Coyote Ugly. No regrets, Coyote. Peter Coyote. Wile E Coyote. Coyote the trickster. Coyote the varmint. Coyote the creator. Coyote the bringer of fire.

One of the most admired and reviled predators in the United States is the coyote. Native Americans include the coyote in their creation narratives. The Looney Toons Roadrunner cartoon featurea coyote as a fool. Many Western states allow coyotes to be shot on sight as a varmint. Coyotes now live in Central Park, Manhattan, New York. Resourceful and clever, coyotes can adapt their territories to survive and thrive almost anywhere. They also breed with wolves and dogs to recreate themselves as coy-dogs and coy-wolves.  

Carnivore conservation biologist Geri Vistein champions their presence in Maine. They are Maine’s top predator, and she considers their adaptability not only key to their own survival, but as a vital and necessary force toward balancing wildlife stocks and helping to lessen tick-borne and Lyme diseases. Vistein is the curator of an exhibition blending art and science currently showing at the Midcoast Conservancy gallery in Wiscasset. Called Coyote Connections, the exhibit runs through Aug. 4 and features 14 artists working in different mediums to present the coyote as legend, as victim, as family, and as survivor.

Sculptor Forest Hart’s bronze “The SongDogs” shows a pack caught in full-throated song. A life-sized chicken wire sculpture called “Coyote Mousing” by Carole Whelan comes with a tribute by Whelan. “Hail Coyote, full of grace, All ears and stealth, muscles ready. Then a Baryschnikov aerial leap, pounce and snap. What would we be without Coyote? Drowning in mice, that’s what.”

During an interview, Vistein said Maine farmers she has worked with have told her when they are out in their fields during haying season, coyotes will follow at a safe distance behind their machines, snapping up mice. Vistein is educating livestock owners and farmers on the value of the animal, how to live with it rather than seeing it as a predator.

In the West, where large herds of sheep and cattle with calves roam huge acres of prairie and meadow, dogs such as the Great Pyrenees have been trained to stay with the livestock and guard them against coyotes and other predators. Llamas are also used as guardians. Vistein said this keeps livestock raids in check, saving both potential prey and predator.

 Artist Sandy Crowell’s painting called “Open Season on Coyotes” depicts dead coyotes as they were often photographed, hanging in rows on a barn. “Bait and shoot, leg or neck hold trap and shoot, all year long, day or night, no bag limit!” she writes. Vistein said education has curtailed these practices, although the coyote is still fair game whenever it can be caught out in the open.

Mark McCullough’s painting, “Ghosts of Evergreen Cemetery” shows coyotes winding their way between gravestones on a moonlit night in Portland. “Resilient and clever, eastern coyotes thrive in downtown Portland and other eastern cities,” wrote McCullough. “Like ghosts, their tracks weaved through the Victorian tombstones. Coyote will be here long after we are gone.”

Vistein’s book “I Am Coyote,” published by Tilbury House Publishers and available at the exhibit, features a 3-year old female coyote’s 500-mile journey from the wilds of Ontario to Maine in search of a mate. Her website, Coyote Lives In Maine, http://www.coyotelivesinmaine.com/, provides educational information on how to co-exist with coyotes, whether they live in rural or urban areas in Maine.

Vistein’s mission statement regarding the Midcoast Conservancy exhibit reads in part: “This is all about ‘Coyote Connections,’ or we might say, relationships.  Coyotes’ connection with their ancient knowledge and culture, coyotes’ prey animals (the dance of life and death) and fellow carnivores, with the land they call their home; this exhibition is meant to inspire, but also educate deep in the crevices of our spirits … where we experience and honor those connections that are important to the essence of who we are.”

In addition to Crowell, McCullough, Hart and Whelan, Coyote Connections artists include Michael Boardman, Evelyn Dunphy, Anne Garland, Judith Mitchell, Linda Murray, Linda Shepard, Elizabeth Starr, Gwen Sylvester, Lisa Tremblay, Geri Vistein and Helen Warren.

Midcoast Conservancy welcomes visitors to the exhibit weekdays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. through Aug. 4. As part of the Wiscasset Art Walk, there will be an open house on July 27 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the office at 36 Water Street in Wiscasset. For more information, call (207) 389-5150.