Humans need to change perspective, experts say
In the past week and a half, three children were bitten by coyotes in Montreal, leading the city to release a statement saying it would take action “on the presence of coyotes on Montreal’s territory.”
Should Montrealers be alarmed? The Montreal Gazette spoke with three animal experts about coyotes and other wildlife on the island. They say that when it comes to building a peaceful relationship between humans and other animals, it’s people who should be the first to change their attitudes and behaviours.
“We are living on their territory. We have to share our space with them,” said Kawisente Carole McGregor, a Mohawk elder of the Bear Clan in Kahnawake.
McGregor leads workshops on people’s connection with the land through the organization Coyote Programs.
Coyotes travel from place to place looking for food, McGregor said, and the territories they traverse cross human-made boundaries like yards and fences.
“We are cutting down their forests, we are polluting their water sources, we are taking away their food sources and their habitat because of development,” McGregor said.
McGregor calls Kahnawake a “haven” for wild animals because the community has tried to maintain its swamps, bushes, wild flowers and forests.
When it comes to staying safe around other species, McGregor said people need to remember that animals are wild. Respect them by keeping a distance, McGregor said, and keep children close when animals could be nearby.
Chris Grabas works with Skedaddle, a company that seeks to remove wildlife from people’s properties in a humane way. Grabas says wildlife has always been on the island of Montreal; he regularly sees deer from his home in Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles. Grabas cites one main reason more media and political attention is paid to the issue — and it isn’t obvious booms in populations.
“With technology and social media, everyone has access to a phone today. They take a photo, post it up with the location, and then everybody starts to think ‘coyote in my neighbourhood’ and panic,” Grabas said.
Moving coyotes off the island is not a viable option, Grabas said, because coyotes have broad territories and travel quickly. They will simply find their way back, he said.
Coyotes play an essential role in Montreal’s ecosystem, said Grabas, because they are predators who eat squirrels, groundhogs, mice, raccoons and “rats if they’re not too subterranean.” By dragging roadside carcasses into nearby woods and feasting, they also provide a natural roadkill cleanup service, he said.
Coyotes are adaptable and very bright, said Jacques Dancosse, a biologist and researcher who works at the Montréal Biodôme. Their resilience in Montreal owes to their ability to “adapt to opportunities offered by humans, and they get used to humans very easily,” Dancosse said. Essential to their adaptation are the city’s natural parks, like Bois-de-Liesse and Cap-Saint-Jacques, where Dancosse said Montrealers can see foxes, beavers and even otters. The canines may regard a youngster differently from an adult, he said, but it isn’t necessarily “that they want to make a meal” of the child.
One of the best things we can do to avoid animal encounters is to never feed them, Dancosse said. Feeding animals has become commonplace, Dancosse said, but even giving bread to ducks can be detrimental to their health.
Dancosse lives in St-Joseph-duLac, about 50 kilometres west of Montreal, and takes pride in the coexistence of humans, spiders and skunks on his property. “I think we’ve lost our connection with nature,” he said. “They ’re able to cope with us, we should be able to cope with them,” said Grabas.