I went to Salon, looking for their annual April Fool’s article, but found that the magazine’s cover story was not a joke but instead about a “fooler of fools”: the coyote and its spread to the east coast. A lovely article. Here’s an excerpt:
But the reach of industrial Homo sapiens transformed the coyote’s habitat. By the early 20th century, the forests that fed the wolf had been felled, and the wolf (along with the cougar) was soon decimated, vast swaths of land were subordinated to agriculture, and in this kinder environment, the deer population, freed of top predators, began an inexorable climb to its current saturation point.
The coyote, ingeniously plastic, always adapting, saw opportunity. He pushed east and north and south, assuming the niche of top dog, and today his numbers nationwide are more than twice what they were in 1850. The coyote, says wildlife ecologist Justina Ray, “is the most successful colonizing mammal in recent history.”
Well, except for humans, of course.
In the letters section, a couple of readers thought the article itself was an April Fool’s joke. Why is news about any creature besides humans considered trivial even by liberals? Can someone please leave a comment to explain?
Lost in Thought 