Coyote Tracker: San Francisco’s Uneasy Embrace of a Predator’s Return

Bay Nature ^ | January 02, 2018 | Kim Todd

[nickcarraway]

A neighborhood coyote, known for stealing newspapers off porches to play with, befriended the paper delivery man; he started throwing the coyote her own morning copy, keeping them both out of trouble with the customers.

[ifinnegan]

Coyotes are a bane.

They kill pets.

[Ciaphas Cain]

Coyotes are one species that deserves to go extinct. To hell with the animal rights nuts and environmentalists. If coyotes fulfill some vital role in the ecology, I have yet to hear of it.

[Sivad]

In my neck of the woods an outside pet cat has a relatively
short life expectancy. I read enough of the overly long
article to see what is on the urban coyote menu. It didn’t
mention pet cats that I could see but, then the urban
coyote is more of a sympathetic being if it doesn’t
chomp on the pets of city dweller readers.

[CurlyDave]

Around here, bullets are the preferred treatment for coyotes.

[easternsky]

Lost my Rooster to one last week, thought he had already bedded down when shut the pen. Killers they are

[mylife]

Return?

When did they leave? Bet they got rats and raccoons too.

[mylife]

They is what they is, Many plants would never propagate without them

They eat persimmons and the gut acid makes the seed viable.

Kill my chickens and you got to go.

[Slyfox]

They also scrape dead squirrels off the road at night when there is less traffic.

Ya didn't think that the city has a special guy to do that, did ya?

[Does so]

A special guy scraped a dead squirrel off my private road during the daytime. (Dead about ten minutes, during my return drive). It’s an area well-known for harboring fox dens.

[Pontiac]

If coyotes fulfill some vital role in the ecology, I have yet to hear of it.

I have noticed that since Coyotes moved in to my area I have been shooting fewer ground hogs during the summer.

I used to shoot at least two or three every summer.

Last year I shot one the year before none.

I would say there could be a correlation in those facts.

[rrrod]

Im in favor of coyotes over running San Francisco...

[KC_Conspirator]

You know when I read the title, my first reaction is that SF is embracing “coyotes” that do human trafficking, rape trees and all.

[Palio di Siena]

.243 works nicely.
sometimes 20 gauge rifled slugs.

[Badboo]

All wildlife have special niches in nature. The key mediator is how balance is maintained. Nature does a wonderful job, if left alone, at achieving population equilibrium between prey and predator. Unfortunately she works in a time frame far too distinct and sometimes lengthy for impatient humans to accept.

That being said, here in rural America we follow two rules, SoS - shoot on sight, and SS&SU - Shoot, shovel, and shut up.

As I get older, I don't like it. I feel bad now even taking a deer. But the reality is, at first sight of a nuisance on our small farm, the instinct kicks in. I move quickly and quietly to the door, grab the rifle which is always there, loaded, I exit, aim and fire.

Nature is beautiful and hard. As much as I love nature, I can’t escape it, neither can the ‘yotes.

[Fireone]

“..now that they’re back and predator slaughter is out of fashion..”
Really? When did that happen?

[exDemMom]

Perhaps, he writes, coyotes are not in the city despite humans but because of them.

That is probably analogous to the early relationship between humans and dogs (or humans and cats) several thousand years ago. We set up a habitat for ourselves that other animals also find preferable. Some of those animals become domesticated. Others, like mice and rats, remain forever pests. Recent research has shown that there are even insects that find our abodes preferable to the wild outdoors.

[semaj]

I shoot coyotes.

[MarMema]

All over the country, predators are returning.

Part of agenda 21.

We don't have these vermin in northern Michigan because you can kill them at will here or for shooting practise.

And we have these incredibly wise common-sense DNR people here. — 'I'm seeing coyotes in areas where I don't think they should be,'" Bump said.

[MarMema]

Nature does a wonderful job, if left alone, at achieving population equilibrium between prey and predator.

Complete crap, sold by the likes of the sierra club idiots to help agenda 21 along.

Despite being discredited among ecologists, the theory is widely held to be true by the general public, with one authority calling it an "enduring myth".

It is the “balance of nature,” a concept pretty much everyone accepts — with the notable exception of ecologists. The natural environment, as it is currently understood by science, is in a constant state of flux. Upheaval, not balance, is the norm. That we believe otherwise has proven problematic for the teaching of basic ecological literacy, according to a just-published paper by psychologist Corinne Zimmerman of Illinois State University and ecologist Kim Cuddington of Ohio University. Their study of students at two major Midwestern universities found the discredited “balance of nature” idea is widely held among both science majors and the general student population. What’s more, it is extremely difficult to dislodge. “They’re almost unable to reason logically about environmental problems because they keep bumping into this cultural concept,” Cuddington said. “It’s influencing their thought processes.”

"The staying power of this idea became clear when she asked students in her introduction to ecology course, “Do you think a predator could ever drive a prey species to extinction?” “They uniformly answer no — even though it does happen all the time,” she said.