Okay, this is going to be way more than you really want to know, but there is some backstory to this story. In its initial conception, this was going to be a sci-fi about an isolated area (hence the plateau) that had evolved a kind of coherence. Not its own consciousness, but a systemic self-regulating balance. All the animals were plugged into it and played their part, but the coyotes were somehow central to keeping the whole thing going. They had risen above the other animals and had developed a kind of hive mind. They were the keepers of all the rest but did it in a way that fit naturally into the whole system. Then this brain-dead redneck enters the picture and begins to kill and ruin everything. The entire plateau is at risk, so, in an unprecedented act, the coyotes bring all of the birds and beasts together to eliminate the human disease. All of the animals had been tormented by him, but the rabbits had been hit the hardest. So all the animals would take part in his execution, but the bunnies would participate with uncharacteristically bloody zeal.

That was the story in my head, but I just wanted to spend a day writing a 5-minute read, so the truncated version lacks internal consistency. I will, hopefully, do better next time.