This week’s installment of “Backyard with the Carrabises”

Coyote are clever.

Not to put down other Old Ones. The Wild doesn’t tolerate poor design. You think humans are grand engineers? Everything not manmade on this planet has gone through enumerable iterations, each one a minor improvement over the last.

Then how come things are going extinct, you ask?

Because humans are stupid.

We are evolution’s “big brain” experiment. It experimented with big muscle, big size, big this and that, none of them worked out.

Want the kicker?

We won’t, either.

But the coyote…if humans mind their own business and take out only themselves, the coyote – who were here before us – will be here after us.

Coyote have urbanized in many places. They’ve adapted to us. They’ll adapt to without-us.

The coyote near us have learned to listen to the raccoons. Do they hear the raccoons munching on peanuts and dog food?

That means Two-Legs have put food out, and easy treats are hard to come by in our world.

So they listen. They approach. They rustle to let the raccoons know they’re coming, time for the raccoons to leave, and they dine.

And so we’ll let them be.