By Susan Hagood
If there is a born survivor among the mammals, it must be the coyote. This animal, after all, has thrived and expanded his range despite decades of devoted and remarkably wasteful federal efforts to eradicate him from the west. Once largely restricted to the open rural prairies, the coyote now exists in every state except Hawaii, and has even learned to coexist with humans in ever-expanding cities and towns.
Some people welcome this so-called invasion about as much as Atlanta welcomed Sherman, while others celebrate the ability of coyotes to survive in a hostile environment filled with buildings, fences, concrete, and cars. Community meetings—held when coyotes are observed in a neighborhood or a few cats mysteriously disappear— are usually divided into coyote lovers and coyote haters. Each side is fierce in its conviction that the coyotes must stay or go, although most of the time no one has accurate data on coyote behavior and myths are reported as fact.
This scenario will be repeated in countless cities and towns—it was most recently witnessed in the heart of New York City when a coyote was captured in Central Park—as coyotes use their remarkable abilities to settle and survive in human-dominated environments. Yet when all is said and done, the only possible resolution to this civil war is for us to learn to coexist.
The western campaign against coyotes has amply demonstrated that if a habitat will support coyotes, coyotes will occupy it. When widespread eradication efforts reduce the coyote population, the animal responds by producing larger litters, and females breed for the first time at an earlier age. With fewer coyotes competing for food, pup survival also increases. Within a very few years, populations decimated by poisons, traps, and aerial hunting recover to levels equal to or higher than those that existed before the war against them was undertaken.
And it will be no different in urban environments, where coyotes thrive because food is plentiful and natural predators are unknown. Removal efforts are doomed to fail.
Sharing the Land
Fortunately, living with coyotes is not difficult. It all boils down to a number of relatively simple tasks: not giving coyotes an easy meal by leaving out pet food, unprotected garbage, or small animals (such as cats or dogs under 50 lbs.); and punishing them by shouting at or spraying water near them whenever they approach human property. Fruit that falls off trees should also be immediately picked up, since coyotes are omnivorous.
The more free meals they find and the more non-threatening people they encounter, the more coyotes will lose their fear of humans. If we refrain from feeding birds in areas where coyotes have been spotted, keep trash well-contained, put small dogs on leashes or behind coyote-proof fences, confine cats safely indoors, and make sure small children are always accompanied by adults in woodland areas, conflicts between our species can be minimized or eliminated.
Coyotes who adapt to human settlements become bolder, appearing often in daylight and sometimes standing their ground when threatened. Some media outlets have reported coyotes roaming onto front porches or backyards. Under these circumstances, animal control officers should be called in to take charge of the problem. Remember never to run from a coyote if you are confronted with one. Instead, make yourself look big, and shout. And always remember that coyotes are wild animals and should remain that way. Never try to feed them or pet them.
History Lessons
Rather than expanding the expensive and ultimately futile western war against coyotes to our cities as the range of the animal expands, we have an opportunity to learn from past mistakes and apply those lessons—and a little civility—to our evolving relationship with this most remarkable creature. We should never interact with coyotes the way we do with domestic dogs, no matter how similar they look, but we should be able to adapt to their presence, just like they have to ours.
For more information on coyotes and how to live peacefully with them, download our fact sheet [PDF].
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Susan Hagood is a Wildlife Issues specialist for The HSUS.
