From the sublime to scat

 Between Greek tragedies, I’ve been reading scientific papers on coyote scat.

Coyotes have been in Texas for eons, but they’ve been in the Atlanta area for only 20 or 30 years. I’m trying to figure out what they’re eating.

Dogs are fed by humans, and we make sure they have digestible food. As a result, dog poop looks nothing like coyote scat, which contains animal hair, bones, seeds (especially persimmon), insect exoskeletons and occasionally feathers. To an observant person, coyote scat is a museum installation. Dog poop is just dog poop.

A lot of people in Georgia are convinced coyotes are killing deer, so the deer hunters are up in arms. People shoot coyotes year-round.

I read a paper that suggests that coyotes are eating adult deer, not just fawns.

That's interesting, but It bothers me that so much of the research is focused on that one question, as if the supply of game animals for hunters were most significant question that biologists could study.

I’d like to know, aside from deer, what coyotes are eating. The evidence on the trail suggests that coyotes in our neighborhood get some of their calories from our garbage cans and litter. I’d like to know how much.