Actually it's the other way round in this part of the country. The Coyotes are moving into where people live and displacing the foxes. Living near people provides more food with less competition than out in the boonies.

a very quick perusal of sites googled from "coyote urban" has some interesting information; the most alarming of which is a warning to keep young children safe in areas where there are a lot of coyotes.

Like Chicago.

Dingos ate my baby anyone?

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/urban...an_cities_9663

Someone needs to shoot it. You can kill them with a .22 rifle. They are a pest in this area and you can get a small bounty in some areas for each one killed. Their pelts are beautiful.

I think cats are the real pest in all areas. They have decimated native bird populations til there are nothing left but starlings(an invasive species),in fact cats are classified as an invasive species and in some areas steps are being taken to control their populations. I know in Wisconsin it is legal to shoot cats on sight,the bird and rabbit populations are undergoing mass extinctions due almost entirely to cats. So instead of trying to curtail the coyotes appetite for felis domesticus,I motion that we encourage them. Lets toss around a few ideas,Ill start. Perhaps presenting injured or in someway immobilized cats would help,maybe even dabble some beef broth or gravy over them. A box full of newborn kittens is sure to please,again with the broth and gravy. Im sure there are others. One more thing,the next time someone thinks about posting that 'coyotes are in his neighborhood' perhaps it should be rephrased to more correctly represent the truth maybe 'I am invading a coyote's neighborhood'.

I disagree with everything you've written except this part. Same goes for all those folks living out in the AZ desert complaining about rattle snakes--the snakes were there first, no?

As far as kitties being a nuisance I am partial. I own three kitties and I wuv them. I also keep them indoors.

shoot, although your post is, (I hope) tongue in cheek, there are kernals of truth in it. Cats are omniverous predators. And I'm a big ol' cat person.

But imo, pet cats, unless they are farm ratters or something, they should be kept inside, both for their health, and for the health of small animal populations. Cat husbandry, is really in its infancy, compared to dogs. Did you know commercial cat litter was only invented in 1947?

A bigger problem, though, is that people don't spay and neuter the animals, and you get big feral cat populations, especially in cities. The feral cats and feral coyotes will have to work out their differences themselves.

and . . . people are the biggest pests of all.

Oh, snap! You told me, huh? Except for the part about what you're saying not being accurate. Coyotes have vastly increased their range since human settlement has taken over wild areas. Yeah, that's right. And the coyotes that have expanded into human territory are far more successful than coyotes in wild areas. What a raw deal for those poor coyotes, huh?

Please acquaint yourself with the facts before telling me what you think I should have posted.

I'm all for culling animals that become a pest, and it definitely is a fact that some native animals have profitted from human habitation of their areas. We have similar problems here with kangaroos for example although they don't pose a threat to people in general, unless you happen to hit one with your car at high speed.

We do have problems with feral cats too. They should all be shot. They are vicious and as has been mentioned they can totally ruin a natural environment. Cats also kill for fun, so they're doubly worse. I've been in some areas of native bushland before cats arrived and the sounds of the environment are loud and sweet. You see small animals scampering about and there's plenty of birdlife around. I've been back to the same place after it's been infested by feral cats and there's nothing but deadly silence and no signs of life except the glowing eyes watching you from the trees, and when I say eyes in the trees, I don't mean a few. I mean hundreds. They are a curse and they should be shot.

I wandered into the wrong thread. I suddenly have an urge to spit a big chaw of tobacco onto the ground, wipe my nose with my sleeve, and say "ayup." Snort. Spit. Shoot.

Shoot, I don't see any location on your post, but around here, cats keep the rodent population in check, and we still have plenty of songbirds. Coyotes, however, are a problem for dairy farmers and for those with small children. They wait for a cow to calf, and then take it. They weren't here first, they are a recent immigrant to this part of the country.

I live near some undeveloped land and I can hear coyotes howl at night all the time. A few years ago I went out into my backyard and found half of a rabbit. I still cannot come up with a valid explanation to this. The yard showed no signs of a coyote getting in, and even if one did, why would it leave an entire half of its kill in my yard?

because YOU walked out at THAT moment , or it saw a chihullihi that was bigger than the rabbit to get ( eat )

I vote that everyone mails their cats to Spudcon. Air holes optional.

Zewb, are there any birds of prey in your area? My husband lived in California when he was little, and they had a pet rabbit they used to let out into their back yard, which was fenced in. One day, the rabbit disappeared without a trace... but they noticed an awful lot of large birds around the house over the next two weeks. The birds kept squawking something about a Bunny Buffet... ;)

Yeah, I was thinking about an eagle or a hawk or possibly even a large owl could have dropped the bunny.

They might not have lived there first, but they arrived because you did. Easy pickings are always going to be great bait for scavengers and hunters alike and that's what human population provides animals like coyotes in your country, and dingos in mine.