The Struggle to Co-exist with Coyotes

Yesterday's Boston Globe cover story is titled How We Can Co-exist Peacefully with Coyotes. The title of the article is hopeful, but the issue is complicated. Coyotes reside in all major American cities, and are enemies even to animal lovers, who have lost pets to coyotes. For the past five years, biologist Numi Mitchell has tracked 21 coyotes with GPS collars to learn how we can better manage coyote population and habitat.

According to the article, "we trap, shoot, and poison 90,000 coyotes a year in this country." Hunters kill 450 coyotes per year in Massachusetts alone, but the Eastern coyote population continues to expand at a rate "unparalleled by any species of terrestrial mammal in recent history."

Their presence is both impressive and worrisome in urban areas. In the suburban Boston neighborhood where I grew up, a coyote den was found in the public park; the floor of the den littered with cat collars. Numi Mitchell will spread awareness about keeping pets safe from coyotes by marching in a Memorial Day Parade today with a corgi wearing a blanket that says "snack size."

I knew that coyotes often snack on neighborhood cats and small dogs, but a corgi seemed, at first, too large a dog to fall prey to a coyote. Eastern coyotes are larger than the Western breed of coyote, possibly due to breeding with wolves. A large Eastern coyote can weigh 50 pounds, and a Corgi weighs in at around 25 pounds — no match for two coyotes.

The modern coyote is bigger and bolder, prompting some researchers in the article to question whether these may be a new breed of coyote entirely. In Nova Scotia last year, a 19-year-old female hiker was attacked and killed by a pair of coyotes, only the second fatal attack in North American history. Coyote attacks on humans are rare, with 142 reported nationwide in the last 40 years. The coyotes that killed the hiker in Nova Scotia had likely been fed by other humans in the past.

The natural diet of coyotes includes mice, rats, woodchucks, rabbits, squirrels, voles, and fruit. But humans feed coyotes in their backyards, occasionally by hand. Hunters leave deer parts behind in the woods after hunting, and farmers leave out dead livestock for coyotes to dispose of. Feeding coyotes, either directly or indirectly, is not doing the animals any favors. "A fed coyote is a dead coyote," Numi Mitchell says in the Boston Globe. A fed coyote is unlikely to avoid humans, and is thus more likely to either get shot or eat neighborhood pets.

Cat lovers struggle to co-exist with coyotes. Both domestic and feral cats are often coyote prey. Many people balk at keeping their domestic cats indoors at all times, and many others feel an obligation to provide feral cats with food. There are an estimated 70 million feral cats nationwide. Both cats and the food left out for them are easy food for a coyote. It is recommended to feed feral cats on 6-foot ledges, too high for coyotes to reach, and only to leave food out during the day.

The article also recommends to never feed coyotes, leave out unsecured trash or pet food. It suggests cats be kept indoors at all times, and to always walk small dogs on a leash.

Photo Credit: Jitze