Urban Coyotes: Myths & Reality

[Mighty_Emperor]

Officials Dismiss Coyote Urban Legend


Dec 28, 12:34 PM (ET)

By The Associated Press

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Did you hear the one about the insurance agent and the coyote?

So have the Pennsylvania Game Commission, wildlife agencies in other states and insurers.

They all dismiss as urban legend claims that insurance companies and wildlife agencies are releasing coyotes into the wild to reduce deer-car collision claims.

"There's a lot of people that seriously believe that the agency has been doing this," said Carl Graybill, director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission's bureau of information and education. "The whole thing's pretty absurd."

While the agency doesn't track such claims, Graybill said wildlife conversation officers are occasionally questioned in the field about it.

It's illegal for anyone to release animals into the wild without a permit and the agency hasn't issued any permits to insurance companies, Graybill said Monday.

"No one ever comes forward with any proof that it occurred," Graybill said "People can be very gullible, too."

Over the last several weeks, Erie Insurance Group has had calls about the issue.

"It's just a fallacy. It's just not true. That's just not a way that we would manage our risks," said spokesman Mark Dombrowski.

To be sure, deer-car collisions are costly for insurers; about 150 people are killed in deer collisions annually and collisions cause more than $1.1 billion in vehicle damage, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Source

 

[Anonymous]

Hmmmm. That's a strange thing to do. Coyotes are indigenous to the southwest, and most car-deer collisions happen in the northwest, central north and northeast states. Coyotes inhabit all life zones of the Desert Southwest from low valley floors to the crest of the highest mountains, but especially on open plains, grasslands and high mesas. Its natural habitat is open grassland, but it will move to wherever food is available. I really wonder if they could survive, especially in the snow. Coyotes can tolerate cold but I don't think they are used to the heavy and deep snows that the northeast gets all winter.

 

[superglu]

Eastern coyotes

Actually, coyotes have become fairly common in the northeast. http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/Wildlife/Wildlife_profiles/profile_eastern_coyote.htm

I would think the costs incurred by obtaining, handling (interim care, transport, etc) then releasing the coyotes would come close to offsetting any potential "savings" the insurance companies might have. In the insurance industry (in the US, at least), when there is a specific type of claim that is becoming a concern, the trend is usually to either "cap" the amount of money they will pay out on any given claim or cease insuring certain types of losses altogether.

Does make you wonder how this one got started, though...

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Re: Eastern coyotes

Does make you wonder how this one got started, though...

I was wondering that one - I suspect it would be one of the classes of UL/conspiracy theories that starts out as idle "You know they'd stand to benefit if they did this to fix this problem" and it span on from there until it became a fact that that is what they were doing.

 

[naitaka]

Coyotes seem to do well anywhere. There are plenty around here; they are found in suburban parks and I once saw one in the employee parking lot at Toronto airport. At the same time the population of whitetail deer has reached unprecedented levels, causing major problems with road accidents and crop damage.

So I don't think coyotes have much effect on deer populations. They mainly prey on smaller critters.

Canis latrans
About the size of a small collie, this intelligent, social animal is found across most of southern and central Canada, and in western Canada as far north as the Yukon. The coyote feeds mainly on small mammals, such as mice and hares, carrion, and some vegetation. Packs will occasionally try their luck with deer, but single coyotes have little success in this area.

http://www.nature.ca/notebooks/english/coyote.htm

 

[wembley8]

Wasn't there one in FT a while back about someone allegedly releasing van-loads of foxes in the UK?

 

[ramonmercado]

Not just urban foxes. Vid at link.

Downtown Coyotes: Inside the Secret Lives of Chicago's Predator
About 2,000 of the carnivores have adapted surprisingly well to city life, new images and tracking data reveal.

An extreme breed of coyote is finding there's no finer place than downtown Chicago, where the predator has learned to lurk under the radar of city life, new data show.

The versatile carnivore, native to middle America, has spread into nearly every corner of the U.S. in the past few decades, taking particular advantage of the suburbs and their wildlife buffet. (Related: "Coyote-Wolf Hybrids Have Spread Across U.S. East.")

But in some metropolitan areas, such as the Windy City, populations are now so high that no vacancies are left in the suburbs for these highly territorial animals—which means youngsters are being forced to strike out into the only remaining habitat: downtown.

Among the skyscrapers of Michigan Avenue and busy Lake Shore Drive, these animals are "pushing their ecological envelope," said Stan Gehrt, a wildlife ecologist at Ohio State University in Columbus, who has been studying coyotes since 2000. ...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... an-nation/

 

[ramonmercado]

Coyotes.

A string of recent sightings in Manhattan has drawn new attention to the wily critters that have been spotted periodically in New York since the 1990s. Experts say New Yorkers should expect to see more of them as they become more comfortable adapting to city streets and parks. Call it coyote urban.

"I would say that this is going to be a new normal: that coyotes are going to continually show up in downtown New York City," says Daniel Bogan, a coyote researcher at Siena College.

At least four coyotes have been spotted around Manhattan so far this year, and one was seen clambering around on the roof of a Queens bar before disappearing, says Sarah Aucoin, the director of the city's Urban Park Rangers program. Three of the animals were captured in Manhattan and released in Bronx parks with established coyote populations, she said. ...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbe...f-sightings-in-manhattan-this-year/ar-AAbAVxO

 

[ramonmercado]

Another coyote sighting, this time in snow-dusted Roswell backyard
Becca J. G. Godwin The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 3:18 p.m Monday, Jan. 9, 2017

Photo courtesy Dan Uhlmeyer

A Roswell resident captured a picture of a large coyote in his backyard this week.

Roswell resident Dan Uhlmeyer has lived on an acre that backs up to a creek for 14 years, so he’s seen his fair share of wildlife.

Deer. Foxes. And yes, coyotes — including one broad-daylight sighting in which the animal appeared to be carrying a cat.

But Uhlmeyer had never witnessed a coyote as large as the one he saw Monday morning.

He surveyed the animal from his North Point subdivision home while his son got ready for middle school. Uhlmeyer’s daughter who catches the bus at the end of the driveway not far from where the coyote was, had already left for elementary school.

“A lot of the coyotes that come through are shorter, and skinnier,” Uhlmeyer said in an email. “This looked the size of a very large dog, but was definitely a coyote.” ...

http://www.ajc.com/news/local/anoth...sted-roswell-backyard/91GQc1ibbFbSyCLZJstPMN/

 

[Gizmos Mama]

^That seems much too dark in colour to be a coyote, in my opinion. Every coyote I've ever seen, which at least 2 dozen, have a very distinct grey/tan coat. That looks alot more like a black wolf to me.

And since this is the urban coyote thread, I will share that I have come out of my house in the morning to go to work, and there was a coyote crossing the street about 10 m away from me. I live 20 blocks from the downtown core of a city of 1.3 million.

 

[tastyintestines]

Yep or a black german shepherd.

 

[ramonmercado]

Coyotes in Montreal.

Coyotes are becoming such frequent visitors to Montreal that the Canadian city has set up a hotline so the public can report sightings.

The local authorities say 379 coyotes have been spotted, five people bitten, and 11 dogs attacked since June last year, and acknowledge that they don't know how many of the animals are roaming the northern parts of the city at present, the CBC public broadcaster reports.

Montreal only started to track coyotes last summer, and so has nothing with which to compare current figures.

The phone line, open during office hours seven days a week, is staffed by nature and environment specialists who can advise the public on what to do if they come face-to-face with a coyote.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-43738012

 

[ramonmercado]

Now an attack in Chicago.

Boy, 5, is bitten on the head and suffers severe cuts in attack by a COYOTE in Chicago

• Coyote savaged five-year-old boy as he walked with an adult in Chicago
• The youngster sustained head and facial lacerations after the vicious attack
• Witnesses reported seeing four or five coyotes outside a school earlier that day

By RYAN FAHEY FOR MAILONLINE

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7868841/Boy-5-bitten-head-suffers-severe-cuts-attack-COYOTE-Chicago.html

 

[ramonmercado]

Say high to the coyotes.

Vancouver residents are warned to avoid Stanley Park following three coyote attacks in four days.

These attacks follow dozens of other scary encounters with abnormally aggressive coyotes in the park. According to University of Calgary conservationist and coyote expert Shelley Alexander, there's a confluence of factors likely behind the animals' unusual actions. First, it's almost certain that the coyotes have been fed by humans and lost their fear of people. Secondly, she says, "I looked at some of the maps and there's displacement of coyotes from their normal area of living by the homeless encampments.

"These animals have now been pushed into fringe areas where they're more in contact with people and more likely to get into conflict."

And lastly, the coyotes may be high on dope.

"The behaviour of some of these individuals suggest they've ingested toxins or drugs, possibly opioids," Alexander says.

https://boingboing.net/2021/08/23/vicious-vancouver-coyotes-may-be-high-on-opioids.html

 

[ramonmercado]

A coyote in class.

On the first day at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish School in Northridge, CA (suburb of Los Angeles) last Wednesday, 8th grade students were greeted by a wild coyote that had made its way into the classroom.

The poor animal looked terrified as it sat on a bookshelf, pressing itself into a corner of the room. Fortunately, it was "safely removed by animal control."

From USA Today:

The Rev. Filiberto Cortez captured footage of the coyote sitting in a corner of the classroom.
"I've dealt with other kind of animals here like wildlife," Cortez told KABC Los Angeles. "This is the first time in a school setting where a coyote walks in."

https://boingboing.net/2021/08/23/w...angeles-classroom-on-first-day-of-school.html

 

[JahaRa]

The neighborhood my daughter lives in had 2 young coyotes hanging out in the park where children play. The parents called animal control who said they did not handle that, then my daughter called our cousin, who works as a police officer and she found someone to come get them. One of the coyotes had already attacked a little girls dog. We think it was going for the girl but the dog protected her. We have invaded so many species natural habitats. We have bears sometimes in the city as well as coyotes, and racoons.

 

[hunck]

Toronto’s Coy-Wolves

Part urban legend, part DNA-tested reality, the coyote-wolf hybrid has adapted to dense human-built environments

For the most part, humans coexist peacefully in the city with coyotes, the largest predator in North America to establish a thriving population in the valleys between skyscrapers. Coyotes are the quiet neighbour, slipping through the urban forest like ghosts as they scavenge through garbage, hunt small rodents or feast on birdseed.

Coyote encounters across Toronto are common and have increased dramatically throughout the pandemic, as more residents venture into the ribbons of woodlands that thread the city.

In recent years, the idea of the coy-wolf has emerged to describe coyotes that seemed particularly large or threatening.

Part of the problem stems from the wide range of appearances in the eastern coyote – the species found throughout Toronto and its forests for nearly a century.

“Some definitely look more wolf-like than others,” she said. “If the public saw all the photos of eastern coyotes that have been cataloged over the years, they’d likely pick out a number of them as being wolves.”

Jonathan Way, a biologist in Massachusetts who has studied eastern coyotes for decades, agrees that media reports and citizen sightings of a hulking, shadowy predator are fiction. But he says recent testing has shown that in some regions, as much as 35% of the eastern coyote’s DNA is wolf. Many also have a small percentage of dog DNA.

“How are we calling this animal a coyote? It’s not a coyote. It’s not a wolf. It’s a hybrid,” said Way. “In one word, coy-wolf accurately describes the animal.”

“Calling them coy-wolves … does not make them more dangerous. It’s still the animal that has always been here. We just have modern, genetic data to show what this animal actually is.”

“We don’t need to create some mythical creature that lives in the wilds of our minds, Folks should just be appreciative that this amazing creature, the eastern coyote, is so capable of thriving among us.”

 

[ramonmercado]

He was chasing a roadrunner no doubt. Vid at link.

Coyote gets chased through airport tarmac in Los Angeles​

A wild coyote was caught on camera running across the tarmac of the Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles. The unexpected visitor led airport authorities on a comical pursuit across the runway.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-67202251

 

[Druk]

I was in Los Angeles earlier this year and saw a coyote in daylight on the edge of a rail track,I went over it had been feeding on an urban cat.
Currently in Ottawa Canada,there’s posters in the neighbourhood regarding cats,I found what’s left of one a few days ago,few scraps of fur.

 

[Sillyhuron]

My brother in law saw the family cat caught & dragged off by coyotes in Toronto.
In broad daylight.
In the backyard.

 

[Druk]

My brother in law saw the family cat caught & dragged off by coyotes in Toronto.
In broad daylight.
In the backyard.

Neighbourhood cat,Ottawa.

 

[Sharon Hill]

Common stuff. Coyotes are everywhere in the eastern US. I'm not sad about the cats. Feral cats are everywhere too and they need to be managed. Cats damage the bird population, the coyotes damage the cats.