BORN FREE Canadian Naturalist Barry MacKay reinforcing the views of this blog as well as most Coyote and Wolf Biologists in North America in stating that killing and trapping is not the solution when coyote problems arise.................Make coyotes afraid of you, yes.......... do not leave foodstuffs out for them, yes..............keep your pets and small children closely watched, yes................but better to teach our wild cousins to fear us rather then killing them as coyotes will(after human culling) repopulate vacant habitat..... birth larger litters.............That result is large numbers of inexperienced juveniles who ultimately will cause us humans bigger problems(they take more chances around humans) then the original coyote family who occupied the region did

Coyotes are an important part of the ecosystem

The thinking that encourages the killing of coyotes and other wildlife that have wandered too close to humans is the same kind of thinking led to large numbers of wildlife populations and species being wiped out.
Coyotes are an integral part of our ecosystem. They can have a top-down effect on ecosystems by regulating the numbers of mesocarnivores, such as foxes, raccoons, skunks, and feral cats through competitive exclusion and direct killing.
Research conducted in the fragmented urban habitats of coastal southern California showed that the absence of coyotes allowed smaller predators to proliferate, leading to a sharp reduction in the number and diversity of scrub-nesting bird species.
In contrast, domestic cats are not part of the natural environment and, unlike natural predators, they do not depend on their own prey for survival — the exception being true ferals, that tend not to live very long this far north unless they are assisted by humans, in which case they are no longer "natural" predators.
Increasingly, scientists and wildlife managers are beginning to recognize the futility of lethal control in reducing human-coyote conflicts. Instead, they have begun to advocate for greater public education and the need for human behavioural changes.Programs that advocate for coexisting with coyotes emphasize the important ecological role coyotes play in maintaining diversity of species and the health and integrity of a variety of ecosystems. Lethal control is frequently the knee-jerk response to the appearance of coyotes and other predators in both rural and urban areas. Although killing predators allows public officials to argue they are doing something, lethal control does not offer a long-term solution to coyote conflicts. Within a short period of time, coyote numbers usually rebound to precontrol levels, as the result of emigration, larger litter sizes, and increased pup survival (because of the decreased competition for food and other resources).

Barry Kent MacKay
naturalist, Canadian representative
Born Free USA
Mississauga