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Living With Coyotes

2 the Outdoors: Living with Coyotes.

A recent rash of Coyote sightings in Congers, NY, a suburban community in Rockland County, has taught us, once again, the difference between perception and reality when it comes to wildlife.

The Eastern Coyote is common in New York - Western New Yorkers are used to seeing them. But they're relatively new to this small town north of New York City, and the sightings brought the typical uproar.

The coyotes were misrepresented as being "Coywolfs" - part wolf and therefore even more fearsome. The species may have had some wolf genes in them generations ago, but by now they've long been bred out.

"Any link they had to wolves when they came through to come to New York," explains NY DEC Wildlife Biologist Kevin Clarke, "that link has been bred out every generation they've been here, and like I said they've been here for 70 years. There are no wolves here left in New York for them to continue to breed with, so this whole Coywolf thing is really getting blown out of proportion."

Coyotes, like all Canids, are highly intelligent and very adaptable, which makes human encounters almost inevitable. Most of the time, says Wildlife Rehabilitator Robert Humbert, they go about their business unseen."They're there and you just don't see them. They don't want to be seen. They don't want to come by you, and anything you can do to make it look like man is around, they're gonna stay away. "

But occasionally they cross paths with man, and that's when things can get blown out of proportion.

Although Coyotes do kill small animals, and have been known to take domestic pets like cats and dogs, Clarke says attacks on humans are very unusual.

"You hear of incidents with Coyotes, but they're extremely rare. I mean for the number of Coyotes we have in this country, and the number of people we have, they're extremely rare. "

Coyotes aren't native to New York, they've migrated here since the 1930's from other parts of North America. They're here to stay now though, and we will have to learn to live with them, and them with us.

"We should just learn to live with them," says Humbert. "There's a way we can protect ourselves and a way we can protect our animals."

Clarke agrees, "Where they're not trapped and they're not hunted, there is no other mechanism to make them fear humans than us being aggressive toward them."

Humbert believes that the first step in our living with any wildlife is education, and that will lead to dispelling both fear and misinformation.

"Educate, educate, educate. Teach people that we have to take care of our planet, we have to take care of the other species that are here with us, and we should share it, and you know, and take some responsibility for what we do with our stuff, and how we act toward them."

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