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Wondering when his darn Acme tent is going to arrive
By adamg on Mon, 06/04/2018 - 4:18pm
Roving UHub photographer Daniel Moran was up and about at 6:45 a.m., which turned out to be a good time to spot a coyote planning out his day on Weld and Cerdan streets, which, depending on whom you ask, is either West Roxbury or Roslindale.
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Comments
I know that guy!
Looks very much like the one we saw walking through Mt Benedict cemetery on Sunday afternoon. We noted that s/he looks pretty healthy, unlike some of the mangier ones that seem to come in closer to humans.
Oh, sure
You people think we all look alike
It's
Clearly West Rox. It was once Roslindale when the border ran down the WRox Pkwy. But that was approx 14 years ago.
Roslindale is a neighborhood
Roslindale is a neighborhood whose limits are defined by public opinion.
It is mostly in the District of West Roxbury which is defined by statute.
Real estate people like neighborhoods because they stretch a bit.
Jamaica Plain often invades the part of Roxbury where I live.
Which statute defines West Roxbury?
West Roxbury as a municipal entity disappeared in 1874 when the town (which included what we now know as Roslindale and Jamaica Plain) voted (just barely) to be annexed to Boston.
Now it seems neighborhood lines are subject to, as you say, public opinion (except what do you do when the public's opinion is divided?) and the whims of BRA, um, BPDA (which until relatively recently had all of Stony Brook Reservation as part of Roslindale).
It's West Roxbury
USPS places that intersection in 02132, so it is West Roxbury
Oh ...
Don't even go there :-).
Notice where West Roxbury
Notice where West Roxbury Court House is.
The district lines are similar to the old city or town lines
but have changed a little over the years.
Meanwhile Mattapan gets bigger and bigger.
Post offices are another thing. They are not the same as
districts or neighborhoods. The city does have district maps. I worked
with them for years. Once you get on to them and what is a district
and what is a neighborhood (or postal district) it provides
actual defined sections of the city which can be very handy.
All I’m gonna say is
They didn’t have coyotes back there when they were a part of Roslindale.
You turn your back on Rozzie and things like this start to happen. 02131 for life!
he's huggge!
damn, that coyote is HUUUGE!
Adorable!
Leash law?
Need to enforce that leash law...
Good idea
Here's a leash, you go first. :-P
That's a huuuge...
...Coywolf. The coyotes here are typically larger because they mated with wolves who came from Canada and northern NE due to deforestation.
and that's why...
...it's not nice to fool with Mother Nature....
Eastern coyotes are much
Eastern coyotes are much larger than Western coyotes, mostly because they have bred with wolves over past centuries. The first coywolves were found in Massachusetts in the 1950's. There is significantly more forest in New England today than there was in 1800. The intense logging that took place in Colonial and post Colonial times is no longer and the forest has resupplied. The makeup is different than precolonial times (much more homogeneous today) but the acreage is much greater.
Therefore, your claim that coywolves moved into New England from Canada due to deforestation is demonstrably wrong. It is more likely they moved here due to the increasing deer populations during the 20th century. Much of that is due to humans chasing away deer predators. The preferred diet of coywolves is deer meat. They are not friendly or cuddly buggers. They are more a mammal version of a cockroach--survivors who are smart and able to overcome major changes in environment who can survive on a wide diet.
Last century, not centuries.
And while I agree that they followed the deer. But deforestation and deer populations have a relationship. Regrowth forests are exactly the deer's ideal diet. White tail deer eat anything they can reach because they have adapted to living in residential areas like the coywolf. That doesn't make them cockroaches. We need coywolves, raccoons, skunks and possums to keep the rats down. They are easy to live with if you keep your pets inside.
Bull
We do not need coyotes to keep the rats down. All those years we did not have these vermin around - were we overrun with rats? No. We need to eradicate these things.
You know why they are here?
Humans.
Humans are far more invasive and damaging than coyotes will ever be.
Like the old bumpersticker says "save the world - kill yourself".
boston has been overrun with rats since colonial times.
All of the carnivores together compete with and kill the rats.
I don't have an opinion here
but I just want to note that this...
...is arguing against something that was not, in fact, stated. Specifically:
OK Mr. Helper
Google it. No one who has published on this believes the Coywolves originated in Northern NE. They came from Canada. To enter Northern NE they had to come from Canada.
Still demonstrably wrong.
That said, the deforestation comments were interesting. Most deforestation in New England happened by the early 1800's. The resulting forested areas are good deer environment, but no one really knows the deer populations prior to the deforestation. There were more natural deer predators here back then, and humans were deer hunters in NE through the early 1900's, which culled the herd but during industrial development things changed. People hunted less deer.
There is no question though that the deer population is what draws Coywolves into Massachusetts. Maybe humans should hunt deer more.
Sorta agree but during the
Sorta agree but during the depression all of the deer (and turkeys) were shot and eaten. My grandfather remembered this well. It was a long recovery impeded by human population explosion. But I believe white tail deer population may be more connected to disease than hunting.
Make of this what you like...
My post and yours have similarities
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coywolf
Misread
Terrapin, why are you arguing with things B didn't say?
isn't claiming that the coywolves came to Massachusetts because of Massachusetts deforestation. It's claiming that deforestation in Canada and Northern NE drove away wolves, who then mated with coyotes, producing offspring who were fine with depleted forests.
It's these forest-indifferent offspring who moved back down here in the 20th century.
So maybe deforestation had a lot to do with it, but not the way you're claiming it didn't.
If Massachusetts, Northern NE, and Canada hadn't suffered deforestation, perhaps the wolves - who prefer to hunt in the forest, unlike coyotes - wouldn't have died out regionally, and wouldn't have interbred with coyotes up in Canada.
Interesting debate
I took the obvious bait that B was suggesting human caused deforestation in New England was the cause. After rereading it 12 times I still find the same intimation, though you are right it is not explicitly stated. If that is wrong only B can correct me.
That said, my argument is ultimately that humans are a part of nature in the system we are discussing. I reject the idea that humans should have no effect on their environment. There have been problems we cause but often they are not the ones we usually consider.
Humans affect the deer population very directly. We tend to create local environments that are very friendly to them. We chase away their predators and provide lots of food for them. Coywolves are a predator we will have problems chasing away in New England. I lived for many years in the Pacific Northwest. Cougars were a similar problem there, but cats care different from dogs and I'm not going to equate them. Only saying humans chasing away their predators and providing food draw them in. In this case deer for coywolves and in the west rodents for cougars.
I do find this an interesting topic. I love thinking through unintended consequences, whether it be public policy, forest management, development, energy creation, monetary policy, etc. People seem to think people are wise. I don't see much evidence. I think we muddle through existence making mistakes and correcting the worst over time. We're all pretty dumb animals in the bigger scope of things. We should consider that from time to time.
Thanks for calling me out.