Recently I went to a place called Space Farms Zoo and Museum. While there, I saw an animal that was made famous by Warner Bros., the coyote (Canis latrans). Of course, as one might imagine, the coyotes of the real world are much less apt to appear loony enough for the enjoyment of audiences around the world.

With light brown fur, defined snouts and triangular ears, they are smaller than their more famous and somewhat more popular wolf counterparts. Though (to my knowledge) they do not create complex contraptions meant to capture roadrunners, only to fail in a silly fashion, there is one thing that the cartoons get right. Compared to other canines, coyotes are resilient. They’ve maintained sizable populations despite poisoning, hunting and pretty much everything mankind has thrown at them. However, I’ve already discussed the importance of determination in a previous article. Fortunately, coyotes have other interesting qualities that I can still discuss.

In some instances, coyotes have been observed to hunt alongside American badgers (Taxidea taxus). The badgers enter the burrows of their targets, catching those trying to hide within; the coyotes catch anything that tries to run away in the open. I considered the possibility of having this be the subject of this article, but the importance of relationships between two individuals is a topic I already covered. (Also, I feel that ganging up on those weaker than oneself for personal gain isn’t really the sort of thing one should look at and say, “I can learn something from this.” Of course, people still seem to idolize lions for such behavior, so what do I know?)

Instead, I’d like to bring attention to another fact about coyotes. They are incredibly good at adapting to change, able to be found in different kinds of environments, and are even able to survive in urban areas. This is because they’re able to eat just about anything, and some populations have even learned to only come out at night in order to avoid people.

I’m not going to say that we should change everything about ourselves. If that were true, then our people would have died out long ago. I will also not tell you to change your dietary habits (for obvious reasons) or to adjust your sleep schedules. What I will say, however, is that doing the right thing is not always easy. Perhaps Hashem created the coyote with the ability to overcome situations that would be difficult for other animals in order to teach us that the easy thing to do is not always the right thing to do. Sometimes, being a good person requires one to leave their comfort zone, not unlike how an animal that typically lives in the wilderness, such as a coyote, might venture into human territory.