Educational Outreach to prevent urban New Yorkers from fearing Coyoyes...............Bounties established in Nova Scotia to attempt to reduce coyote populations

As almost all of you know who subscribe to this blog, human persecution of coyotes only results in larger coyote populations. Coyotes have a strong ability to increase their litter size in response to family unit disruption caused by human bounty killings, trappings, etc. A family unit that formerly occupied a locale is limited in size(typically 1 coyote per square mile) by the food and water resources of that region. Once we come in and kill off that family unit and create temporary unfilled habitat…………………lone coyotes come in and typically will create two or more family units on what had been a solo coyote family region. The prospecting coyotes divide the territory, connect with a mate and both groups produce larger families of pups than had the previous 1 family occupiers of that habitat. You have to kill off 50 to 75% of the coyotes in a given large region to have any real dampening effect on coyote populations…………..something that even we human predators have been unable to do since occupying North America in 1500. As we all know, coyotes are the ultimate “adapt and overcome” animals, using the above stated response to fill virtually every locale in the USA(save Long Island……………and soon that will be filled with coyotes as new York City stragglers decide to take the Queens Midtown Tunnel onto the Island). WE NEED TO EDUCATE FOLKS ON WHAT TO DO TO CO-EXIST SUCCESSFULLY WITH ALL OF OUR NATIVE CARNIVEROUS ANIMALS AND THE PREVIOUSLY POSTED AUGORA HILLS, CALIFORNIA STATEMENT TO THAT REGARD IS A GOOD FOUNDATION PHILOSOPHY WITH WHICH THAT OBJECTIVE CAN BE REALIZED! In response to public backlash against coyotes here in the States, the Wild Dog Foundation has launched a major public education campaign within the New York City area. Especially here on Long Island , the only land mass left where coyotes are not verified present. Educating the public ahead of time  even if they do not officially exist is our goal to foster coexistence and portray them positively . Already State agencies are recommending more killing of coyotes in the belief that this will create a fear of humans. This does not work. We are working closely with Project Coyote and it's many network members here in the east from upstate New York (Foxwoods Wildlife Center)to Connecticut and Florida and Indiana (Indiana Coyote Rescue). We are also promoting  the work of Dr. Jon Way and a wolf reintroduction group (Northeast Ecological Recovery Society) is combating indiscriminant killing of wild canids .An Urban wildlife study group is also looking into coyotes here in New York City called Wild Metro. We are all trying to stem hysteria and paranoia, any vocal support  from Canid Specialist Group for our efforts would be greatly appreciated. sincerely, Frank Vincenti Wild Dog Foundation > Hi all, > It is with great sadness that I share this information with you: Today > (Thursday), a bounty was announced on coyotes here in  Other decent measures were announced (some > that Harrington and I suggested last week) including public education, > outreach, and "surgical" interventions with specific cases. > I want to thank all that helped with information and moral support via > emails and frequent chats. You may soon hear from me and Camilla Fox in an > attempt to gather an "official", written opposition from the scientific > community for the record.> > Regards, > > Simon Gadbois > > Y. Simon Gadbois, Ph.D. > Life Sciences Centre • 1355 Oxford Street • Dalhousie University • Halifax, > Nova Scotia • B3H 4J1 • Canada > http://web.me.com/ysg/ Nova Scotia. This > follows the fatal attack in Cape Breton Highlands National Park last October > and the many aggressive encounters reported since. > Since October, I have been having media interviews on a regular basis, most > recently to suggest alternatives to bounties and some general perspective on > the situation (i.e., bounties don't work, including a bounty initiated here > in Nova Scotia in the early 80's that was stopped 4 years later and resulted > in an increase in the coyote population). > Last Friday, Fred Harrington and myself met with the Minister of Natural > Resources in a last attempt to change the government's decision. I talked to > the minister last night as well. We did not succeed. > The bounty was actually labelled a "trapping incentive" that will be applied > only during the regular trapping/hunting season, i.e. from October to March. > The incentive is of $20 a pelt.