Guest Post by Morbo
Here’s an idea: Let’s take a wooded area in the [tag]suburbs[/tag], flatten it to stick up garish [tag]McMansions[/tag], and then complain because the animals we displaced won’t leave.
This seems to be the thinking of some people in Rockville, Md., who are appalled because (gasp) coyotes have been seen in their neighborhood. According to a recent article in the Washington Post Magazine, [tag]coyotes[/tag] are suddenly everywhere. Their range is pretty much the entire continental United States, and that includes the suburbs.
Resident Cheryl Hays of the Fallsgrove subdivision is not pleased. “They come through here and head to the shopping center dumpster,” Hays griped. “It’s just like they’re commuting! It’s crazy! These are the most expensive homes in Rockville, and we’re like hostages!”
How charming. Imagine that: You and your snooty pals build your showcase homes to display your conspicuous consumption, and a nasty old animal has the nerve to walk right by it as if he had a right to exist. Who do these animals think they are? Prodded by people like Hays, the subdivision’s owner hired a trapper who killed a dozen coyotes before local government officials made him stop.
Until I read this piece, I had never thought much about coyotes’ intelligence level. My previous experience with these critters was limited to Wile E. Coyote, an alleged super genius who is actually pretty dim. Wile E. spent years chasing that road runner when he could have taken the money he squandered on Acme products of dubious quality and bought a nice meal.
But as it turns out, coyotes are pretty smart.
A female coyote can, for example, regulate the size of her litter depending on what the local environment can support. Scientists do not quite understand how the animals do this, but a moment’s thought demonstrates why their eradication, even if desirable, would be difficult: Just when you think you’ve beaten them, their numbers would spring back up again.
But coyotes should not be eradicated. They have a role to play in the ecosystem and can be useful. For instance, they eat rats, mice, squirrels and other nuisance animals.
As writer Mary Battiata noted:
Humans are uneasy with the idea of predators in their midst. But predation is in fact part of nature’s design, a finely tuned and highly beneficial system by which sick or unwary animals are culled from the population, leaving more food for the remaining animals and increasing their chances for survival. Rancher and celebrated memoirist Dayton O. Hyde, a coyote defender, has described coyotes as vital partners in on his 6,000-acre east Oregon ranch, keeping the ecosystem in balance by checking mouse, grasshopper and squirrel populations. Biologists consider wolves and coyotes to be “nature’s veterinarians,” carefully selecting the weakest or least wary among the animals they hunt, leaving more food and terrain for the healthy animals that remain.
Of course, coyotes can also eat your pet cat or small dog. And, while they don’t tackle huge prey or hunt in packs, like any wild animal, coyotes can pose a threat to children. And therein lies the problem. In the suburbs, coyotes are increasingly being portrayed as a threat to kids, when in fact domestic dogs pose a far greater threat.
Rather than do what the people in that Rockville subdivision did — hire a trapper to kill the coyotes — we would do better to learn peaceful coexistence. The Post article notes that communities in Washington state have had good luck with this. Coyotes, which weigh about 25-35 pounds, aren’t really interested in tangling with humans. You just have to show them who’s boss. This can usually be done by making noise and not running off when they appear on your turf. Secure your garbage cans, keep the cat indoors, teach the kids what to do if they encounter one and whatever you do, don’t feed them.
I’m far from an animals-rights guy. I eat animals and wear clothes and shoes made out of their hides. I support their use in medical research. But that doesn’t mean I think we can just blow them away to make more room for our malls and sprawl. There has to be a better way.
Remember, they were here first. We can all get along. There’s no reason for this to get coyote ugly.