Coyote Attack In My Neighborhood

[spudcon]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

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.

Nope, coyotes in this country are thriving and expanding their territory everywhere, despite culling and attempts to eradicate them. They are very successful at adapting.

[TheMercenary]

Two words. Coyote Soup.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by spudcon

Nope, coyotes in this country are thriving and expanding their territory everywhere, despite culling and attempts to eradicate them. They are very successful at adapting.

I think you misunderstood her. She was saying the same thing you are, coyotes and dingos thrive in the wake of people, because we generate good opportunities for them.

[Aliantha]

Originally Posted by spudcon

Nope, coyotes in this country are thriving and expanding their territory everywhere, despite culling and attempts to eradicate them. They are very successful at adapting.

Yes I realize that spudcon. My point is that it's not the coyotes fault that they're profitting from human habitation. You can't blame the coyote for doing what comes naturally. Sure you need to cull them etc, but the reason they're there is because humans are providing them with what they need.

[spudcon]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

Yes I realize that spudcon. My point is that it's not the coyotes fault that they're profitting from human habitation. You can't blame the coyote for doing what comes naturally. Sure you need to cull them etc, but the reason they're there is because humans are providing them with what they need.

I disagree, but humans are the reason they're here. We've killed off all the competition coyotes once had for food, so now they are at the top of the food chain in the wild. We need to manage them like we do deer, only more so.

[Cloud]

what competition for food did we kill off? wolves, maybe?

[busterb]

T-REX maybe?

[beauregaardhooligan]

Originally Posted by Cloud

what competition for food did we kill off? wolves, maybe?

That is correct, also panthers/mountain lions/cougars. Wolverines, badgers, fischers, mink, weasels, and birds of prey also compete with coyotes and have all been practically exterminated so that coyotes can become dominant.
As far as cats go, as a member of Audobon I am very aware of the fact that cats, both feral and domestic, are decimating the birds. The thing about domestic cats that is particularly aggravating is that most hunt and kill because they like to, not because they need something to eat.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by beauregaardhooligan

That is correct, also panthers/mountain lions/cougars. Wolverines, badgers, fischers, mink, weasels, and birds of prey also compete with coyotes and have all been practically exterminated so that coyotes can become dominant.

So you are saying that those animals were exterminated "so that coyotes can become dominant." That sounds a bit purposeful, so I don't buy it. They may have been killed and an incidental event was the proliferation of the coyote in those areas where certain animals lived as all the animals you listed do not have as wide a range as the coyote. Who knows? Maybe the coyote is more like a roach, adaptable and reproductive.

[beauregaardhooligan]

Bad choice of words on my part Merc, but the result was the same.
We didn't intentionally kill the other predators so coyotes could become dominant, just as we didn't intentionally poison bald-headed eagles with DDT while trying to kill mosquitos. The end result is the same.
Killing off wolves and cougars *may* have protected some kids and livestock, but it has allowed deer populations to explode to the point where you can't drive down the road without hitting one, or plant a garden without them eating everything. Deer are starving because there are so many of them and not enough predators to keep their population down.
*It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature!*

[BigV]

Fishers released into Olympic National Park.

It's not all regress.

OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK – The elusive fisher, famous for its fabulous fur and for picking fights with porcupines, slipped back into the wilds of Washington Sunday. Its mission: to re-establish a homeland.

Fishers, cat-sized members of the weasel family, have been missing from Washington’s forest landscape for decades, wiped out by early 20th-century trappers.

On Sunday, biologists released 11 Canadian fishers – five males and six females – into the dense thickets of the park’s Elwha River and Morse Creek drainages, near the Olympic Peninsula city of Port Angeles.

“They just took off like a shot,” said Jeff Lewis, a state Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist. “You just see a streak of black rushing across the ground and they disappear.”

Sunday’s release was the first step in a state, federal and privately supported effort to revive the state’s population of the sleek, dark carnivores. But it also was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for three Port Angeles youngsters invited to help set some of creatures free.

“I couldn’t imagine I would be doing this. This is something to pass down to my children,” said Kelsey Coffman, 13, a member of the Animal Activists club at Stevens Middle School.

[TheMercenary]

A similar situation with deer in more populated areas. I can't believe they only get 40 pounds of deer a piece. Rip off. At least they are dealing with the issue.


Deer Hunt Goes Ahead After Years of Protest

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/ny...=1&oref=slogin

[Aliantha]

Originally Posted by spudcon

I disagree, but humans are the reason they're here. We've killed off all the competition coyotes once had for food, so now they are at the top of the food chain in the wild. We need to manage them like we do deer, only more so.

I don't see what you're disagreeing with.

[spudcon]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

I don't see what you're disagreeing with.

It just seemed like you were infering we imported rodents and such to attract coyotes. Hey, maybe a good idea! Coyote Burger King.

[Aliantha]

I wasn't inferring anything. I meant what I typed and nothing more or less.