SOUTH PADRE ISLAND COYOTES


 

I now know more than I ever wanted about coyotes on South Padre Island.  I thought it was an anomaly that I saw a loan coyote race across the beach twice during the pre-dawn hour, but apparently, they’ve been here for many years.  The first inhabitants were the Coahuiltecan and Karankawa Indians.  The Karankawa were called “dog-lovers,” so it’s entirely possible coyotes were their “dogs.”  After reviewing arrowheads, etc., it has been suggested that the Karankawa came to South Padre shortly after the island rose from a submerged sandbar to form an island approximately 3,000 to 3,500 years ago. And coyotes originated in North America many, many moons ago.

Four Spanish ships were swept off course before wrecking on South Padre Island in 1554.  Three hundred people were on board, and only one person survived.  The majority drowned trying to reach the shore, while the remainder were either killed by the Karankawa Indians or starved to death.

Padre Balli obtained the island from Spain in the late 1790s and began the first settlement in 1804.  They attempted to Christianize the Karankawa, but it didn’t “take.”  The good padre established a cattle ranch on the island and was the collector of all finances for the churches in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, which was no small gig for a priest!

The first building was a short-lived casino in 1908, but a hurricane wiped it out shortly after it opened. 

In 1931, the island remained a ranch. Still, there were very few cattle due to drought, overgrazing, and tremendous growth of the coyote population, who swam across the Laguna Madre from the island to the mainland and wreaked havoc on ranchers while devouring calves and chickens without impunity.

The Great Coyote Drive and Roundup was organized in 1931 to rid the island of coyotes.  Ads were placed in local newspapers in the Lower Rio Grande, inviting hunters to participate.  

Almost 1,000 hunters arrived on the island and were divided into two teams, one starting on the south end and the other on the north end. Lines on the Laguna Madre shore were formed to shoot coyotes should they swim across the bay's shallow water. On the island, the men were undisciplined and took shorter routes to avoid the dunes, where many wily coyotes hid. The official count was 26 coyotes killed, although the organizer claimed 100. 

The first hotel on the island was built in 1952, and it has continued to develop into a resort area since then.  

The descendants of the two coyote species remain today.  Since 1995, the island has distributed fishmeal-coated rabies vaccines for coyotes yearly.  Maybe one day they’ll sponsor an “adopt a coyote” day.  (Owners of small dogs and cats would be disqualified.)

My question about how coyotes arrived on the island has been answered.  They swam across Laguna Madre with an average depth of three and a half feet.  Fun fact: it’s only one of the world's six hypersaline (saltier than the ocean) lagoons.




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