Misleading data, newspaper stories and letters to the editor have escalated fears and sometimes skirted the facts about coyotes.  Statements like “exploding populations”, “not long before a child is bitten” and “live trap and remove” are misleading.  Know the facts about coyotes before you make judgments about them.

Coyotes are self regulating in terms of population.    They establish territories and home ranges and won’t allow other coyotes to enter.  Wild coyotes have been known to have a home range of over 70 miles, but recent research of urban coyotes show a roaming range of 10 to 15 miles, (up to 25 miles in some instances).  This is factual and recent information.  Small groups may be seen and easily mistaken as a “pack”, but it is almost certain to be a family group.  Coyote pups stay with the parents for at least a year.  They often stay and assist the adults to raise new litters and then leave on their own to find their own territories.  This is known as dispersing.  Dispersing pups may travel hundreds of miles before they find free territory to claim as their own.  Most will be hit by cars and never breed.

Killing, removing,  and trapping coyotes for “control” purposes will only open up free territory and food resources and encourage dispersed coyotes to move in.  Justifying the cost and town resources to remove something that will soon be back is not good policy.  Leg-hold traps, whether legal or not is out of the question.  There are far too many domestic pets that are running loose to use these inhumane traps in Belmont.  Not many are in favor of risking pets or wildlife chewing their legs off in order to escape a leg-hold trap.  Capture and release is illegal in Massachusetts and inhumane, therefore not even considered.  Not only would this open areas into which other coyotes would move, but it is transferring the problem to someone else’s backyard.

Coyote researcher Jonathan Way reports that getting a coyote in a box trap is extremely difficult and time consuming.  Coyotes are so cautious that he has to wire the trap open and leave bait at the opening for weeks, moving the meat a few inches at  time towards the inside of the trap.  It takes months to catch a coyote.

In regards to rabies, you have a much better chance of getting rabies from your pet cat than you do from a dog or coyote.  The last twelve years of rabies testing at the state lab proves it; 110 domestic cats positive for rabies, compared to 6 coyotes and 6 dogs.  Based on coyote natural behavior, it is safe to assume that the presence of coyotes may even reduce the incidence of rabies in our neighborhoods.  Coyotes are opportunistic feeders and tend to take the easy meal.  An animal who’s suffering from rabies would an easy kill for a coyote.  Rabies is passed in saliva through a bite; transmission does not usually occur through consumption.

The issue of children being safe in the backyard always comes up.  It sounds really good and is effective in causing fear, but statistically, it doesn’t come close to the real dangers of urban living.  A bite from a coyote has happened once in Massachusetts.  The possibility of being bitten by a coyote does exist, but the probability is quite low.  The Health Department and the Animal Control Officer is really more concerned about the many bites that occur from pet dogs and cats, some of which are not vaccinated.  Rest assured that if a coyote or any other animal bites, the Health Department and Animal Control Officer will take immediate and appropriate action.

Simple precautions are all it will take to coexist with coyotes.  Residents should never feed wildlife including coyotes.  If you see them in your yard, make a lot of noise until they run away.  Do not feed pets outdoors.  Supervise small and older pets and your children when they are outdoors.  No amount of work in the USA and Canada has ever eradicated the coyote and I do not think it would be a successful strategy here either.

John Maguranis
Belmont Animal Control Officer

Author: mkmcst

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