Urban howling? Might be coyotes

Here in the Natural State we live with wildlife, even in the cities. Among the most unlikely residents are coyotes.

There have been confirmed sightings, even in downtown Little Rock. Since coyotes are very secretive, the spotting of three or four flashing by as they cross a street indicates several dozen, in various neighborhoods, are roaming our capital city.

The idea of coyotes running across parking lots in Arkansas cities seems out of character. Or is it?

Our state is very rural. A late-night drive through even the most urban areas will vividly demonstrate that wildlife lives right outside our doorsteps.

Raccoons, opossums, foxes, squirrels, rabbits, skunks, and several hundred varieties of birds can be found within the confines of our cities. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that a natural predator of these small animals would follow them into the heart of urban Arkansas. That is one of the ways Mother Nature balances our ecosystem, and if the supply of food continues to be available, the coyotes will multiply.

Coyotes are smart and know to avoid humans, and for city animal control departments to try and trap or shoot them is probably above their pay level. The coyotes are here to stay, and we’re not going to make a dent in their population with tranquilizer darts or shotguns. As long as they have abundant food, they will be part of our urban environment. They may pick off a fawn or two, but they aren’t a threat to the overall deer population.

One hundred years ago, very few coyotes were found in our state. However, after our grandfathers eliminated red wolves and cougars—the coyotes’ natural enemies—they began to fill this environmental vacuum.

It may surprise you that wolves control the coyote population; that’s what game biologists found out when wolves were restocked in Yellowstone.

I don’t believe we are going to see the restocking of the red wolf or the cougar in sufficient numbers to affect our coyote population anytime soon, so we must accept coyotes as an integral part of our state’s natural surroundings and cities’ wildlife.

Any species that has abundant food and an absence of predators in a natural ecosystem will increase in numbers until enough predators control them or their food supply runs out.

As long as our cat, rat, small dog, and raccoon population stays the same or increases in the urban environment, the coyotes will be around. Although some may consider them undesirable, they fit into a link in the ecosystem.

Consider this: A fly, which is a pest to you, is dinner to a frog. In nature, everything is connected and has a purpose.

Coyotes seem to have one enemy: the automobile. While walking along the U.S. 167 bypass in El Dorado a couple of weeks back, I spotted a large dead coyote in a ditch. It was big enough that for a minute I thought it might have been a wolf.

Should we be concerned about our cities’ infestation of coyotes? Not at all. They are no threat to humans, not even small children. If you are a slow, fat house cat, that’s another matter. Other potential dinner options for coyotes are opossums, raccoons, rabbits, rats and small dogs.

A while back, I read where a Beverly Hills socialite was in her backyard with Mitsi, her miniature French poodle puppy, when a coyote hopped over a low hedge, snapped up Mitsi, and cleared the hedge again as the lady screamed.

On the positive side of the environmental equation, for every stray cat a coyote eats in a year, 100 more songbirds will survive. And just think of how many rats, opossums and raccoons that scavenge through our garbage each night will become coyote meals.

I can live with the coyotes that patrol our city streets. In fact, I could use a hungry one right now to thin out stray cats hanging around my bird feeder and to reduce the ’coon family under my deck.

Here’s another example of living with nature: Over the last few months a great blue heron has been a regular visitor to our one-acre backyard pond. We frequently see the heron standing motionless in the shallow water at the back of the pond waiting for a fish to swim by.

However, we have a problem. The heron has found another pool of water that is easy pickings. It’s in our courtyard, from which the bird has made off with two koi weighing about a pound each.

I’m working like crazy to come with something that will frighten the bird away. A shotgun is not on the list. Great blue herons are protected by state and federal law, which makes it illegal to capture or kill them without a permit.

Chief Seattle said it best: “All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”