Wild Life in Our Life

Word comes round that gunshots have been heard and that it may be people shooting coyotes in Point Roberts. Certainly possible; there are plenty of coyote around and doubtless people with guns, as well as people who don’t feel kindly toward coyotes. Coyotes are not considered game animals in Washington, but you do need a license to hunt or trap them, unless the coyote are causing damage to crops or domestic animals on your property . In the latter case, you can trap or exterminate them without a license.

When I lived in Los Angeles, we had a cat who was killed/eaten by coyote and it was not uncommon to hear and even see coyotes walking down the streets of West Los Angeles, coming down from the hills to the north. I hear them occasionally here on the Point and less frequently have seen them. Our neighbors have lost chickens to coyotes, but their chickens run around on the unfenced lawn, so that is not surprising, and several people I know have had cats disappear. The conclusion is that they met up with local coyote.

It’s a little hard to imagine people shooting coyote on local streets, in the same way that it would be difficult to imagine people shooting coyotes on the streets of Los Angeles. Not so densely populated here, but still, this is hardly hunting land. We have deer, too, but I don’t think anybody would think it was okay to shoot/hunt them here since when seen they are usually in someone’s backyard.

I don’t have small pets or small children or sheep or cattle or goats, so I’ve got nothing at stake in this dispute between people and wildlife, but it does seem to me that people tend to think that wildlife ought always to defer to people. It’s like, ‘Well now I want to live here, so you have to move someplace else.’ But exactly where are the coyotes on Pont Roberts to move to? Richmond? Vancouver?

Up on the Sunshine Coast, where we have a plentiful supply of bears as well as coyote and cougar (and deer), there is a steady public education program encouraging people to learn to live with the wildlife by NOT encouraging wildlife to get too friendly with people, too used to hanging around people. The same advice goes for coyote. They’re less likely to be a problem to people if people are not encouraging them to come around houses. According to the Washington wildlife people, don’t leave pet food outdoors (including food for feral cats), don’t feed the coyote, don’t leave small pets out at night, don’t leave fruit lying on the ground when it ripens because coyotes eat fruits and vegetables as well as meat prey. With bears, you can’t even leave fruit on the tree, but coyote happily are not capable of getting up in the tree as the bear can.

I grew up in a hunting household, but not in a ‘varmint’ hunting household so I can’t really understand the impulse to shoot coyotes just because you don’t like having them around. If they’re a problem, the wildlife people will come and trap them or deal with them otherwise. That would be my response. But it at least appears that others here may feel differently. Of course, when the coyote are gone, we can then rage about the way that rabbits, mice and other rodents are eating all of our whatevers. Coyote keep those populations in check, doing some excellent work for us. Think Aristotle, think moderation, think reasoned responses.