human intervention | Coyote Yipps

Human Interference/Interactions with Coyotes

The Moraga/Lafayette coyote (or see PDF) we’ve all heard about and which is still on many people’s minds, should be seen as a strange anomaly: a single coyote apparently inflicting five bites over an 8 month period — something of this dimension has has not been heard of before. More than likely, there was human involvement in the way of hand-feeding and friendly interactions which may be at the core of what went on. A handful of innocent coyotes were put down before the “culprit” was identified. In other words, innocent animals were condemned. But also, even the “culprit” was simply following through on a trajectory initiated by humans.

I was sent the photographs below, along with a note from the photographer, in February of 2009 but I never published them because I found them very disturbing. Now might be the time to finally get them out there. And here is a video of a human playfully taunting and encouraging interaction with a coyote — the author calls it, “Coyote Attack: Best Footage Ever,” — he obviously published this video for its effect. You just have to look at it to see the coyote isn’t attacking at all so much as being incited by the human doing the videoing — the coyote is not snarling nor in attack mode. The videoer is almost playing tug-of-war-with the coyote as he extends out his foot. When I recently heard of a coyote going up, grabbing and then pulling on an individual’s pant leg, these are the things I thought about. You have to ask yourself, why ever would a coyote do that unless he had been incited by someone to do that?

Interactions with humans are what may lead to what happened at Moraga/Lafayette. This along with an innate higher feistiness of a particular coyote. Please don’t hand-feed or interact with coyotes for their sake as well as for ours. Although it might seem as though these interactions are benign, and most of the time they are innocent, there’s a lot more going on than that initial interaction, and in the end, it’s not good for anyone involved: coyote or human.

click on the photos to enlarge them and scroll through them

Coyotes in Whistler, BC

I happened onto your site. I have had a few interactions with the critters and have a series of photos of one of them. Here is a description of the episode.

Coyotes at pit. My hand was attached to the fingers in the pic. This process took about 4 meetings. Only one was curious enough to get close, the other would only take a biscuit if I tossed it 30 feet from me. The curious one would come up (I had to be crouched, otherwise it would not come close) get close, sniff me and walk right around me.

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Hi ‘Coyotes in Whistler, BC’ —

Thanks for sharing your photos with me.

You know, I’m an advocate of coyotes and want people to know how to get along with them. One of the issues which comes up is feeding coyotes — especially hand-feeding them. This may cause them to eventually approach other people who are actually afraid of them. It could cause “demand behavior.” Those people end up reporting “aggressive” and “dangerous” coyotes to the authorities, who then go out with guns to shoot them. So in fact, this kind of activity is discouraged by those of us who really like the animals.

I would love to post your photos and story on the blog, but it would be with the above advice, and that it is at the expense of the coyote that a person might engage in feeding them.

Please let me know if you would allow this. Thanks!! Janet

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Hi Janet —

I appreciate your advice and admonition.If you want to publish them as a bad example and it helps you get your point across, go ahead, it is a good cause.

More Infection From Tagging

These photos were taken in the Presidio of San Francisco on February 19th by EEHelton and posted in iNaturalist. The Presidio is the only place in San Francisco where tagging is done. This is an obvious example of an infected ear caused by tags. I know this female coyote who was perfectly fine only a month before these photos were taken — an infection can occur long after the tags are initially inserted. Human intervention of any kind causes the greatest harm to these animals. Human desire for information should never trump the the well-being of the animals themselves. Please, let’s leave the animals alone. What we want to know can be gleaned from simple observations.

Click on the images to enlarge and scroll through them.

I have already written extensively about Detrimental Effects of Radio-Collaring and tagging. Click on this link to read more.

Correspondence Update:

I wrote this to the ecologist who put on the tags: “I posted photos of Purple/Purple’s infected ear on my blog, and now I’ve received a torrent of emails asking 1) if she’s okay, 2) when was she attended to, 3) what was done about the infection. Could you please let me know these things so that I may pass this information on? Janet”

His response: “Unfortunately there is nothing that I can do unless she comes back into the Presidio and even then, the chances of being able to capture her is next to impossible. If for whatever reason ACC captured her (which wouldn’t happen) I’m sure they would tend to her injury.”

I wrote back: “Thanks for your prompt reply. This is beyond upsetting: I was absolutely sure you were on top of this and had fixed it by now. It’s been a full month since those photos were taken — she must be in horrible pain. You put those gadgets on the animal, and having done so, you are responsible for the harm those gadgets are causing, and now it’s really up to you to fix the harm. You are the only person, having radio-collared her, who can find her and re-capture her. It would be cruel for you not to do so ASAP. Who do you need “permission” from to do anything? Please let me know. Janet”

His response: “You’re right. We will do everything we can to capture her and treat her ear. I will reach out to ACC to see if there is any way they can help outside of the Presidio.”

I wrote back: “I heard back from ACC: they “have no plans to capture and treat any coyotes: their policy is not to interfere with wildlife” (which I generally agree with) unless it becomes incapacitated.”

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SO, NOTHING WAS DONE. I spoke to my wildlife veterinarian who said that after a month, the wound could have healed. I finally found this coyote: she’s been hunting and moving around and able to take care of herself, but I haven’t been close enough to assess her ear. If I’m able to do that, I’ll update this post.