On May 2, 5:15*pm, Cheryl wrote:
On 2012-05-02 6:33 PM, Dan M wrote:

Hoomin note: Sara lived in San Diego and there were a lot of pets killed
by coyotes. One day she looked out the window and three coyotes were
coming into the yard. She yelled to her husband to get the dogs in and
then watched in horror as Sashi shook one coyote like a rat and left it
dead and drove the other two off.

I try to be understanding of all wildlife's place in the ecology, and I
do understand about wild creatures being forced into urban areas by loss
of habitat, but even so I have little love for coyotes. They do far too
much damage to small animals (including domestic cats) and too few
natural enemies.

Dan

As far as I can make out, the coyotes aren't being forced anywhere;
they're perfectly happy to move into new environments like cities, and
are extremely adaptable and so do well!! None of the new eastern
habitats - wild or urban - are coyote territory, but as they moved east,
they found lots and lots of places with no top predator and plenty of
dinner on the hoof or paw. They wouldn't have found it so easy moving in
here if we still had wolves (although some people say the two species
can interbreed). As it is, the only other big predators on the island
are bears, which don't target quite the same food sources, and lynx,
which are not so numerous and very shy of humans, so there are lots of
places lynx won't live. Places with moose, caribou (and most especially
their young), hares, small rodents - and cats and dogs.

These coyotes killed a hiker in Cape Breton a couple of years ago.
People remember that even when the local expert says that cities all
over the continent live peacefully with coyotes.

Oh, they _can_ interbreed with wolves and there is plenty of genomic
evidence that they have in the past. However, wolves are very good at
thinning out coyote populations and preventing coyote migration into
their territory. The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone and
nearby areas was a tragedy for coyotes. They have to lay very low
because wolves will run them down relentlessly and kill them. On other
occasions, the same wolves will ignore coyotes but coyotes can't count
on it.

Sashi would not have had much luck with wolves.

--
Will in New Haven