Scream “ahhhhhhh!”
That’s one suggestion to scare off a coyote, said Manatee County naturalist Lisa Hickey.
That’s also the response of some frustrated Cortezians who say coyotes are preying on domestic pets and feral cats.
Residents of the fishing village and other nearby communities gathered Dec. 9 at the Florida Maritime Museum in Cortez to discuss with county and state wildlife experts what appears to be a growing coyote population.
Village resident Linda Molto, who has reported the loss of cats to coyotes, moderated the 90-minute meeting.
About 50 people packed the former schoolhouse to listen to representatives from Florida Fish and Wildlife and the Manatee County Extension Office, but also to voice their grievances and express their fears about coyotes roaming back yards, parking lots and wooded areas.
Sometimes people shouted from the audience, asking whether there is anything government can do to control the coyotes.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Lt. Tom Ware said permits are issued to control the coyote population, generally to farmers and ranchers whose stock is being attacked.
Ware said he wasn’t aware of any trappers removing coyotes, but that the animals, introduced by hunters to the state in the 1920s for sport, are tracked and hunted.
The option of trapping and hunting coyotes intrigued some at the meeting, who wondered whether coyotes could be shot on the 100-acre Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage Preserve on the east side of Cortez.
Ware said that might be up to FISH, but he expressed a number of safety concerns about such a strategy.
A simpler response to the situation, which likely would yield more success, would be to eliminate what’s drawing coyotes into the village — water and food sources, officials said.
Coyotes, like raccoons, eat what they can find and go for the easiest food source.
With development boxing coyotes into residential neighborhoods, the easiest food source can be garbage and small pets, said Hickey.
“Coyotes are very intelligent animals,” Hickey said. “But also very lazy. They will go for the easiest meal first — pets and feral cats. And that’s why you are seeing them in this community.”
Hickey said she received a call last week from a woman who witnessed a coyote attack her small dog, which had been let outside at about 5 a.m.
Florida, Hickey said, has a leash law that helps pet owners control their animals, as well as protect their animals.
Hickey also stressed that coyotes — about as big as a medium-sized collie — generally fear humans, and can be scared off with a wave of the arms or a scream. If not, she cautioned, the animal might be sick.
About 18 months ago, Hickey said residents in the Palma Sola area reported a problem with coyotes that had possibly moved into neighborhoods during the construction of Robinson Preserve.
Residents committed to removing food and water sources and the problem seemed to subside.
Several representatives from wildlife organizations said keeping domestic pets indoors and on leashes while working to control the feral cat population was the best solution to the problem.
Shooting coyotes might actually result in an increased population, said Becky Pomponio of Project Coyote. As some animals are put down, that creates an opportunity for more to move in from outside the range.
“If you hunt and trap, you will increase their numbers,” Pomponio said. “If you disperse their families by randomly killing them, you are going to end up with more coyotes.”
Plus, dogs and cats prey on native wildlife, said Pomponio, Manatee County Audubon Society representative Nancy Dean and Wildlife Inc. co-founder Gail Straight.
Without free-roaming pets “we wouldn’t have a problem with coyotes, and I wouldn’t have a freezer full of animals your cats ripped apart,” Straight said.
“Cats are supposed to be on a leash,” Dean said, reporting that domestic cats are responsible for the extinction of 33 species of birds in the United States and the death of a billion birds a year.
The most vocal residents in the audience, however, seemed resistant to leashing pets or keeping their cats indoors.
Plus, they remained concerned about how to protect the village’s feral cats and boasted that the cats help with rodent control.
“Those cats keep the mouse population down,” a woman shouted from the audience.
“So do coyotes,” Hickey replied.
At the conclusion of the meeting, there was a consensus to document coyote sightings in the area and to disseminate information in the village about coyote behavior.
Coyote conflicts
What attracts coyotes to residential areas? Food, shelter and water.
So animal experts recommend:
• Avoid feeding animals outside.
• Remove outside water bowls.
• Never compost fish scraps or meat.
• Keep trash in closed containers.
• Remove fallen fruit.
• Keep domestic pets indoors and, when outdoors, keep them on leashes.
What should a person do when facing a coyote?
• Yell or make another noise.
• Stand tall and wave arms.
• Do not run away.
Are coyotes a threat to people?
• Hardly ever. Incidents of coyotes attacking people are rare. There has been one human, a 3-year-old child, killed by a coyote. By comparison, domestic dogs kill as many as 30 people a year in the United States.
Sources: The Humane Society of the United States, Manatee County Extension Service