Coyotes give New York police the runaround
BRITONS who complain of the blight of urban foxes can console themselves that at least they don’t have New York’s current unwelcome visitors – coyotes.
The wild dog, a close relative of the grey wolf, has even been spotted among the skyscrapers of Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
Following a spate of coyote attacks on people in the suburbs, police took no chances and launched a three-hour chase for the interloper, calling in helicopters to help in the search.
But the officers, armed with tranquilliser guns, eventually gave up their pursuit and the wily creature disappeared into woods on Manhattan’s Riverside Drive.
Around 15 coyotes have already set up home in the New York borough of The Bronx.
Last week, police caught another coyote near a church in the Manhattan neighbourhood of Chelsea.
They have also been seen in Greenwich Village, marooned on the roof of a bar in the borough of Queens and lurking in the Bronx garden of Steven Spielberg’s sister.
Nancy Spielberg called police one morning after she saw the coyote staring menacingly through the window at her pet poodle, Rambo.
Coyote sightings in and around New York are rising, and experts say it is because – as with the fox in Britain – they are leaving their traditional rural habitat for the easy food pickings of suburbs and cities.
As the city builds more parks, coyotes are moving into them and mainly subsisting off rabbits and rats. They have no natural predators and park officials have previously considered them useful in keeping down rodent numbers.
Coyotes – which are about as big as a large family dog – typically only approach humans if they are sick, say experts.
But attempts by conservationists to reassure New Yorkers that they are perfectly safe have been thwarted by recent incidents where rabid coyotes have attacked people.
At the weekend, a coyote bit a man while he was walking his dog in Norwood, New Jersey, 15 miles from New York City. He is having anti-rabies injections.
Two weeks earlier, a rabid coyote attacked a man as he worked in his garden in another New Jersey suburb. He was also given anti-rabies injections.
Police have started setting coyote traps. If caught, non-rabid animals are taken out of the city and released into the wild.
Coyote experts warn that New Yorkers had better get used to the sight of coyotes because they are spreading throughout the city and breeding rapidly.