In addition to a bear hunt, it looks like New Jersey is planning to cull the coyote population. Apparently one of them tried to make off with a baby. A lot of people seem to have a hard time understanding, without the ability to manufacture and use weapons, human beings are not apex predators, we’re prey. When other predators lose their fear of people, bad things are going to happen. The advice from the state is if you see a coyote, make sure it moves along. In most other areas, even in New York, as the article notes, it’s lawful to shoot them. It doesn’t take very long before the predators learn to steer clear of humans.
12 thoughts on “New Jersey Has a Coyote Problem”
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Coyotes have been fair game in NJ since the late 1990s. The NJ dot com article is a little behind the times as usual.
Strange how the same advice that works for coyotes would work for the human predators too. Maybe if the population was told to shoot coyotes and criminals, we’d see a drop in both.
Naaa. That’s too simple.
There are a couple things that make coyote hunting difficult. You can not hunt over bait, and you can’t use a rifle. :P
Out here in free country Coyotes know to avoid humans. They’ll be standing in the middle of a field and the second they hear the pitch change in an engine they’re gone. They know anyone stopping is probably going to shoot at them.
Seriously, ‘yote sat there until he saw me start to stop and bang he was gone. I think I have the crowning item to write that post I’ve been wanting to. Thanks Sebastian.
We have coyotes in the densely packed but still heavily wooded suburbs around here. Sometimes they will stop and stare as you drive past late at night.
Lots of “lost” cats and small dogs as well. :(
The thing the media virtually never mentions about coyotes and that most urbanized people don’t seem to understand is coyotes are truly wild animals and aren’t vaccinated like pets. Rabies is still a very real disease and if not identified and treated very quickly is nearly always agonizingly fatal. Any coyote that hangs round or approaches humans should be considered infected and dealt with quickly.
Even getting scratched can lead to infection if the animals blood or saliva are involved.
I’ve seen many foxes around here in NJ. I’ve heard the coyotes often but never seen them. We have a very large dog so we don’t worry.
A three-year old girl was dragged from her front stoop and killed in Glendale (not far from here) some years ago, and coyotes are a regular feature around my house (so the cat stays in after dark). Illegal to shoot them on sight, but the area is densely residential and it is CA. They were here first, and “usually” they are not a problem, say the “authorities”.
Bram, coyotes tend to team up to take even large dogs (though maybe yours is truly huge). One of their tricks is to send a female coyote in heat to the edge of a field to entice a dog over to her, at which point the others jump it. Keep your dog near & vaccinated to avoid the Old Yeller ending.
Shooting at predators is good practice universally. They lose their so-called “natural” fear of man in only a few generations as has been shown by behavior of wolves in MN where they aren’t hunted vs. wolves in MT where they are. As long as the purpose of hunting isn’t to exterminate the species, most predators have high enough birth & 1st year young survival rates to withstand significant annual culling that in the end is better for livestock, people and the hunted species too, since the result is fewer unhappy people/predator encounters that lead to calls for local or outright extermination.
My MA buddy with a CCW bought a night-vision scope and said he was able to observe four coyotes watching his house from the woods last night. WTF – MA has coyotes?
Easy to fix, just distribute ACME catalogs in all the coyote areas.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Have any of y’all read the “Daily Coyote” blog? It is written by a woman who hand-reared a coyote pup, which is now a grownup coyote. She is a bit scared of the critter now, but her cat is not. The coyote seems to defer to the kitteh.