Coexisting with Coyotes in Nova Scotia--killing them is not the answer

Parks Canada teaches people to scare coyotes

 

Parks Canada is teaching people how to frighten coyotes away, should they encounter any of the animals in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

"Probably the most important thing is for people to be aware, to not feed, to report observations that they make and, if they do encounter a coyote, to act big, make noise and fight back if they have to," Derek Quann, a resource conservation manager with Parks Canada, said Friday.

The education campaign was launched after a 16-year-old girl was bitten on the head by a coyote while sleeping outside a tent at the Broad Cove campground, near Ingonish.

It was the latest in a series of meetings between humans and coyotes in Cape Breton. Last fall, the death of a young Toronto woman killed by coyotes while hiking in the national park made international headlines.

Traps have been set in the Broad Cove area, Quann said, but so far no coyotes have been caught.

The latest attack renewed calls by some for a coyote cull.

But Ashley Delaup, a wildlife ecologist with the City of Denver, Colorado, where the coyote's existence alongside people has become part of life, said education is the better option.

Getting rid of coyotes is not the answer, she said, since they will return and adapt to any situation.

"And they can adapt and they can learn — and they have learned how to behave in a way that has caused more conflict. Now we can actually change that by teaching them to behave in a way that minimizes conflict."

There are an estimated 8,000 coyotes in Nova Scotia. Starting in October, the provincial government will pay licensed trappers $20 a pelt as a way to reduce the problem coyote population