Coyotes in our midst
Dr. Jonathan Way gave a presentation at the Burlington Public Library on Feb. 21 and shared some of his research on coyotes with a standing-room-only audience. COURTESY PHOTO BY WWW.EASTERNCOYOTERESEARCH.COM
By Peter Coppola
wickedlocal.com
Burlington —
What would you do if you were taking a walk and found yourself staring at a coyote? If you were Dr. Jonathan Way you would make a lot of noise and tell them to take a hike.
Way, author and coyote researcher, spoke on the subject to a standing-room-only audience of more than 75 people at the Burlington Library Thursday evening, Feb. 21, and he understood the questions and concerns about children and pets that would motivate so many people to attend his presentation.
He opened the talk with a comparison of the coyote to the domesticated dog. Annually, the U.S. records 4.7 million dog bites; of that number, 800,000 people need medical attention and on average 15 to 20 people die annually. Costs associated with dog bite incidents equate to over $1 billion and insurance companies pay out $345 million.
According to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, there have only been half-dozen coyote bites in recorded history; and in the past 500 years there have only been two fatalities, an 18-year-old woman in Nova Scotia and a toddler in California.
Way's conclusion: Coyotes are not a danger to the public.
Way's research
Way earned his Ph.D. from the study of the Eastern coyote and wrote the book, "Suburban Howls," as an account of his experiences studying the coywolf in Massachusetts. His experiences include three years interacting with a captive pack at the Stone Zoo.
He prefers to speak of the Eastern coyote as a "coywolf" because genetic research indicates that Eastern coyotes are a hybrid of the Western coyote and Eastern coyote/red wolf. Since they are larger and genetically distinct from either the Western coyote or Eastern coyote/red wolf, it would be more appropriate to call them "coywolves."
Coywolves are opportunistic predators feeding on just about anything from fruit to meat and mostly small mammals. They seem to prefer squirrels, mice, voles, rabbits and woodchucks while ignoring opossum and raccoons.
They are edge-habitat animals, living in the wilderness along agricultural and suburban areas, where they are provided with cover to scan their territory without being seen.
Way captures coywolves in safety cages, first in the Metro North communities while researching at the Stone Zoo and now in the Central Cape Cod towns near Barnstable. His anecdotal images demonstrated how intelligent the coywolf is— just under 2 percent of his captures are coywolves, the balance include crows, fisher cats, turkey vultures, raccoons, dogs and house cats—demonstrating how adept coywolves are at avoiding capture.
However, for the coywolves he does capture in safety cages, while under sedation, he collects physical data and fits the animal with a radio collar. Monitoring the movement of collared coywolves provides information on the size and activities of a pack. A coywolf pack generally number five to six, typically comprised of the mated parents and their offspring from the previous year.
In a few weeks, females will give birth to about six pups. The pups will live in a den for three months, protected by the adults who also provide them with regurgitated food. Dens are hidden in the woods and are typically hard to find. They are usually dug under trees and meticulously maintained by removing all debris from the area.
By the summer, the pack will abandon the den and move to a rendezvous site, typically thick brushy areas near a water supply and open field. The open area gives pups the opportunity to learn hunting skills while affording adults a vantage point to scan for danger.
Decoding coywolf behavior
The rendezvous point is the homing beacon for the pack, and the reason for the howling heard during the summer. Many people believe that coywolves howl to celebrate a kill, but as Way pointed out that, "They do not share with other predators and do not advertise a successful hunt."
The purpose of the howling is to reunite pups and adults who can be many miles from the rendezvous point. It also serves notice to non-pack members to stay out of their territory.
Their territories are quite large and a town the size of Burlington probably has only two packs. It is not unusual for coywolves to travel over 35 miles in a single evening patrolling and marking their territory. Like most of our wildlife, coywolves are inactive during daylight hours.
A resident in the audience commented that she has seen a coyote regularly walking the same path near her home. Way offered that it was probably doing just that: patrolling the territory.
Another question was asked about a coywolf walking parallel to her while walking her dog, and then turning away. Way suggested that they were probably close to the rendezvous point and the coywolf was monitoring them until they left the area.
People believe that by killing the Alpha male a pack will disburse, but research has documented that the pack splits in two, with each pack controlling a smaller territory.
Another common belief is that coywolf populations are increasing, but again research has concluded that the population has been stable for a number of years.
The reason for this is that of the six pups, two die of natural causes and two leave the pack. Higher-order predators and man account for most deaths of adult coywolves.
Coywolf Do's and Don'ts
Way concluded his presentation with several Do's and Don'ts. Most notably is that cats and small dogs should not be let loose without constant supervision, especially in the evening; and dogs should be on a lease when walking them. An invisible fence may keep a pet in the yard but will not keep a predator out.
If you come across a coywolf, chase them away by making lots of noise. If you think there are coywolves in the area, making noise will cause them to change direction and move away from you.
Do not feed coywolves they will become accustom to a handout will constantly return, and they come hungry. That was the cause of death of the toddler in California.
Do not leave food outside for you pets to eat and discourage your neighbors from leaving food.
Continuing the research
Way is seeking an institution that will support him and his goals for long-term coywolf ecological research. He runs an organization called Eastern Coyote Research and works seasonally for the Cape Cod National Seashore. More information about Way's research, his blog notes, and photos can be found on his website www.easterncoyoteresearch.com.
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2 comments:
those two white wolves aren't coyotes
i agree with you..........wolves...................yet the sourcing in the pics said coyotes..............i should have checked this---thanks
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