Thumbs up for USDA biologist Chad Fox who emphatically told Bedford County, Virginia residents that Coyotes are here to stay and that we have to learn how to coexist with them.......... A handful of localities inVirginia instituted paying "bounties" when coyotes are killed but it is a practice Fox did not recommend......"They are not reducing problems," Fox said. "They're just paying for dead coyotes."...........Ten to 15 percent of the coyote population is "transient," constantly looking for new places to inhabit............You kill off Coyotes in a given locality and those transients are quick to fill the vacuum and compensate for the killed off population by having bigger litters of pups..........More mouths to feed invites more run-ins with people..........Best to learn how to live with the exisitng Coyote population in your neighborhood than to constantly inviite churn and chaos through bounties and killings

Biologist: don't be a "food resource" for coyote population

By: Justin Faulconer | The News  Advance 

A wildlife biologist with the United States Department of Agriculture had a message for Bedford County officials Monday: pesky coyotes are here to stay.Localities have to learn to manage the damage, biologist Chad Fox of the department's Christiansburg office said in a report to the county supervisors.

Bedford's agricultural advisory board, appointed to advise supervisors in farming-related matters, invited Fox to speak. He reported on the department's coyote management program, providing "direct control" services to some 180 livestock farms in two-dozenVirginiacounties in the last fiscal year.We do work a handful of farms in Bedford County each year,"Fox said. "We cannot work all counties in the state because of funding.

The program harvested 487 coyotes last fiscal year, Fox said. The coyote population is growing. Some 460 sheep, 59 calves and five goats were reported killed in that time, a 32 percent increase from the previous year in sheep predation and a 69 percent jump in calf kills. A handful of localities inVirginiainstituted paying "bounties" when coyotes are killed but it is a practice Fox did not recommend.

"They are not reducing problems," Fox said. "They're just paying for dead coyotes."

Ten to 15 percent of the coyote population is "transient," constantly looking for new places to inhabit, he said. Attacks on humans are rare but can happen, he said. He advises residents to keep pet food inside and watch small children and pets."Every county has them," he said. "The bottom line is don't be a food resource if you're in an urban area."

Also Monday, the board voted to authorize borrowing of $13 million for upgrades to a regional radio system for public safety responders in Bedford and Amherst counties and the cities of Bedford and Lynchburg. The county's share in the debt service is projected at $6.9 million over the next 15 years; the revamped system is targeted for completion in 2014.