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| "I sat in a living room and heard the coyotes howl outside" Photo courtesy State Fish and Wildlife Photo by Ty Smedes |
By Diane Hettrick
I have been collecting stories and photos for several years about the wild creatures which live among us in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park. Even though I have lived here for 35 years, I was unaware of most of them until I started the Shoreline Area News.
I am a storyteller, not a wildlife expert. The go-to guys for information on wild animals are the people at the State Fish and Wildlife.
Coyotes have recently been spotted walking down streets in the Echo Lake neighborhood mid-day, so they seem like a good place to start.
I lived here for twenty years before I found out my home is within a block of a coyote den, which has probably been in use for decades. I wish I had known. I would never have installed a cat door. Looking back, I am certain that I have lost at least two young cats to the coyotes. The kitties were loved, sweet, and trusting. It never occurred to them that anything would hurt them.
For the past decade my cats have come from a feral colony – they are raised by their mothers to be very wary of coyotes - but I still don't let them out at night.
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| Coyote in Lake Forest Park green space Photo by Sara Lorimer |
I know where four dens are and there are certainly many, many more. Three are in very large green spaces. The fourth is somewhere in a narrow band of green hillside. I think that any green space can support a den. They do seem to favor areas among trees or shrubbery.
I have sat in a home at dusk and heard them howling outside. It’s a primal sound.
According to the information from the local Fish and Wildlife guy I heard speak in LFP, coyotes mate for life. The cubs are born in the early spring (about now). The previous year’s cubs stay with the parents for an entire year, helping to hunt for food for the family. The next year when new cubs are born, the 2 year olds leave to find their own mates and own place.
That’s when you see them walking down the streets. Fish and Wildlife said that coyotes are not nocturnal by nature, but learn to live that way to coexist with humans.
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| Adolescent coyote taking a nap at Paramount Park Photo by Janet Way |
None of them are afraid of humans. One source said that when you are confronted by a coyote you are supposed to make yourself as big and as loud as possible and scare them off. Most people either freeze or go for their cameras.
Encounters are usually in the small hours of the morning. My neighbor used to leave for work at 3am. She was quite startled to see a coyote in her driveway, not ten feet from her. She froze and the coyote decided to leave. I heard similar stories from other people who were regularly out in the middle of the night.
The key to keeping coyotes out of your yard is to avoid feeding them. If you have pets or feral cats that you are feeding outside, try to pick the food up before dark. Don’t let your cats and small dogs out at night.
Even though it is allowed, do not put meat in your compost. One of my contacts found that out the hard way. He put a lot of rotten meat in plastic buckets in his back yard (no, I don’t know why). He put large, heavy, flat rocks on top but the coyotes got into it and ate all the meat. He doesn’t do that any more.
He says he sees coyotes in his yard all the time. “I have seen them on my roof, or in the trees staring down - it looks like they have the ability to climb very well.”
One summer evening he was gardening late, around 9:30pm.
“I heard the next door neighbor dogs barking and then I heard some noises behind the flower bushes. It's kind of dark so I tried to peer through the bushes to see what is behind. Then I see at least 2 coyotes staring at me from behind the bushes. It appeared that they were chased down by the nextdoor dogs (big dogs) so they ran onto my side. I backed out to retrieve some yard tools to defend myself in case they attacked. At that point, the coyotes ran through my yard to the next door yard again and disappeared with the next door neighbor dogs chasing them.”
There was a huge controversy in Lake Forest Park a few years ago when a pack of coyotes killed a sheep (yes, there are several people in LFP who have sheep). The city called in Fish and Wildlife which said that coyotes that attack are under an automatic death sentence.
Sharpshooters identified the pack and spent several nights in back yards with rifles trying to get the coyotes to come within shooting range. Agents said they have a number of whistles that replicate animal sounds but none of them attracted the coyotes. Finally they sounded the “wounded kitten” whistle and the coyote came running.
The Lake Forest Park situation was worse than normal because a resident was feeding the coyotes – leaving big bags of open dog food for them. This confirms humans as a food source, makes the coyotes even less afraid of humans, and may serve to increase the population.
The coyotes have been here long before people and for the most part have lived quietly among us.. They serve a purpose by keeping the rodent population in check. The key is to avoid feeding them pet food – and pets.
They also like to eat neighborhood cats.
ReplyDeleteGreat article. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteGood article, Diane. I too am interested in animals among us.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your article, Diane. I know the coyotes can be dangerous, and we should all take precautions, but I love having them live amongst us...as you said, they were here first! I live against the south end of the Holyrood Catholic Cemetery, where - before the incident with the Lake Forest Park sheep - I believe at least two packs lived. I always marveled at their yips and yowls in the middle of the night, after a successful hunt in the cemetery. Since the Dept of Fish and Wildlife took care of them, no coyotes have returned. The Cemetery is as silent as its official residents at night. I understand about the loss of livestock, but we do also need out larger carnivores/ wildlife for the greater balance of nature. I wish people would stop feeding them. Coyotes are intelligent, noble animals and are just fine fending for themselves. ....again, thank you for your very thoughtful article...
ReplyDeleteThe aim of the Growth Management Act is to concentrate people and the services they require in urban areas. The corollary is everything else, including coyotes, goes into the rural areas. As for coyotes being here first, bacteria were here first! Throw out your penicillin. Have mercy on MRSA.
ReplyDeleteMy family has lived in Seattle since 1951 (and in North Seattle/Shoreline since 1960) and there were NO coyotes living in the area back then. To state that coyotes were here first is a complete denial of reality, the west slope of the Cascades is not part of their natural range. See this reference: http://eol.org/pages/328608/details - it states:
ReplyDelete"Coyotes were believed to have been restricted to the south-west and plains regions of the U.S. and Canada, and northern and central Mexico, prior to European settlement (Moore and Parker 1992). During the 19th century, coyotes are thought to have expanded north and west. With land conversion and removal of wolves after 1900, coyotes expanded into all of the U.S. and Mexico, southward into Central America, and northward into most of Canada and Alaska (Moore and Parker 1992)."
It is obvious that coyote are an invasive species that came into the Pacific NW after the removal of apex predators native to this area were removed, to state they were here first is a denial of reality.
Good article, Diane, and great pictures! It's scary what kinds of havoc these creatures can inflict. We all need a regular reminder of this. Perhaps in your next installment the focus can be more towards what we can do, i.e. on how to know a den's nearby, how you can tell - outside of seeing and/or hearing them - that coyotes are in the area, how (if possible) you can discourage them, etc., in a list form?
ReplyDelete