On Saturday night, I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture at our nature center by Dr. Jonathan Way, a local expert on all things coyote. He has written a book "Suburban Howls" which tells of his research, tracking coyotes here on the Cape and north of Boston.
There’s nothing like knowledge to help combat the hysteria that always seems to accompany any top predator that lives in proximity to man, so may I share some of his main points with you in the spirit of "Each one Teach one". Man’s fears versus reality:
1) "The numbers of coyotes are exploding on the Cape! They are everywhere!"
Amazingly, with territorial animals, which coyotes are, numbers don’t "explode". Numbers of mice, rabbits etc. can explode when predators are removed, but an animal that insists on spreading itself out, maintains that spacing for its own preservation. For our Cape coyotes, that is about a radius typically, of 10 square miles per pack. The alpha male maintains the territory, and ironically, if he is shot, you will quickly have other male coyotes applying for the job. If the newcomer is not as adept at maintaining their territory, than two packs may occupy the space of one. At least until the new alpha gets his management skills in line. So you may unwittingly double the number of coyotes that can be in that area.
Considering that coyotes cover a tremendous amount of ground each night, the coyote you see, and a neighbor down the road sees, and someone 5 miles away sees, may easily all be the same coyote. Plus remember a “pack” which can sound so forbidding, is generally no more than 3-5 animals. The coyote pack generally consists of one alpha pair and 1-2 of their previous offspring. In the summer, when the pups are young and attrition hasn’t yet happened, you may see the alpha pair with the new pups, perhaps 4 or 5 and a sibling from the previous year. But cars and injury often whittle the survivors to only 2 out of 5. Coyotes also often hunt alone or simply in pairs. Not roving bands that circle around you while you are in your yard!
2) "It’s going to eat me!"
You, my dear, are not on their menu. According to Dr. Way, in the last 500 years there have been two recorded human deaths by coyote. In the US, in the last year alone, 5 million people were bitten by dogs (and you know I love my pooch so I don’t mean to slander them but…) approximately 20 people die a year from these bites. I just mention this for some perspective.
But of course, they are wild animals, and as such, unpredictable. If rabid, they will become aggressive, but so will any animals with rabies; raccoons, skunks, fox, dogs, etc. So caution is not to be thrown to the wind. And yes, Fluffy may be on the menu, which, of course, would be traumatic if it happened to your cat. The common sense precaution is not to let Fluffy roam the woods or the neighborhood, certainly not at night. By keeping your cat a “house” cat, not only would you save its life, but the lives of hundreds of songbirds. Just because birds don’t have their own press releases, no one seems to mourn their loss. Some of the biggest dangers for birds are cats and our glass windows. So shall we not cast the first stone at coyotes?
3) If you are talking about "coyotes" in the Northeast, it is actually more correct to call them, "coywolves", and yet one can imagine what that name would do to the paranoid psyche! Wolf! But the coyotes of the NE are larger than those in the West, by about 15 lbs. They top out at about 30 lbs. in the West while here, 30-50 lbs. is common but NOT 100 lbs. as some people claim. Overfed Labs may fall into that category, but not predators that have to work for a living!
Checking blood samples has proven that our NE coyotes are a blend of the red wolf that was found originally from Canada, down through the SE, and the western coyote. Red wolves themselves may have originally been a hybrid of the eastern wolf and gray wolf. The red wolves never attain the size of the gray and are generally shier. This isn’t that recent a phenomenon either, but probably did happen in the last 100 years, for prior to that, there weren’t any coyotes in the NE. It’s just that with DNA testing available now they can clearly see the link.
Clearly coyotes, or “coywolves” or whatever you choose to call them, are beautiful, intelligent, family oriented creatures, and to have a predator in your midst tells you that all is right with your food chain, so we should be thankful. And we should employ this large Homo sapiens brain of ours and exhibit common sense around them.
Don’t feed them, or leave scraps out in your yard for them. If you do meet up with one on the path, and remember, it isn’t very likely because they do their best work after dark, don’t panic. I have come across coyotes a number of times, and if I stop, and just watch with binoculars, they do the same, minus the binoculars, of course, and then we go our separate ways. My dog has been with me, and has shown enough common sense to also stop and just watch so, no confrontations there either.
Although, if there was a time to show extra caution, it would be in late spring, or the early summer months when they are with their pups, and will guard the area from any intruders. A dog that is followed, stared hard at, etc. has probably stumbled into the coyote playground and will be watched and warned off if he comes too close.
Well, long though this was, it still didn’t cover half the material he spoke of.
If you are on the Cape, Dr. Way will be a guest speaker for the Barnstable Land Trust, sometime in April. Watch for it in your papers. It is well worth it, and then you can be even more equipped to be an “Each One Teach One” kind of person!
And readers, if this was long, and it was, it may be the only one I have a chance to write this week, for lucky me, I am going to spend Easter with our youngest daughter in DC. 80 degrees and cherry blossoms! Next entry will probably be about “changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes”! Happy Easter everyone! Pat
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