The Northeast has a well-documented coyote infestation, but the problem has escalated and the predators are now migrating from rural and suburban settings to metropolitan centers.
As CBS New York reports, officials recently subdued a coyote in Manhattan’s Riverside Park after a pursuit that lasted several hours, employing tranquilizer guns to eventually capture the animal. (Watch the news report below.)
This is but one example of many such occurrences; New York provides a survey of coyote–human incidents in the big apple over the past five years, highlighting six reported cases. The most notable of these occurred in 2010, when, “Another [coyote] caught loitering at Chelsea Piers, evades tranquilizer-gun-wielding police, who corner her near a dog-free-lawn sign.”
And later that year: “Coyotes menace golfers on the Van Cortlandt Golf Course, chewing golf balls and mauling raccoons on the holes.”
These run-ins indicate the number of coyotes has grown so large in areas surrounding the city that they’ve strained their food supplies and habitats, forcing them to venture into densely populated neighborhoods in search of these dwindling resources. Urban settings offer predator-free environments for coyotes to scavenge, but as they grow increasingly desperate, they may endanger the people and domestic pets who live there.
New York state holds a six-month coyote-hunting season, so sportsmen should consider dropping a few to improve the local ecosystem and protect their fellow man and four-legged friends from these opportunistic predators.
Read more about NYC’s recent coyote incident here.
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