Humans vs. Coyotes
Most Americans do not like coyotes. If you ask most of your friends or relatives what they think about coyotes, most likely they won’t have a positive reaction. Numerous coyotes are killed because people are fearful of attacks on themselves and their livestock. Killing coyotes is unethical and ineffective so people should try to use non-violent methods to protect themselves and their livestock from coyote attacks Coyote-human conflicts are especially a problem in the northeast where coyotes are new to the area and residents are still adjusting to their presence.
Why Did Coyotes Come to the Northeast?
Coyotes were originally native to the western prairie but came to the northeast in the mid 1900’s. They now even reside in seemingly isolated geographical regions such as Cape Cod, Cape Bretton Island, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland, as well as urban habitats such as parts of New York City.
The expansion of coyotes to the northeast was due to various factors:
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As more land became urbanized, more trees were cut making more available habitat for coyotes since coyotes are naturally plain animals
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Killing of wolves increased the coyote population because wolves are predators of coyotes and coyotes could now replace wolves as top predators since they have similar prey.
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Coyotes are very adaptable creatures partly because they are omnivores. They have expanded to cities and suburbs because they are opportunistic and eat a wide variety of animals.
Why Do Coyotes Get a Bad Rap?
People fear that they will attack them, their livestock, or pets. Yes, coyotes do attack human but not that frequently and only one attack has been fatal. An attack on livestock and pets by coyotes is unfortunately a frequent occurrence. Since farmers depend on their animals for much of their livelihood, livestock deaths are a huge problem for them.
Killing Coyotes Should Stop
The most common solution to this problem is killing large numbers of coyotes. In 1998, the U.S government killed more than 286,000 carnivores, with coyotes being part of this population. Also, approximately $1.6 billion dollars between 1939 and 1998 has been used by the government for predator control.
Although this process has resulted in many coyote deaths, coyote populations remain relatively the same and the farmers continue to lose livestock to them. There are a few reasons why killing coyotes is unsuccessful:
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When many coyotes are killed, the remaining population has less competition for food, and therefore reproduces quickly
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With less coyotes in one area, coyotes from other areas will migrate there, resulting in the same problems as before
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Decline in livestock populations could be due to other reasons than just coyote predation
Killing Coyotes is Cruel and Unethical
The Wildlife Service kills coyotes by shooting, poisoning, trapping, and denning them. Denning is the process of trapping pups in their dens and fumigating them. Most frequently, they are shot from helicopters. The second frequently used mode is trapping which causes the animals significant pain and often injures other wildlife as well.
Coyotes Are Important to the Ecosystem
Another reason why killing of coyotes must stop is that they are important to the ecosystem. They are the top predator of most regions in the northeast. If the population of coyotes decreased, then the numbers of smaller predators would increase which could decrease the population of smaller animals. Therefore, killing coyotes just changes which animals die, not how many and upsets the food chain.
Solutions to the Coyote Problem
What can you do?
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Don’t leave out garbage
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Keep pets inside at night
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Do not feed coyotes
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Make loud noises if they come near you to scare them away
What can farmers do?
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Do not leave dead animals out
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Llamas and donkeys to ward off coyotes
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Put livestock in barns at night
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Keep livestock as far from the forest edge as possible
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Use Electric fences or wire fences when necessary
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Inject carcasses to have a bad taste
People should make more of an effort to learn how to live peacefully with coyotes. The best solutions to the coyote-human conflict change the behavior of humans and coyotes, preventing coyotes and humans from interacting as much as possible. People can keep their livestock and themselves safe without killing coyotes, by simply adopting preventative practices.
April 2, 2008 at 2:59 pm
I see you arguing that coyotes should not be feared and should not be killed in an effort to control the population. You make some good points about the inhumane nature in which the government controls the coyote population and also made some good sugestions of what everyday people can do to ward off coyotes.
I think you might want to add some more about why coyotes are such an important part of the food chain and what we would loose if coyotes were to become extinct. In all this is a good argument and a topic which I have not heard a lot about. You hear about the protection of other wild animals but not so much for coyotes, probably because people are scared of them. To change people’s minds about fearing these creatures you might want to add some of the good things that come from having a wild coyote population.
You might also want to add bullets in the section about what you can do to ward off coyotes and seperate the section about where coyotes are found into a bulleted list.
April 7, 2008 at 7:41 pm
I liked this blog very much and felt that you gave some good recommendations/alternatives to the current methods of dealing with coyotes. Like your peer though, I do think more explanation of why coyotes are important would also help.
April 9, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I agree that I should add more about their importance and how they are beneficial. For my research paper the main focus was alternative methods and biologists are already relatively aware of the importance of coyotes so I didn’t go into too much detail but for my blog I should have included more about their importance. This could also help persuade people that alternative methods should be used.