coyotes: cockroaches of the dog world (in a good way)

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/21/HOGVER23311.DTL

 

Coyote killing an uncalled-for reaction

 

Jerry George

 

Saturday, July 21, 2007

 

 

No, I will not make nice. Not this time.

 

Killing the Golden Gate Park coyotes was callous and unnecessary.

 

It was a reflex, like squishing the life out of a mosquito as it

bites, not the kind of considered, reasoned decision we have a right

to demand from those whose salaries we pay with our tax dollars.

 

Officials have been killing coyotes since European Americans first set

eyes on the wily ones. It's like the doctor hitting your knee with a

rubber hammer. Say " coyote " to a rangeland manager, and his

trigger finger twitches.

 

Just because killing is what officials do to coyotes is no excuse.

This time, the killing was in San Francisco, the city named for St.

Francis, the patron saint of animals. The U.S. Department of

Agriculture and we both know it wasn't needed.

 

There was no demonstrated clear and present danger presented by the

coyote's behavior. All three incidents occurred within 100 feet of one

another. Coyotes are wanderers, but this pair was staying in one place

and apparently defending it. Did anyone wonder why?

 

These coyotes were not defending feeding territory, as alleged, and

the killing " officials " know that. The coyote behavior was

absolutely normal for a pair defending a den. The " attack "

on the Rhodesian ridgeback, whether or not it was really leashed, was

a nip. It was: " Don't mess with my kids, dude! " When a

coyote intends grievous harm to an animal larger than itself, it goes

for the throat.

 

The bite is easily explained and did not portend a real danger.

 

Officials were quick to point out that the female was not lactating,

as if that somehow proved that there were no pups. Sorry. Coyotes

usually give birth to between five and 10 pups in April and May. Even

if this couple's pups were born in the last part of May, they would be

6 weeks old.

 

The park coyote female would have nursed in the den for two weeks, at

most, until the pups' eyes were open. When the pups were able to

emerge from the den to play and start learning the business of being

coyotes, Mom and Pop would have begun feeding the brown, dark-eyed,

puppy-toothed little ones regurgitated food at the mouth of the den.

That's the drill, and everyone who works with coyotes knows it.

 

Painful as it is for me to say this, too much points to the existence

of pups for me to believe that there weren't any and not to believe

that they too were quietly removed from Golden Gate Park.

 

Coyote eradication has been the official policy of the U.S. Department

of Agriculture in one form or another for as long as there's been such

a department of government. Coyotes have been futilely shot, poisoned,

trapped and exploded in such a hideous and inhumane manner that it

seems more motivated by some misguided revenge than range

management.

 

And guess what: There are more coyotes spread over a larger area of

North America than ever.

 

Coyotes are the cockroaches of the dog world. When the last wolf has

howled, there will still be coyotes thriving and baying at the moon.

Coyotes are adaptable. That's why they've survived nearly two

centuries of official and unofficial effort to kill them off. That's

why, despite dire predictions that they would be eliminated by the

reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone, they are still very much a

part of that park's ecosystems.

 

So what now? Coyotes have shown they can find their way to Golden Gate

Park and elsewhere in the city of St. Francis. Will the other coyotes

be hunted down like the ones in Golden Gate Park? What of any future

wild canid visitors to the park? We're told that there's been a coyote

visiting the Presidio for eight years, that one has wandered as far as

Daly City and back in a day, and that another lives on Bernal

Heights.

 

I don't pose these questions trivially.

 

Oregon cattle rancher Dalton Hyde began what he called ecological

range management 30 years ago. He raised free-ranging coyotes along

with his cattle. The coyotes kept the mice under control without

bothering his cattle. His pastures improved to the point that he

outproduced his neighbors acre for acre.

 

San Francisco is not a cattle ranch, but it is significantly overrun

with rats and mice. Maybe coyotes can help control the city's rodents.

North America's coyotes have shown that eradication doesn't work. We

may kill off individuals, but the coyotes will keep on coming.

 

I reckon it's time we learned to live with coyotes. What better place

than right here, right now?

 

Freelance writer " Digger'' Jerry George sends his journal

" letters'' home to the Bay Area from wherever he happens to be

observing nature. E-mail him at home.

 

This article appeared on page F - 1 of the

San Francisco Chronicle