Posted on 06/05/2010 5:06:05 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Their den was empty, but the coyote pups hadn't gone far.
One of the biologists searching for the young coyotes soon spotted a tiny, reddish-brown pup huddled under a bush about 50 yards from his underground home.
The posse of researchers quickly surrounded and grabbed the fuzzy, 5-pound youngster as he tried to flee into a nearby marsh.
"We clearly scared him away from the den," biologist Stan Gehrt said as he held the bewildered, 6-week-old pup -- who was too young to even make a serious effort to bite his bare-handed captor.
Spreading out again, the researchers stepped carefully through thick reeds until they flushed out and nabbed two of his siblings.
Good results -- particularly since the recent search was taking place less than 100 yards from busy Golf Road in the heavily used Poplar Creek Forest Preserve near northwest suburban Streamwood.
The hunt for young coyotes is an ongoing activity for researchers working on the Cook County Urban Coyote Study, the nation's most comprehensive look at the elusive canines that have become increasingly common in the Chicago area.
In the past 10 years, wildlife biologists involved in the study have captured -- then released -- about 470 of the animals in locations ranging from Cook County forest preserves to suburban neighborhoods and Chicago parks.
Though once rare even in remote suburban areas, coyotes in the past decade have become a frequent sight across the region -- and even in the heart of Chicago. In 2007, a coyote wandered into a Loop sandwich shop. Gehrt and his colleagues have tracked the animals as they traveled along the Chicago lakefront and passed by Navy Pier.
"If they're not as prevalent in the city proper as they are in the suburbs, they're trying to catch up. They're popping up everywhere," said Gehrt, an Ohio State University professor who leads the study.
The research is intended to help keep tabs on where the coyotes live, how far they travel, what diseases they carry and what conflicts they may cause with people and pets in the heavily populated area.
"It's the only study of its kind," said Bob Bluett, a wildlife biologist for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
Gehrt helped launch the study in 2000 as coyotes began turning up more frequently in the Chicago area.
Once captured by researchers, older coyotes are tagged with a radio collar so they can be tracked and a microchip that will permanently identify them. Pups, like the ones grabbed late last month, are too small to be collared, but a microchip is embedded between their shoulders so they can be identified if they are captured again.
The three youngsters -- two females and a male -- also were weighed and measured, then blood was drawn for DNA comparisons, which will let researchers trace their family ties. Afterward, the pups were released back into their den to await their mother's return.
The research has become more crucial as the number of conflicts between people and coyotes have risen across much of North America. A woman jogging in Canada last fall was killed by coyotes -- or coyote-wolf hybrids.
But Gehrt said, "We have not had an attack in the Chicago area at all."
Clashes here are more likely between pets and coyotes, as the wild canines -- which typically weigh 25 to 35 pounds -- look to protect their young and their territory.
"Where these guys can cause a little bit of an issue is not the pups themselves, but sometimes the parents may become somewhat aggressive, especially toward dogs, if they get too close to this litter," Gehrt said.
Some coyotes often view pets, particularly cats and small dogs who are left outside, as just another type of prey, though researchers have found most of their diet consists of rodents, rabbits, deer -- particularly fawns -- and even fruit.
Several agencies participate in the study, including the Cook County Forest Preserve District and Cook County Department of Animal Control, which helps pay for the $250,000-a-year study with rabies vaccination fees paid by pet owners. Also participating is the private Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, where Gehrt was working when the study began.
Part of the reason for the research is to help determine where and how the animals live, so authorities can better manage the wild canines living near subdivisions and shopping centers.
"We have to learn how to deal with them," said Dr. Donna Alexander, director of the the county's animal-control department. "We've got to find that fine balance so we can learn to live together."
She noted the study has shown the coyotes are useful in keeping keep down populations of rodents, rabbits and deer -- animals that can become nuisances themselves to their human neighbors.
But the work isn't easy because the coyotes are so stealthy.
Thousands of coyotes likely live in Cook County, though biologists are reluctant to even estimate how many because the wily canines are too difficult to find and count.
The microchips researchers embedded in the pups will identify the coyotes if they're recaptured, or found dead later -- something that happens regularly as biologists estimate the pups have about a 60 percent chance of surviving until next year.
The chips also enables scientists to see how far the coyotes travel. Some animals captured in the study later have turned up in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and central Illinois.
A key point of the study, though, is to help determine how well coyotes can survive living so close to so many people in Cook County.
"This little animal, as well as those others, are going to tell us whether they can live successfully in an urban landscape and whether or not they can live near people," Gehrt said as he held one of the female pups. "So far, the stories they've been telling us, is that they can."
That depends. How good does Coyote taste?
Awesome. LMAO !
I dunno, ask Gov. Perry.
Of course they are but you guys need more funds to continue the study..........my tax paid funds BTW.......
Cute picture Graybeard........
We have had coyotes here in our neighborhood in SW Washington as long as we have lived here. They are not domesticated, but they certainly are urbanized, and they are thriving. I spotted one last fall a block away when I went out for an early newspaper. As soon as the headlights hit him he was gone, but he was healthy looking with a nice fur coat.
Expect it to be flattened on the road at some point in the future.
Enough of them get the permanent weightloss solution on the highways here in NY.
Cute.. as long as it’s small and harmless.
But then it grows up to something that can and does eat housepets, and may attack small children.
can’t be no worse than a liberal Obama supporter.
Coyotes and people get along fine. Your dogs and cats, however, will be eaten.
I've been following that blog for some time now and the real answer is NO.......
For some reason that coyote has bonded with the dog, the cat and the blogger since it was a pup. The animal is contained within the fenced in yard and only ventures out when the gal goes out..........
Despite being raised in her house, it still marks inside and behaves like a coyote whenever another person shows up on the property..........in other words, hides.
.223 or 22-250 worked well for me in the past.
/johnny
I’ve had a bunch of friends lose their small dogs to coyotes. Most recently, a very good friend had a little maltese taken away by a coyote...her husband saw it but could do nothing. Very sad.
Yes Graybeard, in alternate universes in the same space but different dimensions and as long as they don’t play with my bunny slippers, I don’t see why not.
Seriously, no stuff, I was there, on I-635 south of Dallas, Texas, I watched a coydog look both ways and negotiate traffic better than a 10 year old to get across the highway.
I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.
As I passed a bridge about a half mile down, I had to wonder why it didn't go under the highway.
Brilliant, clever, and capable of amazing stupidity. Sort of like a liberal.
/johnny
I have shot, trapped and skinned a fair amount of them but never got the urge to sample the meat.
F.R. member "BunnySlippers" being pinged for an opinion.
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