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Coyotes roam Ohio cities, suburbs

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Started 3 years ago by lazyfish
Latest reply from bman

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animals

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lazyfish

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From the Cincinnati Enquirer via AP
CINCINNATI -- As coyotes attack pets in residential areas, more towns and villages are encouraging police officers and deer hunters to shoot the predators.
The coyote population around Cincinnati has grown significantly in the past two decades, said Todd Haines, a district manager for the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
http://dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/12/26/z-apoh_coyotes25.ART_ART_12-26-08_C3_VGCBHCI.html?sid=101
anyone else have any coyote sightings in Columbus? I've seen them south of town along Alum Creek drive, heard the stories that they are in Whetstone Park and on the West Campus Farm. My dear mother in UA is terrified her overly well fed cat will become coyote chow. :shock: She claims she saw one early in the morning and now the poor cat can't go outside unsupervized.

Posted 3 years ago #
catnfiddle
Giant Corncob District
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Not exact sightings in our neighborhood, but our entire population of stray cats vanished VERY quickly about two years ago.

Posted 3 years ago #
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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yes. There have been coyotees around for several years. I've seen them in the wooded area near riverside hospital at 315. And have seen that there has been active predation on stray cats in the grandview area. (also a LOT of sudden "lost cat" posters, unfortunately).
The coyotes provide a helpful service and should NOT be killed.
If people are worried about their pets, please keep them supervised when outside. It's a dangerous world for pets anyway even if the coyotes don't get them, some dumbass in a car will.

Posted 3 years ago #
AmyD
Columbus, Ohio
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we had one on our patio last spring. it loped away over the hill. it seemed bewildered.

Posted 3 years ago #
Coremodels
Really close to Explorer's Club.
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Rockmastermike wrote The coyotes provide a helpful service and should NOT be killed.
I agree. I never have liked cats much :P

Posted 3 years ago #
chaptal
West Side
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Years ago there were coyotes at the deaf school at Morse and Indianola.

Posted 3 years ago #
Bear
The woods
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lazyfish wrote From the Cincinnati Enquirer via AP
CINCINNATI -- As coyotes attack pets in residential areas, more towns and villages are encouraging police officers and deer hunters to shoot the predators.
:) Nooo!

Posted 3 years ago #
brothermarcus
West Siiiide
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Northwest of Hilliard is always thick with them

Posted 3 years ago #
KSquared
Literally Hell
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Rockmastermike wrote yes. There have been coyotees around for several years. I've seen them in the wooded area near riverside hospital at 315. And have seen that there has been active predation on stray cats in the grandview area. (also a LOT of sudden "lost cat" posters, unfortunately).
The coyotes provide a helpful service and should NOT be killed.
If people are worried about their pets, please keep them supervised when outside. It's a dangerous world for pets anyway even if the coyotes don't get them, some dumbass in a car will.
I agree Rockmaster. Wiping out all other predators isn't healthy for the ecosystem, as we can see when the deer population explodes. It's all about balance and quite honestly, nature would not be kind to many of the animals we keep as pets, at least not according to what I've read.

Posted 3 years ago #
jfellrath
Clintonville
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When I lived in some of the apartments on Stelzer Road between the airport and Easton, my wife and I saw a coyote prowling about one late night out there. That was in either 2001 or 2002.

Posted 3 years ago #
Tigertree
771 N. High St.
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Right, but how is the government involved?

Posted 3 years ago #
michaelcoyote
!seabus
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Bear wrote
lazyfish wrote From the Cincinnati Enquirer via AP
CINCINNATI -- As coyotes attack pets in residential areas, more towns and villages are encouraging police officers and deer hunters to shoot the predators.
:) Nooo!
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/4413/coyoteee8.jpg
I think i'm fine as long as i stay away from Cincinnati.. which is generally a good idea anyway...

Posted 3 years ago #
Manatee
The eternal present
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Coyotes and all other top-of-the-foodchain predators provide indispensable ecological services to everyone, free of charge. These animals should be perceived almost as royalty, celebrated and supported. It is a very good sign that their numbers are increasing.
I have even heard coyotes have been interbreeding with what's left of our native wolves.
One of the most bone-chilling, awe-inspiring sounds I have ever heard was in the middle of the night, way out in Bainbridge: we all awoke to the ululations of a countless number of coyotes howling. Right out of dreamland, this can really put you in your place. A primal force like looking at ocean breakers. Let me tell you, the covers got pulled up a little higher around the ears that night.

Posted 3 years ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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Rockmastermike wrote If people are worried about their pets, please keep them supervised when outside. It's a dangerous world for pets anyway even if the coyotes don't get them, some dumbass in a car will.
This was a constant worry out in the country, but people let (or kept) their pets outside anyway. It did mean the occasional cat or dog got hit by a car, but it happened a lot less often than you might think. Both of our cats were outdoor cats; both died of old age.
I agree. I never have liked cats much
The devil is building a special chamber in Hell for you, right next to the ones for those who leave their cell phones on and actually answer them at the movie theater and poisonously saccharin summer camp counselors.
KSquared wrote I agree Rockmaster. Wiping out all other predators isn't healthy for the ecosystem, as we can see when the deer population explodes. It's all about balance ...
There's no help for it, sooner or later. I believe this part of the article got omitted from the quote here:
Coyotes migrated to Ohio from the West and have thrived in a state where they have no natural predators.
(Emphasis added.)
In other words, even if the overriding consideration is balance, not extermination, we're still going to end up killing at least some; the difference is between "some" (i.e., treating a certain population level as a good thing) and "as many as possible, hopefully all" (i.e., treating it like the ash borer or other pests). Importing other natural predators to keep the coyote population down is likely not going to be a serious option: coyotes' natural predators include alligators, wolves, cougars, and mountain lions. It would be hard to support any stable population of alligators in Ohio; cougars and mountain lions would simply never attain the required numbers. Wolves would be a solution worse than the problem.

Posted 3 years ago #
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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gramarye wrote
In other words, even if the overriding consideration is balance, not extermination, we're still going to end up killing at least some; the difference is between "some" (i.e., treating a certain population level as a good thing) and "as many as possible, hopefully all" (i.e., treating it like the ash borer or other pests). Importing other natural predators to keep the coyote population down is likely not going to be a serious option
What we were talking about is that, while coyotes are not native predators, they are a reasonable replacement for the predator populations that no longer exist here. We need SOME kind of meso-predator. Foxes would be better, but their populations have been slower to recover. I'll take coyotes if that's all we can get.
Yes, the coyote population will eventually require control. We are nowhere near that point yet.

Posted 3 years ago #
Manatee
The eternal present
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The point is, coyotes are at the TOP of the food chain, filling in for our missing native wolves and wildcats. They don't need to be preyed upon. There's no shortage of food for them, deer and small-mammal-wise, so why kill them?
The reason we have too many deer, aside from our constant development of their habitat, is that the top and bottom of the food chain have been removed. The deer have nothing to eat, and nothing eats them. Adding a predator to this mix sounds like a pretty great idea.
Go coyotes.

Posted 3 years ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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Manatee wrote The point is, coyotes are at the TOP of the food chain, filling in for our missing native wolves and wildcats. They don't need to be preyed upon. There's no shortage of food for them, deer and small-mammal-wise, so why kill them?
The point is that coyotes are at the top of the food chain here but *not* in their native habitats out west; therefore, their population here will have no natural balancing forces other than the availability of the food supply--which will include fawns (coyotes seldom kill adult deer), rodents, etc., but will also include house pets and, ultimately (if the population is allowed to expand to where the natural balancing force is starvation) people. That is why at least some hunting of them is going to be necessary.
I'm mostly neutral on the issue because the coyote's diet in my old neck of the woods would likely include small animals that are themselves problems, such as groundhogs, raccoons, opossums, and my neighbor's irritating dogs. However, they're also known to become more aggressive towards humans with increasing familiarity, a trait that doesn't bode well as human and coyote populations are pressed closer together. People should at least be discouraged from actually feeding them.
The reason we have too many deer, aside from our constant development of their habitat, is that the top and bottom of the food chain have been removed. The deer have nothing to eat, and nothing eats them.
Huh? Only half of this statement makes sense. The fact that the deer have nothing to eat can't possibly be a reason we have too many of them. Also, they *do* have something to eat, as my mom's vegetable garden can attest. Twelve foot chain link fence didn't even slow them down.

Posted 3 years ago #
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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gramarye wrote
Huh? Only half of this statement makes sense. The fact that the deer have nothing to eat can't possibly be a reason we have too many of them. Also, they *do* have something to eat, as my mom's vegetable garden can attest. Twelve foot chain link fence didn't even slow them down.
She's right, though. The deer population here regularly exceeds its locally available food supply. Thinning them out before the herds get sickly from malnutrition has become an occasional priority around here.
Nobody is arguing against eventual hunting of coyotes being needed.
Eventually, but not right now.

Posted 3 years ago #
gramarye
In Exile
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Well, I guess the latter is the real issue, though. There obviously are people arguing that there needs to be at least some hunting of them now.
I'd be interested in seeing how attitudes toward them change as one gets farther from the urban core. Indian Hill, the Cincinnati suburb mentioned in that AP article in the Enquirer, is a little different than Columbus (or Cincinnati itself), though it's still inside the Cincy beltway. Also: the area is rife with million-dollar homes on sprawling, forested, secluded lots, which of course would be just where coyotes would want to set up shop.

Posted 3 years ago #
Rockmastermike
CORNspiracy HQ
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gramarye wrote Well, I guess the latter is the real issue, though. There obviously are people arguing that there needs to be at least some hunting of them now.
Indian Hill has already allowed hunters to shoot coyotes, and police there and in other suburban cities hunt coyotes whenever they receive reports of aggressive behavior."
It sounds to me like those places have already reached the level where control is needed. Here in Columbus is another story, they're still uncommon here, so as I said... "not yet". Eventually it will happen.
In the mean time I am very happy something has come in to help with the plague of skunks that had been taking over the north side.

Posted 3 years ago #