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.
Since the sheeple of the PRNJ regularly elect nanny wussies who are much too frightened of allowing the citizens they represent to carry handguns, the coyotes may very well overcome. On the positive side, they do represent a possible solution to the deer "problem" and to the chronic overpopulation by small, expensive to educate childen
Last week I started taking my gun with me when I am outside. We live in the mountains and I know they were here first.
When I walk my dog at night, I carry a tear gas cannister, a very sharp knife and a weighted baton. The nannie wussies like Senator Loretta Wussie haven't yet made these illegal.
We have a cabin in Potter County PA, right up against the New York state border, and we've been hearing coyote packs up there for several years, now. It is an eerie thing to hear them howling on a moonlit night...
We live down near Philadelphia, and I was startled to see a lone coyote in a relatively remote section of Valley Forge Park a couple of weeks ago - in broad daylight. I didn't think they had migrated this far. But we've had the odd bear get this far south in years gone by, so I guess it's possible.
I live in Nevada, prime coyote country. When Californians move in and buy a house on the edge of town, their "outdoor" cats quickly disappears--coyote dinner.
Coyotes have been seen in downtown Detroit. They are fairly common in the far western suburbs.
Along with a few Seahawks.
Sorry, couldnt resist,
That depends a lot on what sort of dog you have running outside. A mature southern Georgia "catch" dog has no problems (a variant of the American Bulldog).
Another animal that is rough on coyotes is a mule or a donkey. They'll stomp a coyote or a snake into the ground.
Coyotes can dang well be eradicated, just not in one night. Following this recipe about ten times over the course of a couple of weeks will work. Don't let up once you start. Bait them up at night with a tethered live chicken or two, an electronic rabbit squaller, some red spotlights and four or five buddies who are decent rifle shots and......
Oh wait. This is New Jersey.
"That depends a lot on what sort of dog you have running outside."
City dwellers that move to the new suburbs with their city raised and coddled pets is equivalent to a tethered live chicken, dead meat!
There is a fellow near me that catches coyotes in live traps, similar to those used by the dog wardens.
He baits them with a cat. He puts the cat in a small wire cage inside the larger cage.
Coyotes can't resist cats.
There is a fellow near me that catches coyotes in live traps, similar to those used by the dog wardens.
He baits them with a cat. He puts the cat in a small wire cage inside the larger cage.
Coyotes can't resist cats.
The feral cats have all disappeared as well. Lately the doves are starting to 'explode'. It's the coyotes I tell the neighbors so don't let fluffy or muffin outside unattended.
When my pug gets his excersize theres a .22 revolver in my pocket loaded with CB caps. Nice and quiet, won't penetrate an exterior wall, but they will penetrate coyote hide. Concealed carry is illegal here, but if I don't admit to carrying concealed there ain't much they can do about it.
Let 'em do ballistics on a varmint if'n they want to.
The most they can get me for is discharging a firearm in city limits and that's a misdemeanor. State law says I can kill an animal attacking a pet or livestock, so screw 'em.
L
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.
Considering that most coyotes aren't much bigger than foxes, I don't see how they're being treated as such a booger. I doubt that any coyote who encountered a human (an adult, anyway) would stay around very long.
In New Mexico I have never seen a coyote that would let you catch their eyes with yours for over a half-second. A split second later, if you were lucky, all you would see was a small dustdevil fast moving away from you a hundred yards out.
Muleteam1
15 lbs is big for a red fox. 12 lbs is more like it. They look larger because they have a lot of hair and the hair fluffs.
A coyote that is equivalent to the 15 lb. red fox will weight 40 lbs.
But equally signigicant, the red fox is a loner. Except when the vixen is teaching her cubs to hunt or during breeding season, you will almost never see two fox toghether.
Coyotes on the other hand will pack up into large packs. Four or more 40 lb agressive animals with long sharp teeth can do a lot of damage.
Also fox are afraid of almost everything. Coyotes are much more clever about what they can get away with.
I hear coyotes here almost every night. And so long as they don't bother our cats (coyotes most definitely do eat small household pets) then I don't mind them. I'm thrilled to see almost any wild animal (with the couple of exceptions mentioned above). I think it would be thrilling to see a bobcat sometime.
The coyotes we have here in central Alabama are considerably larger than a fox. In fact, some of them are way more than 40 pounds. I have a feeling that they are cross breeding with wolf hybrids that people let loose. We shot one last year that was 70 pounds. It was definitely a coyote. They reek havoc with livestock. I've got two Great Danes to watch after me when I'm outside doing chores.
It is quite possible that they are some kind of hybrid, or perhaps coyotes just grow larger than I have assumed. But my old college biology professor has also described coming suddenly on a coyote while walking (it was catching grasshoppers), and if he considered himself in any danger he didn't indicate it.
So your an animal lover huh? How 'bout squirrels? Coyotes love them too! Rabbits? Coyotes love them. Wild turkeys? Yep, coyotes really, really, love them. Their eggs too. Ducks? You guessed it coyotes love them. I could go on.
I'm from Alabama, lived here all my life. Hunted all my life from 8 yrs on. Never saw a coyote till about 20 yrs ago. Let these critters move in to an area and don't control them and there goes your game. Don't think they'll take down a deer? Think again. EVERYONE who hunts anything HATES coyotes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.