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Citizen complaint of the day: Is a coyote pack in Hyde Park on the hunt for little kids?
By adamg on Wed, 01/18/2023 - 11:10pm
An alarmed citizen files a 311 report from suddenly dangerous Goff Street in Hyde Park, where coyotes have eaten two dogs and, he or she reports ominously, "reportedly tried to snatch a child at the bus stop."
Now, this is the beginning of mating season for coyotes, so they're a bit more aggressive than usual, but going after people? Still, Goff is midway between Stony Brook Reservation, where coyotes have lived for years, and Sherrin Woods, where a pack has been hanging out (sometimes lounging at the Dale Street playground) for months, so here's a state fact sheet on coyotoes, including how to deal with them.
Last week:
A wily coyote saunters into the Back Bay, evades animal control for hours
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
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Comments
Not nice old Wile E!
For some time we have been having this discussion here about the dangers of the coyote infestation of the past decade or so. I still maintain they are not cute, they are not native, and they are not safe to have around. We need to have bounties on their pelts and wipe them out before they do start targeting small children.
Settle down, Tex.
Parents of those kids you're claiming to want to protect are going to be psyched about camoflauged psychos roaming Franklin Park with shotguns.
Psychos roaming with shotguns
Also shooting beloved family pets in their owners’ back yards. “Gee, I thought it was a coyote.”
Consequences of ecosystem disruption
Can't wait for Nahant to start reporting:
Family dog shot in backyard (soon)
Garden damage from deer and rabbits (year 1 or 2)
Surging tick levels with accompanying Lyme, babesiosis, and anaplasmosis diagnoses (as soon as the deer settle in)
I know some public health professionals who are actively watching for that third one.
they are not native
Uhh yes they are? They've migrated South over the past couple centuries after people did to wolves what you're suggesting we do to coyotes. But as far as I'm aware, humans did not introduce coyotes to Massachusetts. They are not an invasive species.
The Gray Wolf's Revenge
The Eastern Coyote is a hybrid of the Coyote and the Gray Wolf, which has gradually filled in for its wolf ancestors as they have been driven out by humans. They've migrated East, not South. It's like the wolves said, "Hey, we could use a little help with this situation. You want to join the tribe? We're bigger and stronger, but you're sneakier, and seem to be better at dealing with these assholes. Come on, we'll make a great team. Let me introduce you to my sister. Careful, she bites."
If that's not an introduction
If that's not an introduction I don't know what is.
Most experts seem to agree
that coyotes are not native to Massachusetts. Also important to remember that not all nonnative species are invasive.
https://www.nps.gov/articles/netn-species-spotlight-eastern-coyote.htm#:....
Native species
“Native” is one of those words whose meaning seems to evaporate upon examination. What is a native species? The very idea depends upon a prejudice towards stasis; a place for everything, and everything in its place. This is not how nature operates, however. We think of a species being native to a specific region, but what if the region changes, and the species migrates? Is it then forever invasive, wherever it goes, even if its new region closely resembles its old one? Ice ages create large-scale displacement of species; are these species no longer native anywhere? Consider a species that evolves in response to such an environmental transition; do we call it a species only when it finds a fixed, unchanging abode, where we can call it a native? If so, then many living individuals do not belong to any species at all.
The word is often used to evoke a permanent, fundamental attachment to the soil, but such bonds are not real. They can’t be, because the soil itself changes, and has no fixed identity. Climate oscillates, continents merge and separate, magnetic poles wander, asteroids strike. Cape Cod is quite obviously the debris of glaciers that ran out of steam; nothing has been “native “ there for very long. Everything that lives, as far as we know, can claim Earth as its native soil, but that’s not a very useful distinction.
Not regionally native, but re-filling a niche
There used to be wolves in this region, and they got killed off. The Eastern Coyote are basically filling that niche up again. And frankly it's a good thing, too.
Open season on off leash dogs before coyotes
Open season on off leash dogs before coyotes
Get therapy
Murderous hatred of animals is a sign of instability.
.
*$#@% replicator gnomes!
Adorable.
Adorable.
Now, this is the beginning of
I mean, it happens
Won't somebody please think
Won't somebody please think of the children!