nahani, a one year old male. (Marianna has had her uterus removed) My intent was to introduce them in the neutral pen, leave them there for a few days then put the two of them in Mariannas' pen. I was afraid for these coyotes that I loved so very much. I had visions of them immediately starting to tear each other apart. At Wolf Park, we had tried to introduce coyotes to each other without much success. However, Marianna and Nahani were raised differently than any other coyotes that I had heard about. So, maybe I would get lucky. Maianna came to my house when she was about six weeks old. At that same time, I had a litter of seven other coyote puppies. They did not socialize with her very much and when they did, she had definite rules that she had to follow. She was never allowed in their room, but they would go in her room (my bedroom) and lie under the bed with her. When they would come out from under the bed to wreak havoc through the house, she could run with them, but she had to be the last in line. She was not allowed to engage in any puppy interactions. She had to stand back and watch. She always had to be the last to greet me and she was never allowed to eat with them. When the other pups were moved outside to the puppy pen at about three months old, Marianna remained in the house because they would not tolerate her in their pen. They stayed outside all day and then they would come into the house at night through the bedroom window to go into their room to eat and to spend the night. Marianna was not lonely. In addition to the seven coyote puppies my family in the house consisted of four dogs, five cats, one cockatoo, (in cage) one crippled red fox and two humans. Her socialization was with these animals for the next twenty seven months of her life. The other coyote puppies were moved to an outside pen at about six months of age. Marianna was moved to an outside pen at twenty eight months of age. Nahani came to my house on April 12, 1992. He was about three weeks old. He stayed in the house for about five months. His family consisted of three dogs, five cats, one crippled red fox, one cockatoo(in cage) and two humans. He bonded closely with my dog, Raggs a seventy eight pound mixed breed. Even now, one year later, I can still take them on walks together. The reason I decided to introduce Marianna and Nahani is the two of them were more socialized to dogs than to other coyotes. To prepare them for the introduction, I had Mariannas' uterus removed. I then planned to introduce them during breeding season as soon as she came into estrus. In the mean time I made sure to walk each of the on it's leash to visit the other through the fence at least twice a week. They always seemed happy to see each other. Sometimes, I would take Nahani to see Marianna and leave him in the 6ft x 6ft entrance at the front of her pen. She would get all fluffed up to look as big as possible (She only weighs about twenty pounds and is small for a coyote) and growl, but never tried to fence fight with him. Nahani would just make puppy sounds and look cute and unintimidated by her. I would leave him there for a couple of days until I thought that he needed more space. Then I would take him back to his own pen. I don't remember how many times that I did this. Marianna did seem to be more territorial than Nahani. So Erich Klinghammer told me to put Nahani in the neutral pen first and then to bring Marianna in. The neutral pen is the home of two three year old female coyotes. They are sisters and they are a part of the litter of seven that I got about the same time that I got Marianna. Their names are Mommas Girl and Solita and they don not like each other. They have been fighting for the last year with each other and fence fighting with their brother Gentle Ben and their sister Sarah in the adjoining pen. After putting Mommas Girl and Solita in the barn, I went into their empty pen and cleaned out any food that I could see. I left the buried food in there so that Marianna and Nahani would have something to do besides fight in case they were so inclined. I then put Nahani on his leash and walked him over to the pen. I put him in and he started to pace and look for a way out. He seemed so scared. Already, I was becoming a nervous wreck. I wanted to rescue him and take him back to his own pen and forget the whole thing. However, I knew that I couldn't. Pat's words kept intruding into my brain. I then went to get Maianna. She is always happy to go anywhere on her leash. She walked into the entrance way of the adjoining pens and made the rounds growling at all the other coyotes, walked up to the pen where Nahani was pacing and waited to be let in. As I reached down to unfasten the leash, she growled at me. I ignored her, unfastened the leash, opened the door, and she walked right in. Nahani was so intent on his pacing that he ran into her. She growled and walked on by him, went under the den and stayed under there for about five minutes until she could see what was going on. She then got on top of the den, looked around for a couple of minutes then got down and started exploring. Meanwhile, Nahani was still pacing. They would occasionaly run into each other. She would growl, but I think that Nahani was so scared that he didn't even notice. This went on for the rest of the day. At about eight o'clock that night, I looked out the window and Marianna was on the den curled up, asleep. Nahani was on the dog house asleep. I did not sleep very well that night. It isn't supposed to be that easy. After five days, I was still waiting for something to go wrong. They adjusted better than I did. I was a nervous wreck. Marianna and Nahani lived together for eight years until death separated them. Marianna died first when the coyotes in the adjacent pen grabbed her tail and pulled it through the fence. She had a puncture wound up under the base of her tail which became infected and would not respond to treatment. The infection spread through her system like wildfire. Nahani died a year later from a ruptured bladder. They are buried next to each other. I miss them. Remember the two coyotes in the barn? I left them in the barn for about an hour while I went into the pen they were going into. I picked up any meat that I saw lying around, but left the meat that was partially buried. We then carried the lowest ranking female, Solita into the pen. I stayed in there with her for about five minutes while she explored her environment and became familiar with hiding places she might need. She walked right out of the carrying case and didn't seem afraid at all. I then went to get the high ranking female, Mommas Girl. When I took her in and opened the door of the carrying case, she didn't want to come out. She seemed to be a little afraid. She finally came out and started exploring. Both coyotes continued to explore and didn't pay much attention to each other. I did notice that Solita did not have her tail tucked as tight as possible the way she usually does. I then left them alone and didn't pay much attention to them until the next day. I wanted to let them work out their new boundaries to each other without my prescence. I was surprised the next morning to look out the kitchen window and saw the two coyotes standing side by side on top of the den. I just couldn't believe it. They had not been that close to each other without fighting for the last two years. I then went out and entered the pen to see what would happen. To my surprise, they both came to greet me. I just couldn't believe that Mommas Girl was letting Solita lick my face at the same time as she. I went over and sat on the dog house. Mommas Girl jumped up beside me. Solita put her front paws on my lap and seemed real happy that Mommas Girl was letting her have so much freedom in the new pen. After twelve days everything was still quiet. The only problem was when I would feed them. Mommas Girl would still try to take all of the food. She would even chase Solita into the dog house to take her food away from her. I would always make sure to throw enough food into the pen so that there was always extra lying around. Solita did not lose weight, so I knew that she was getting enough food. I had originally planned to put them back in their old pen as soon as I felt it was safe to move Marianna and Nahani back into Mariannas old pen. However, Erich said to leave things just the way they are. Mommas Girl and Solita are still alive. I did have to eventually divide the pen to separate them. Their fighting did escalate to drawing blood. I tryed spaying both of them to try to keep them together. That did not work. In sixteen years, I have never been able to keep two female coyotes together longer than two years. Last revised: Monday, December 30, 2002 |