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.
You remember those times also, I see. We even had a bounty on cougars, bobcats and CROWS ! I think the crows were $0.15 each. I can't remember, was it $25 or $50 per mountain lion?
Nam Vet
San bernardino County had a 5 cent bounty on blue jays and I used to shoot them with a .22 for target practice and the bounty paid for the amunition!
" can't remember, was it $25 or $50 per mountain lion?"
In the mid 50s a kid I went to college with paid his way through school shooting mountain lion. He would go to No. Calif. every Friday with his dogs and horse and almost always got one and sometimes 2. The bounty then was $90 for a male and $110 for a female.
If I remember right the bounty on coyotes was $5 and $15 for bobcats.
Might add that was a lot of money back then, gas was 15 cents a gallon and $1,500 would buy you a new car.
Nam Vet
Nam Vet
Varmint Al is a long time freeper if you didn't know.
Passaic, Sussex, Bergen and Rockland(NY) counties have pretty large numbers of coyotes. I've seen a few within 9 miles of the Hudson River on the NJ side. The coyotes aren't much of a problem though, outside of small pet snatching. People are more concerned that some of the wild dogs that live near those ridges in Passaic and Bergen counties will breed with the coyotes and start a 50/50 hybrid coydog population. It's also not out of the question that the wild dogs aren't eating some of those missing pets.
I haven't seen a red fox in several years though. I think they've been eradicated by development and the coyotes.
Naah, you were there first. Coyotes don't live 20 years especially if you put some lead to them. When you go out, don't just take your gun, use it. Yorkies, cats and other small animals are delicacies for coyote.
Stop. Don't run. Stand still,
But the rest should read: "Take careful aim, midway in the rib cage is usually effective. Squeeze the trigger with increasing force, don't jerk it. Cycle the action/reload, and repeat as necessary. "
Those calves are the cowman's means of making a living. Start losing a 'few' to anything, and there will be action taken to stop the loss.
Several years ago, the wife of a local judge was out walking her small dog at the park, unleashed. A very large bird, possibly an owl or hawk made a pass at her dog. I don't recall if the bird was successful or not. While hunting, I've been surprised by the speed and stealth of owls and hawks that seem to come out of nowhere and snatch the slower squirrels.
About a year ago, in Marquette, MI, a teenaged boy was walking home after his four-wheeler quit on him. Coyotes began stalking him. One was bold enough to get close enough for him to whack it with his helmet.
While in his stand during late bow season, my brother-in-law observed a red fox climb a blow-down that had hun up in other trees. Whitetails were in the area. The fox waited until a deer walked below him, jumped onto the deer's back and began to bite at the base of the deer's neck. The deer shook him off and ran off.
Thanks!
I have had a pair of coyotes living next to me here in Chappaqua for several years.. I abut a large wetland property. I see them about once month, usually in the early morning...I've named them Bill & Hillary....BTW..they do well here because of the exploding deer population..
Heard the eco-terrorist Dave Foreman preach at a local university several years ago. Foreman told the audience about introducing black-footed ferrets into an area. He said with a smile that peoples cats were disappearing from that area at an high rate, alarming to pet owners, but obviously pleasing to Foreman.
You are describing the cycle of life, animals doing what they were born to do. Keeping the rodent population down, thinning herds, picking off the weak ones.
Much ado. I had lots of coyotes running all over my land when I lived in NW Connecticut. They're a danger to pets and live stock, but they're pretty cowardly when it comes to people. My neighbors have been in that area for as many as 40 years, and no one (that I've talked with) has ever heard of a human being being attacked. Chickens and cats, yes, but not people.
check out #72
Contrary to the beliefs of the erudite thinkers of the left, most hunters aren't just in the sport to kill things randomly or the NJ season for coyote would do just fine. In fact, there are very few people who participate relative to Deer and Turkey which you can eat, or Bear which has a good hide.
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.