Once there was a valley. And in that valley, there lived the coyotes, the pumas, and the deer.

While the deer fed from the rich plant life of the valley, both the pumas and the coyotes hunted those same deer for food.

One day, the council of coyotes gathered to devise a plan to get rid of the pumas so they could have all of the deer for themselves.

Every coyote in the valley gathered together to form a great pack, and together they chased the pumas out one by one until none remained in the valley.

Finally free of the pumas, the coyotes feasted on deer through the summer months and into the autumn. When winter came the coyotes rejoiced. With the pumas gone there was a surplus of deer; the coyotes would never want for food this winter.

But as the cold set in, the deer in their great numbers ate all of the winter forage far too quickly. The coyotes could only watch, with bellies full but powerless to stop it, as the deer began to starve and die in great numbers. By the time spring came there were none left.

And in a season that should have been prosperous the coyotes were forced to leave the valley in search of food, lest they starve as well.