Coyotes Are Colonizing Cities. Step Forward the Urban Hunter.

New York Times ^ | 12/26/17 | Simon Romero

[x1stcav]

Dennis Murphy sniffed the bobcat urine he uses to lure his prey. He checked the silencer on his AR-15 assault rifle and loaded a few snares into his Ford pickup.

“Let’s go kill some coyotes,” he said.

But he wasn’t heading for the wilderness. Mr. Murphy’s stalking ground is on the contentious new frontier where hunters are clashing with conservationists: cities and suburbs.

Coyotes are largely associated with their ancestral bastions in the wild lands of the American West, but they are highly adaptable, and in recent years they have been colonizing large population centers throughout North America. The hunters have come after them, stalking the predators in settings like strip mall parking lots, housing tract cul-de-sacs, and plazas in the shadow of skyscrapers.

The growing popularity of urban hunting is igniting a fierce debate over the perils and benefits coyotes pose in populated areas, and whether city dwellers ought to adapt to living alongside a cunning predator that has thrived since one of its top adversaries, the gray wolf, has been all but wiped out in much of the continent.

[VietVet876]

Nah. Cats are pussies.

[Freedom56v2]

Wow...that is scary that could happen there!!

[Fireone]

Agreed, I harvest 5, or more coyotes every winter, right in my barnyard. Ruger 10/22 is my weapon of choice.

[anton]

Yep. That’s the tool.

[truth_seeker]

In Orange County California, the population has grown from less than 200,000 n 1950 to over 3 million now.

It is a relatively small area, which has resulted in increasingly densely populated areas, in place of once open space or farmland and orchards.

At some point around 10 years ago, the coyotes must have run out of remaining areas to retreat into, decided to advance back into areas they once roamed.

Dining on cats is not that bad of a life. Coyotes are very fast, very strong. They easily jump barriers. The attack cats so quickly the prey never makes a sound.

[Mastador1]

In 2013 a coyote grabbed a two year old child that was visiting a gravesite with her mother at Forest Lawn Cypress,CA. and tried to drag her into the bushes.

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Coyote-Bites-Drags-Toddler-at-OC-Cemetery-216600781.html And then in 2016

https://www.ocregister.com/2016/10/13/6-year-old-boy-attacked-by-coyote-while-playing-in-irvine-park/

While Irvine Park is a regional park and is surrounded by large tracts of open hills, Forest Lawn in Cypress is surrounded by residential communities. The coyotes are smart and have easily adapted and are reclaiming what man took.

[Bellflower]

I am wondering if I have a badger in my city yard. I saw it in the dark. It wasn’t a raccoon, skunk, prairie dog or any other animal that I could recognize, except it might have been a badger. Maybe not too. I will keep an eye out for it to see what it is, if I see it again.

[Bellflower]

I think that people in general need to be educated as to how to protect their pets in cities that have wild animals which may be dangerous to pets and possibly even to children. My neighbors don’t seem to be very aware of the possible dangers of wild animals in the neighborhood.