Photographer Films a Coyote in Grand Teton Making a Clever Choice After Stepping Onto Thin Ice
As winter approaches, Grand Teton National Park is drizzled with icy flakes that eventually settle upon the landscape, per Yahoo News Canada. Lakes like Jackson, Jenny, and Phelps start to freeze, stiffening into glassy sheets of ice that, at this time, are only partially frozen. A recurring cycle of freezing and thawing triggers a fluctuating tailspin of fracturing ice. Every winter, the park witnesses episodes where wild animals or visitors unwittingly venture into these half-frozen ice lakes and become stuck. This winter, wildlife photographer Elk Raven (@elkraven_photography) captured footage of a coyote that displayed its brilliant decision-making aptitude after it inadvertently wandered off into an icy lake.
Tucked 10 miles south of Yellowstone National Park in northwestern Wyoming, Grand Teton has herds of wolves, coyotes, and bighorn sheep who are well versed in adapting to these wintery climates. Nature, however, can deceive even the wisest of beings. In this case, the coyote found itself getting betrayed by a glassy sheet of ice it mistook for the surface of a frozen lake. As it turned out, the ice had cracks. According to the Instagram post, the video was filmed from a distance by the photographer with Ollin Company’s phone case and Swaroski Optik’s spotting scope.
The footage shows a coyote with honey-colored flesh and a radio collar dangling from its head. The coyote set out to amble on a frozen lake. But as it walked further, the ice beneath its feet started to groan under its weight. Hearing the crackle, the coyote felt suspicious and realized that it had stepped on thin ice, which could crack and swallow it up anytime. Gathering its innermost instinct, the animal made a wise decision and started walking back to the shoreline. The intelligent choice showcased by the coyote has made people on the internet its fans. “We can relate, coyote, we’ve all been there,” @jacksonholeecotours wrote in the caption of the video.
This is not an isolated episode. If intelligence is defined as “the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills,” coyotes are the masters of it. As Coyote Yipps put it, coyotes have a specialized sense of not just vision and hearing, but also of perceptiveness and problem-solving. Their brains are highly tuned to gather nuanced information and then manipulate, organize, and remember the information for their own requirements.
Being both the predator and the prey, they learn from the very beginning to think dominantly, considering the points of view from both perspectives. They are tuned and highly aware of their surroundings, and they know how to map and navigate their territories accurately. English footballer Jake Breeder famously said that while “wolves and humans stride across landscapes as if they own a place, coyotes slink, pause, and dart because they have seldom owned anything, except their ability to read the room.” Coyotes are adept at accurately reading their environment, always strategizing and planning.
More on Green Matters
What National Park Visitors Are Doing to Help During the Shutdown Isn't Making Officials Happy
Researchers Put GPS Tags on Animals in Yellowstone — and Found Surprising Responses to Rising Heat
Grand Teton Visitors Are Worried About a Major Problem Amid Government Shutdown