After reading the title of my column
you may think that I'm about to embark on one of those
coyote-bashing articles. Not so. Nothing raises my ire more
than a so-called sportsman calling for the extermination of
any animal species, particularly for selfish reasons like
that it eats meat.
Not too long ago I watched a leader of
one Maine's sportsman's groups espouse efforts to eradicate
the coyote from the Pine Tree State. As they teach in
college debate classes, he resorted to attacking the
emotional throat instead of using fact. To those educated in
the art, this is also the tactic used to retreat when you'd
lose the argument by citing supportable truths.
So let me set the coyote fact record
straight, using his points.
Emotional Attack One:
Do we
have to wait before one of our children is killed by a
coyote before we do something?
Virtual World Answer:
Would anybody
really fall for this one? What an insult to human logic.
In
the United States, from 1979 to 1999, pet dogs caused 300
human deaths (Source: Discover Magazine, June 1999). By the
way, just this year the rottweiler surpassed the pit bull in
this grisly category. I can only find one human death ever
attributed to a coyote. Coyotes pose as much risk as your
grandmother's miniature poodle.
Emotional Attack Two:
Coyotes
will prey on livestock and pets.
Virtual World Answer:
I will partially
concede this one, but what I would like to point out, as I
say in my virtual job as a city detective, "There's two sides
to everything no matter how thin the sheet of paper."
Most of Maine's domestic ruminants are the larger beef and
dairy stock. A large family pack of big-bodied Eastern
coyotes would be hard pressed to take down a healthy
500-pound Holstein. There are isolated calve and sheep
losses, but so few that when it happens its big news. Most
of Maine's livestock is close to home, so the predation is
not as problematic as in the free-range west.
As for our pets, suffice it to say
cats are a smorgasbord meal for coyotes. If you really care
about the environment your cats shouldn't be roaming afield
anyways. If your cat becomes a coyote meal or is flattened
by a car its your fault--not the canine's menu or driver's
error.
The coyote is an equal opportunity
feeder, even thinning out smaller predators that prey on
songbirds and duck eggs. For every 100 
households
there are 35 cats, with each wastefully killing an average
of 15 birds and 24 rodents a year. Just these 100 homes
account for 525 bird and 840 rodent deaths annually. That
only tallies those wantonly destroyed and brought home by
the family feline. How many times have we heard someone
claiming bragging rights over their kitty's hunting prowess,
citing numbers of carry-out rabbits or robins brought home
to waste on the lawn.
Emotional Attack 3:
Have you
ever seen a coyote deer kill? It's sickening.
Virtual World Answer:
In my career as
a cop, and as a sportsman and meat eater, I can witness to
you that any death scene is appalling, whether human on
human, human on animal, animal on animal or mechanical
conveyance on human or animal. Alternatively, imagine a
butcher shop, a successful sportsman's gut pile, lowly
poachers multiple entrails piles, free-roaming dog-deer
kills (ala kitty in EA 2 above), starvation or a car struck
game animal, blood and guts are not a pleasant
sight.
A friend of mine showed me pictures of
three coyote-killed deer he found while snowmobiling on a
several-mile stretch of the frozen West Branch of the
Mattawamkeag River in the Haynesville Woods region of
Aroostook. He was quite concerned that the three partially
eaten deer were abandoned. No wild animal in the winter is
out to kill for fun. Winter starvation losses effect both
carnivore and herbivore as they struggle to exist in the
cold and snow. Conserving energy and absorbing energy is
important. We humans store food in our pantries for later
use after a fall garden harvest or slaughter of a pig or
steer, so too does the coyote. Just like bowser, who will
bury a bone for later use, or a squirrel stocking nuts for
the winter, so will the coyote.
By reviewing the tracks by those
downed deer on the river, I'm sure that other carnivorous furbearers, bald eagles, and ravens were thankful for the
meal that may have meant life for them. Nature knows what
its doing, having perfected it for eons before man came into
the picture and cut down the deer yards that once protected
the whitetail. This easily protected loss of winter habitat
has devastated the deer herd more than the accumulated
coyote, free-roaming dog pack, car kills or sport hunting
ever did.
Emotional Attack 4:
If coyotes
are not annihilated from the Pine tree State the deer heard
will be decimated.
Virtual World
Answer: In 1936 the
Eastern coyote's presence was first recorded in Maine.
They
are not natives to this state, immigrating and establishing
a foothold as man exterminated the wolf and mountain lion,
and later depleted the lynx and bobcat populations that left
a large predator niche to be naturally filled. The coyote
appeared, and like it or not they are here to stay. Over the
last decade our state's coyote population has increased
while Maine's deer herd has skyrocketed. A coyote hater
would be hard pressed to convince me that this wild dog is
having a detrimental impact when the numbers convincingly
indicate otherwise.
There may be some ground gained in the
argument when focused on Aroostook County where the winters
are much more severe that in southern parts of the state,
and yarding deer are more susceptible to coyote predation.
I
would like to remind readers that before the coyote arrived,
when there were sufficient deer yards in The County, the
whitetail thrived with fantastic hunter success rates
despite the competition from numerous indigenous venison
predators.
Does the coyote need specialized
control measures to keep it in balance and protect our deer
herd because the whitetail can't adequately protect
themselves due to winter habitat destruction? An emphatic,
yes!
In next month's issue, part two of
this series will explain how sportsmen can help control
coyote populations and enjoy the hunting challenge this
cunning canine presents. I will explain the Department of
Inland Fisheries and Wildlife's position, and will take you
in the woods with a professional snarer.
____________
