Where
Coyotes Howl
Dee
Walmsley June 2000
“A
fed coyote is a dead coyote,” states Kristine Lampa Executive Director
of the Stanley Park Ecology Society.
Kristine wrote her masters thesis on urban coyotes and has since
become Vancouver’s expert on this much maligned critter.
“We have a problem, and it’s a people problem,” she said.
“Folks are feeding coyotes by hand and leaving out pet food in
their yards turning these skittish canines into people friendly wild
pets, unfortunately, it’s the coyote who suffers in the end.” Like
them or not, coyotes are here to stay.
It’s a matter of learning to live with them.
Coyotes
kill cats! They certainly
do as demonstrated by the recent discovery of a den containing 55 cat
collars Coyotes can’t kill indoor cats which seems to be the most
responsible solution to a common problem. .
They have been known to take small dogs and in some cases a pack
will use a female coyote to lure an unsuspecting amorous male dog into
the fray and attack. These
attacks are rare where coyote habitat is left in tact. Then they feast
on rats, rabbits and other rodents considered pests by humans.
Once again leashing and taking on the guardianship of your dog
solves the problem.
City
coyotes, if left unfed by backyard enthusiasts will survive.
Their numbers may dwindle to a point where the food source and
habitat allows them to continue to exist but those numbers will remain
consistent. Feeding coyotes
increases their population, which in the long run promotes diseases like
canine distemper. This is
nature’s way to cull the pack. When the natural food source is
depleted by over-population the coyote is forced to seek out supplements
in the way of family pets. By
leaving pet food unattended and encouraging coyotes to eat human
table-scraps the animals lose their fear of humans.
Hand-fed coyotes are usually the animals that are responsible for
people biting. They learn
to associate an outstretched hand with food and when it’s not there
the coyote bites at what it thinks is an offering.
Panic prevails and the curious, hungry coyote ends up being
killed as a vicious predator.
Coyotes
mate for life. They thrive
in family groupings with both parents raising the pups.
They are opportunistic as is any urban wildlife and they are
highly intelligent. Coyotes have been known to set their internal clocks
by watching human’s habits. If
the dog is fed outdoors at 5:00 pm everyday and the people eat at 5:30
pm the coyote will use that time to search out any snack knowing the
humans are busy inside the house. If
the family cat is thrown out each night at 11:00 pm or let out at 6:00
am each morning the old trickster will be there watching and waiting.
We can learn to co-exist with this cunning canine by using our
own wit and intelligence. Where the coyote howls depends on you.
Dee
Walmsley Surrey BC
~Note
from Tom~
We
can all learn a lesson from this letter. Loving Wildlife is fine. But
feeding Wildlife in some ways has it's drawbacks. (Excluding Wild
Birds). As a Wildlife Rehabilitator often people
bring me Wildlife that they have raised. I understand their concern for
the critters but all to
often they have kept the animals to long and they became imprinted on
humans. This my friends
could spell a "Death Warrant" for the animals. CASE IN POINT.
Several months ago a man
called me and told me that he had raised 2 Raccoons, they were about 6
months old. He said
"they are getting to wild for me to handle", also one of them
had just bitten him. He could not
understand why they had done that. I advised him that Raccoons harbor
Rabies up to 3 years.
Needless to say readers, I do not have to tell you the rest of the
Story. PLEASE, PLEASE,
unless your are experienced in Rehabilitation, if you find
Wildlife babies contact a Wildlife Rehabilitator. You can find a contact
list on my Homepage. Remember when feeding wildlife constantly you are
imprinting them to the human way of life and they will soon become
dependant. What's your feelings??
Thanks
Dee, excellent letter.
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