Coyote! Nature’s Opportunist
The ever-present Coyote, our state is full of them. They have and are continuing to decimate our deer and especially our antelope populations. A resourceful and very intelligent animal, the coyote is a survivor, which makes him an exciting challenge. Last Year Team AZOD traveled to southern Alabama at the request of the St Regis Lodge to take a look at their coyote problem. Their coyote population had exploded. The coyotes were packing up and running down young whitetails, which greatly effected the Trophy Deer Program at St Regis. But that is not the only problem coyotes are causing and they have now become wide spread. Here is a recent article from Field and Stream
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Prowling
for Pets The
family dog may attract coyotes to your kids. There's
been a spate of attacks and near-attacks on humans by coyotes across
North America, including seven nonfatal assaults of children in
Vancouver, British Columbia, between July 2000 and July 2001, plus
nearly 70 attacks on Californians in the last decade. Urban sprawl has
usually been blamed, yet human-coyote problems increasingly occur in
long-established urban and suburban settings. One reason: house pets. Residents
of Tustin in Southern California call a well-traveled route into their
community "Coyote Alley," where hungry coyotes scale backyard
fences to dine on cats and dogs. Oregon's state director of wildlife
services, Dave Williams, receives over 200 complaints annually about
pets threatened or killed by coyotes, most from the Portland area. With
regular proximity to pets and people, coyotes can "become pretty
bold with small children," Williams warns. Since
1988, southern Wisconsin has seen a fourfold increase in coyote
sightings; complaints by pet owners have shot up, too. According to Greg
Matthews of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the very
territorial coyotes view dogs as rivals and will "follow people
around [who are] walking their dogs," even charging the pooches. |
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