Posted on 02/05/2006 3:22:11 PM PST by SJackson
Dee Garbowski of Wanaque hears them at night -- eerie howls and high-pitched yips echoing across the Ramapo mountain range like the soundtrack of a cheesy horror movie.
A seasoned animal handler, she knows the howls and yips aren't coming from monsters, wolves, or Bigfoot.
They belong to one of the nature's most adaptable predators -- the coyote.
"There are several coyote dens over there," Garbowski said of the mountain range in her neighborhood.
Cast in cartoons as mangy but lovable scavengers and once associated with the mountains, deserts and prairies of the Great West, coyotes have found a home in densely populated New Jersey, giving new meaning to the old state motto "New Jersey and You -- Perfect Together."
They inhabit all of the state's 21 counties.
"Their numbers are increasing, but I also say, and I firmly believe this, we're seeing more of them because of development," said Garbowski, who is president of Wildlife Freedom Inc., a group that rescues injured and orphaned wildlife.
"They're being pushed out. They don't know whether to go to the next woods or stay in the area, and adapt in the environment with humans. Of course, people don't always like it."
State game officials, alarmed by the coyote's rapid growth, approved the first-ever coyote hunt in the winter of 1997. They hoped to learn more about the coyotes. They were also mindful of complaints from farmers in Warren and Hunterdon counties who said coyotes were attacking small livestock.
Only five coyotes were killed during the two-week hunt, a testament to the animal's guile.
At the time, an estimated 1,500 coyotes roamed the state.
The state now harbors about 3,000 coyotes, said Karen Hershey, a spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Protection.
Coyote sightings are no longer rare events.
When teachers and residents in Waldwick spotted two or three coyotes near the Julia A. Traphagen School at noontime last month, they called police.
The school building went into "lockdown," and its 400 elementary-age students were kept inside for the rest of the day.
"We are supersensitive to the safety and security of the children," Superintendent Gregg Hauser said. School officials sent a letter home with the students, informing parents what had happened, asking them to instruct children on how to deal with wild animals, Hauser said.
The coyotes ran away when police showed up.
"The animals were not exhibiting aggressive behavior," acting Police Chief Mark Messner said. He said coyote sightings, especially at night, were not unusual in the area.
In a similar incident, this time in Morris County in the winter of 2002, students at the Lakeview Elementary School in Denville were kept inside during recess for several months after coyotes were spotted near the school.
The school is located near a wooded area, and parents had seen the coyotes near school bus stops, Denville Mayor Eugene Feyl said.
"I was surprised to find them in Denville," Feyl said of the coyotes.
During the scare, Feyl gave police permission to shoot the animals if they felt someone was threatened by them.
"The problem, thankfully, has vanished," Feyl said recently.
But the coyote "problem" has not vanished everywhere.
Prospect Park police Officer Ted Noah recalled the time, last year, when he was dispatched to assist Hawthorne police investigating a report of a woman screaming in a park.
As the officers met in Hofstra Park, a 25-acre park on the Prospect Park-Hawthorne border, Noah, an experienced hunter, heard barking. The "screams" were the howls of coyotes.
"I heard at least two. ... I knew it was a coyote," Noah said.
"One [coyote] ran right in front of me. They must have been stalking a deer. The deer ran out of the woods right after I saw the coyote."
In Allendale, the coyotes have driven the deer out of Celery Farm, a 107-acre wildlife preserve owned by the borough, said Stiles Thomas, the marsh warden for the preserve.
"The deer population sort of disappeared," Thomas said.
He once came home to find a coyote urinating in his driveway.
"We've heard and seen them in Allendale within the past week," Thomas said.
Lysa DeLaurentis, an animal control officer for several Morris and Passaic county towns, said she is investigating the disappearance of cats and small dogs in Ringwood.
"I have had a lot more calls this year in the Stonetown area [a Ringwood neighborhood] of people missing cats," DeLaurentis said. "A couple of months ago, people's dogs just seem to disappear off the face of the earth."
DeLaurentis agrees that development has been pushing coyotes from their natural habitat.
"People think we are getting overpopulated with them now," she said. "But really, I don't think that is the case. It's us taking away their homes."
Debbie DeLucca, animal control officer in Wayne, recently discovered a coyote family with seven new pups. She won't disclose the location.
"Wildlife are learning to live amongst us because we are building up," DeLucca said. "The less natural habitat you have, the higher chance of seeing them. We just have to live smart with our garbage, not putting food out. We need to understand that wildlife are all part of our system."
Coyotes first appeared in the state in the 1950s, migrating south from Canada and the Hudson Valley, said Jim Bremner, the publisher of DesertUSA, an Internet magazine that covers a wide variety of topics dealing with North America.
"They are very smart and have no predators," Bremner said.
Larger than its desert and mountain cousins, the Eastern coyote averages 40 pounds, is known for its bushy tail and long snout, can sprint at 40 mph, and feeds on rodents, insects, reptiles, small mammals and fruit.
The current coyote hunting season began Jan. 16 and will end Feb. 20.
E-mail: bautista@northjersey.com
* * * Like it or not, he lives here, too
Coyotes can be seen night or day, but it's unusual to run across them, because their acute senses of smell and hearing usually allow them to detect you long before you detect them.
If you encounter a coyote:
Stop. Don't run. Stand still, and let it go on its way.
Give it plenty of space.
Never stare an animal down. It considers that a threat.
If a coyote bites you, report the injury to a hospital, which will notify the state health department.
To avoid attracting coyotes:
Close garbage can lids tightly.
Do not leave pet food outside.
Do not allow small pets outside unaccompanied.
Sources: Dee Garbowski, Wildlife Freedom Inc., and DesertUSA.
And cats, kittens, chickens, chicks, lambs, goat kids, calves, piglets, etc. These are moneymakers for property owners and losing them to coyotes is money not put in the bank and less food on the table.
(Yes, cats. They eat the mice that would otherwise eat the feed).
If there is a pool going somewhere concerning which critters will survive any sort of world-wide cataclysmic event, I'll take cockroaches and coyotes.
I would not be surprised if it were bigfoot.
http://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_county_reports.asp?state=nj&county=Sussex
they are shoot on sight in florida. same with wild hogs
They aren't threatened by developmnet, they move into newly developed areas because of the easy pickings off the stupid new residents that leave their cats and dogs run outside.
Of course it hasn't occurred to these school principals to post a faculty member outside during recess who knows how to use a shotgun!!!!!!!
The coyotes have apparently figured out your dogs-go-outside schedule!!!
Not if you protect them (the dogs, that is).
My dogs live indoors. When the weather is nice we go on walks through my woods. At night, they go into our front yard to "do their business." But Dad is standing on the porch with a .22 automatic pistol with an extra magazine in my pocket, and a pump 12-gauge as a stand-by. No coyote is going to hurt my dogs.
I'll vote for mice and crocodiles/alligators, as well.
What about all those feral cats running around in FLA? Any similar law on the books?
The problem is that NJ is not a "concealed carry" state
I don't know which counties have the largest number of coyotes, but I have noticed several road kill deer eaten in a manner consistant with coyotes in the Scotch Plains, Plainfield areas. If they are in these towns, they are everywhere.
One thing for sure, Mother Nature cleans up after herself.
Whether it is road kill cleaned up fast or Really Really fat rats right at the WTC site right after 911 she will clean it up pronto.
Anyone seeing signs posted around the neighborhood asking :
Have you seen my cute dog..." Muffin " ?
Coyotes love muffins for Breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
Coyote Attacks on Children
http://www.varmintal.net/attac.htm
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