Coyotes vs. Population Growth

[Txsteader]

Living in a rural area, we've always had coyotes and learned to deal with them. But with the recent growth explosion in this area, they've made the local newspaper.

It's sad to see them lose so much of their habitat. At one time, they were so prevalent that there was a bounty on them. You'd see their hides hanging on the fences along the rural highways. Not nearly as many now and fewer destined as more open land is taken for development.

http://news.galvestondailynews.com/s...3de07bcc630ffe

[Unregistered]

Accoeding to the Dept. of Wildlife there are more coyotes now than any time in history. They have the ability to adapt to anything that man can throw at them. Their territory is expanding. At one time almost all the coyotes were in the western states, the western coyote. They have expanded eastward, the eastern coyote. The eastern is larger and more aggressive than the western.
All the trapping and poisoning did little to hurt the coyote. The gov. sponsored poisoning just increased the numbers of the aggressive coyotes while decreasing the scavenger types.
The coyote will outlast man. Coyotes and cockroaches will be here when man is history.

[freegal]

The coyote population is booming here in N IL! Up until this year, we heard them maybe twice in ten years. This year we are hearing them regularly, seeing them often and are losing cats, probably chickens and are concerned for the safety of our sheep and the small dogs that we pet-sit for occasionally. We are thinking of investing in a LGD. Did you know that there are reportedly 2000 coyotes living in the Chicago metro area? The first time I ever saw one was when I was driving through one of the suburbs there!

[mberryrfd]

The coyote is one of the most adaptable animals thier are one of the few to boom while others bust.W
We used to have a lot in a wash behind our house ( this was before we moved here)
People started to complain about the coyotes runnuning in that wash> so they were trapped and removed.Would beleive these soame people started complaining about rats 6 monthes later say hey now we have a HUGE rat population.Idiots couldnt put 2 and 2 together.
We havent heard a coyote at all this year and now we have a HUGE rabbit boom.Go figure

[moonwolf]

coyotes have taken over the niche, and then beyond that, from the wolf.
They are very adaptable and can live in close proximity with humans.
A good book to read on the wolf/coyote connection is by Jim Brandenberg called "Brother Wolf" .....a Must Read!

[gottahaveagoat]

I have a coyote story...One night my dog (Min Pin) wanted out about 2:30 a.m. so I flipped on all the outside lights and opened the door. Usually I would sit in the recliner until the dog came and scratched on the slider but for some reason (God) I stood at the door and watched him when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye creeping up then it took off after my dog that was just standing there. I flung open the door and screamed NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. The coyote turned from my dog at the last second and ran up our hill. The stupid dog then started chasing him, which I freaked out and started shaking the dog treats and he came back. I always thought if I left the lights on they would not come in my yard, boy was I wrong!!! I now NEVER leave the dog out alone. We hear them all the time but never dreamed they would show up in my back yard with all those lights on.

[crystalniche]

A friend told me she was sitting in the living room and heard her cat growling. The cat was sitting on the windowsill with the screen down but the window was open. She got up to look at what the cat was growling at and it was a coyote right outside her house looking up at the "kitty dinner" sitting there. She caught it doing that one other time and saw it in her yard several times. Needless to say her cat was inside only or she would have been history.

[Jex99in00]

The coyote population is booming here in N IL!

Same goes for here in NJ. Here in NJ it seems the government (both local and state) has no reservations about using every available inch for McMansions, mini-malls, and condo developments. The coyotes have gotten so comfortable with humans you'll see them running through open fields during the day. There are so many of them here I've recently seen packs of 5 or 6 running around. The land-use problem is also evident with the interactions we're having with black bears. They've become so brazen there have been multiple home invasions by the bears as well as a local groundskeeper was attacked by a bear last week.

[Cygnet]

I live out in the middle of the desert and work in Scottsdale, AZ, in a very built-up and populated area that's been city for decades.

See more coyotes in the "city" than I ever do out in the desert. I've seen them in the parking lot at work, I've seen them laying under the bushes while children play in a park, watched them scrounge garbage alongside busy freeways, seen 'em eating out of dumpsters and even, once, walking on the end of a leash.

Habitat reduction? I'm reasonably sure the proper coyote response to a new development is, "Yay! More food! No ranchers with guns!"

[crystalniche]

The leash thing~a man here woke up one morning to his teenaged son with a "puppy" he'd found. When asked where he'd found it he said "Right next to it's mother's body on the road." A quick check showed~a dead coyote with pups! Those pups were hanging around there. He made his son take it back and leave it there. Not the best thing to do for sure but he did not want it in his house. Someone did call a ranger tho I don't know what happened from there.

[james dilley]

I has been reported the Only state without yotes is Hawawii?? .I think just give them time they'll get there too.

[Unregistered]

The government tried for many years and in many different ways to get rid of the coyote. Everything they did just increased the number of coyotes.
They have tried fencing, trapping, bounty system, denning, aerial gunning, and poisoning. All have failed.
Poisoning was supposed to get rid of all coyotes. From 1944-1970 large chunks of meat was laced with poison and distributed across thousands of acres. The M-44, which has a baited wick which shoots off sodium cyanide to anything that tugs on the wick killed many coyotes. It als killed anything else that pulled on the wick. Strychnine was used in small tallow pellets and broadcasted over thousands of acres by horseback, jeep, and by airplane. It killed anything attracted to the tallow pellets.
Another way of trying to control coyotes way by poisoning all the rodents they ate. The PARC program used over 100,000 pounds of poison-impregnated grain annually to kill rodents.
Around 1972 poisoning was outlawed. The gov. studies showed the coyotes destroyed was mostly the carrion eaters and rodent killers. This left the more aggressive coyotes, those more likely to kill livestock, as breeders.
The coyotes we have nowdays are the result of selective breeding for the most aggressive, most intelligent, largest and most successful predators.

[whiterock]

They are highly adaptable as to conditions and food sources. They will eat anything that is available, right down to raiding the veg. garden and melon patch.
Fast food dumpsters are a smorgasbord for them. As are any small pets.

[milkinpigs]

Have to be honest....when I hear somebody who bulldozed down a bunch of trees so they could build their " country home" and then whined cause their little foo-foo dog became coyote food, I give a big howl to Mr. Coyote.....more power to him!!!

[Gideon]

They make good targets as they size up my chickens. Hawks, Owls, and 'yotes have learned to give me a wide berth. I still lose a chicken occasionally to them but usually the next night or two yields buzzard bait.