December 27, 2012. New York New Year’s predator hunt. This website defines why there needs to be a Carnivore Conservation Act (both nationally and statewide) to better protect ecologically important animals such as coyotes and foxes.
December 26, 2012. Coyotes: the media’s modern bogeyman. A great article about the irrational fear and blame put on an animal that lives throughout the United States.
December 26, 2012. America’s Great Animals: Coyotes. A cool 2 min 37 sec video.
December 23, 2012. Merry Christmas to all. Below is a great picture slide show set to music, by Jimmy Jones. It is a tribute to the special “06 female”, a wolf that spent most of her time in Yellowstone National Park, but was shot near the park boundary a couple of weeks ago. Hint: click on the top right “slideshow” to hear the musical tribute to a special wolf.
December 18, 2012. A story of interspecies love. This account details the relationship between an orphaned coyote and a domestic dog, and I would argue a human (so 3 species) as well. It is heartwarming and I can’t hold back the bitterness I feel toward my fish and game department (MA) allows people to shoot and kill eastern coyotes/coywolves for half the year for fun but won’t let someone with 2 graduate degrees (me) do a planned captive study of 2-3 of these same animals.
December 14, 2012. Don’t bestow “Rock Star” Status on Yellowstone wolves. An interesting and well written article that basically says that all wolves should be cherished in the Yellowstone area, not just certain individuals with particular charm. While I do agree with the author’s premises, I also believe that certain individuals of any species will always be noteworthy and I (as a scientist) understand that certain individual animals, such as Yellowstone wolf “06 female”, will particularly affect people due to the wolf’s uniqueness.
December 14, 2012. Scientists mourn the loss of Yellowstone wolf 06 female.
December 14, 2012. Love Wolf and Hate Coyotes? Read the article that I wrote for International Wolf.
December 13, 2012. Coyote hunting contest planned in NY. Are you kidding me? The state of NY allows people to have a contest to see how many coywolves can be shot and killed in NY. How pathetic. This is hunting. It is slaughtering.
December 12, 2012. The imperiled American wolf. A good 10 min video on wolves. It is worth watching.
December 4, 2012. Senseless seasons on animals doesn’t justify hunting. Good article by Brad Ayers.
November 29, 2012. WY officials launch coyote bounty programs. As a society, the tea party is helping us revert back to the 1800’s in terms of environment awareness. This is terrible and a ridiculous use of our important native wildlife. Coyote caused livestock deaths are still a small part of livestock mortality. More die from weather, disease, and likely poor husbandry practices. As I mention in my recent article, Love Wolves and hate Coyotes, there needs to be some type of national (and/or state) carnivore protection act to prevent this type of absurdity from being allowed to happen. I am happy my son won’t be raised in an environment where his mom says this:
“We always shoot coyotes,” Michelle Dye said after her husband and three kids handed over their set of coyote ears Saturday.
“It’s kind of like a family deal,” Dye said. “When we’re bored, we get in the truck and we go drive in the meadows and shoot coyotes.”
November 25, 2012. Two people in Minnesota face prison time for killing wolves. The reason why I posted this article isn’t because of the illegal killing of wolves which no doubt often occurs, along with the slaughter of eastern coyotes/coywolves here in the Northeast (which law enforcement officials seemingly do nothing about). Rather, it is the fact that the potential prison sentence is 10 times less for killing two wolves than the fact that one man lied to a federal official about it. It would be great if the two poachers get the maximal sentences though.
November 25, 2012. “Yes, the wolf hunt stirs emotions. Come on, we’re talking about choosing which animals live and die.” This is a great response to the following article which I found was quite an interesting perspective for someone from a wolf-friendly facility.
November 19, 2012. Eastern wolves howl for recognition. Good article about the animal (species) that helped form our eastern coyote or coywolf.
November 15, 2012. Slaughter of coyotes an abomination against nature. Great letter and well written. But like I write in the article below, good luck getting pro-hunting state fish and game agencies to do anything about it. They will say “well coyotes can breed quick and compensate for their losses” which of course completely ignores their ecological importance, pack ties and loyalties, and the ethics of slaughtering another species. Hopefully ballot initiatives nationwide will change this, or a national canid/predator conservation act.
November 15, 2012. Seven Yellowstone National Park wolves killed in hunts in Montana and Wyoming on the park’s borders. What a national travesty (or tragedy should I say) that officials in those 2 states prefer to side with the minority of the population that hunts wolves (who are a minority of hunters) rather than the citizens of the U.S. who own the wildlife. A disgrace but not surprising knowing the inner workings of state fish and game departments.
November 14, 2012. Here is a link from an outside source to ban coyote and fox hunting in MA and NY.
November 9, 2012. Wildlife and Foreign Policy… A well written article but as we watch the disappearance of some animals outside of the United States I wonder if we should accept that we allow the slaughter of some species here in the U.S. (most notably coyotes) just because they aren’t endangered. It is a red herring but needs to be discussed. Like the author says, “We need to show collective outrage against wildlife crimes to galvanize bold, comprehensive, worldwide action”.
November 9, 2012. Let Loose the coyotes? Chicago Embraces Rat Hunting Predators. There is more and more positivity associated with both coyotes and predators, as well as humans coexisting with wildlife.
November 7, 2012. Coyotes thriving in urban areas of Massachusetts by Stan Freeman. A mostly accurate article on “coyotes” in MA (most readers know I prefer the term coywolf for these animals). However, I strongly believe that Mass Wildlife’s estimate of 10,000 in the state is erroneous. It should be made at 3,000-5,000 which is still a high density for the roughly 7,800 square miles in the state (just under 1 per square mile). Furthermore, it is not wise to use data from other regions, like Chicago, which has a different type of coyote with less wolf influence.
November 6, 2012. Cape Codders queried on coyote thoughts. This is an article from August that I apparently missed. It is about a survey done to see how people respond to “coyotes” on Cape Cod.
November 1, 2012. Update Nov. 2. Photos published by Wildlife Service employee illustrate torture. What a low-life. He kills predators for a living and enjoys watching his trapped animals suffer. I hope his employment is terminated immediately. Update Nov. 2.: It gets better, the trapper justifies his actions (click here)… I wouldn’t be surprised if he was friends with some of the “house hunters” that live on Cape Cod, MA and elsewhere. Furthermore, the state wildlife agencies do nothing to stop this behavior which is further reason to reform these agencies from Montana to Massachusetts.
October 28, 2012. Coyote hazing team to be deployed in Belmont, MA. Yet more good news about non-lethal coexistence methods of living with “coyotes” (coywolves). Great work John Maguranis.
October 19, 2012. Winner of Coyote hunt wins assault rifle. What a bunch of backward thinking folks in some parts of the country. Update October 26: Great news. The “contest” was cancelled due to public outcry (read here)! However, as of October 30: the hunt has been re-opened. What a disgrace to humanity and wildlife management. State wildlife agencies fully allow these type of barbaric activities. It is literally killing for fun. The man claims its his right to do this…. Gee, I wonder who he will be voting for on Tuesday.
October 26, 2012. Coyotes: Let’s Appreciate America’s Song Dogs. Great article written by noted scientist and ethicist Marc Bekoff.
October 26, 2012. Learning to live with urban coyotes. An article that starts with a sharpshooter killing so-called nuisance coyotes in Denver. The article moves more toward coexistence thanks to the comments made by Camilla Fox, of Project Coyote.
October 25, 2012. The secret lives of coyotes. Another great video by the group Predator Defense. It is a short 3 min video clip.
October 21, 2012. My newly revised website is now up and on WordPress. I am still working on getting some of the kinks out but I am very happy and excited to be with a new website hosting company and new website building program (WordPress). Here’s for some good luck on the coywolf front!
October 9, 2012. Yellowstone Wolves: Healthy mom with lots of help key to thriving brood, scientists say. An interesting study showing that larger females and ones that live in larger packs are more reproductively successful.
October 5, 2012. Urban Coyotes Could Set Stage for Larger Predators. Interesting article based on Stan Gehrt’s work in Chicago on coyotes. Here is a different version of basically the same article.
September 29, 2012. Great video by the group Predator Defense of orphaned coyotes surviving thru their first summer to fall. The video highlights the value of coyotes as well!
September 26, 2012. Street coyotes more faithful than people, study suggests. A cool article on coyotes in Chicago which are truly monogamous, some could argue even more so than humans.
September 26, 2012. Red Wolf’s Last Stand. A good article about the closely related cousin of coyotes. This takes place in northeastern North Carolina.
September 22, 2012. Denali Park officials do not extend buffer to protect viewable wolf parks. Gee, what a surprise: a bunch of hunters (i.e., the Alaska Game Commission) does not protect a predatory species in a small, but very important, area. Most know that wolves aren’t in danger of going extinct in Alaska, but the blatant disregard for non-consumptive wildlife watchers is nothing short of extraordinary.
September 21, 2012. Deer in New Jersey dying of viral outbreak. Here is another example, not mentioned in the article, of the benefit of having eastern coyotes/coywolves on the landscape. They can potential prey on these “weak, salivating” deer and cull them out of the population.
September 10, 2012. If you think government agencies are a friend to all wildlife, think again. They should not be in charge of managing predators. Case in point: Maine wants a bounty on coyotes like we are back in the frontier era of trying to eradicate wildlife. This is pathetic and an excellent example of anti-environment Republican leaders who preach fiscal conservation then go do otherwise. I should also add, the typical redneck responses to this well written article are in full force below the letter.
September 9, 2012. Group in North Carolina challenging night hunting coyotes. I am repeatedly amazed at the things that state fish and game commissions allow. They are allowing an animal that is virtually indistinguishable from red wolves to be shot at night while red wolves stay protected. And the complete lack of respect for coyotes is yet again apparent. There is no thought in this proposal to the animal itself and why this needs to occur.
August 27, 2012. Coyote invades block part in Minneapolis suburb. A very even and level headed article about coyotes in the city (and suburbs) and how they are just another animal and they needed to be treated with respect. There is no hysteria associated with this article and that is a good thing!
August 26, 2012. ‘I Am Coyote’ art show coming to Belfast library. This is a very positive development to reflect positive traits of coyotes and society’s appreciation for them.
August 25, 2012. Will gray wolf success story become a conservation tragedy? This is an important article from former US Fish and Wildlife under the Clinton administration. Unfortunately, Bush and Obama have catered to extremist groups in allowing virtual slaughters of wolves immediately after coming off the Endangered Species Act. This is unprecedented and I hope, eventually leads to National Canid Protection Act (or something titled similarly). Here is a great quote: “No other native species is managed to a biological minimum”.
August 23, 2012. A 2nd wolf killed on Newfoundland. When will wildlife departments in the Northeast offer eastern coyotes or coywolves more protection? Wolves are getting killed all over the Northeast and no one is doing a thing about it. What a shame. I’ll repeat: there needs to be some type of Canid Protection Act to not allow this to happen (i.e., people get a slap on the wrist for killing an endangered species).
August 20, 2012. More coyote hysteria, this time in Hingham, MA. This town actually is where I have documented a radio-collared coywolf leave Cape Cod and travel 51 miles to. Unfortunately there are many stories about this encounter with little facts. It seems obvious that the adult (weight likely exaggerated which is common) was escorting the dog (with the lady there) as the pups were nearby. Of course, if they wanted to attack a person they could have easily have done so. And the sensationalism of them tearing apart animals is likely false as well as they mostly howl at night to communicate with each other, not during a kill. Although to be fair, there is good advice on the last paragraph: “Anyone walking in the forest might consider keeping small dogs on a leash, walking with another person, or bringing something to scare coyotes away, like a foghorn.”
August 9, 2012. Hingham woman, dog escape coyote pack. A strange, but predictable story. No doubt the dominant male was intercepting the dog to protect half grown pups behind him. Instead of being sensational (like the news story says the animal was 80 pounds which would be a full-bodied wolf, not coyote) they could say that leashing the dog, making noises, and backing off probably prevented anything from happening, since nothing happened but a stare-down. Instead, the title of the story is a typical “Coyote Worries” type of story.
July – September 2012. Sorry about the lack of reports. My website hosting company has some sort of glitch that hasn’t allowed me to update my site. Grrrrrrr. The stories above were added as I found them and I post them here for your information. Update October 2012: I have now switched over to WordPress and a new Hosting Company so I shouldn’t have these recurring problems anymore.
July 20, 2012. Petition to protect America’s wolves. It is simple to sign online so please do so immediately. Thank you.
July 20, 2012 . Murie family demands Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to pulls its Olaus Murie award. The RMEF is now using fear and intimidation to kill wolves – they are like an extremist group now. Good for the Muries to stand up to this nonsense.
July 18, 2012. Audio of “coyotes” (coywolves) howling in the Bronx, New York City (it is short, less than 1 minute)!
July 18, 2012. Compassion for coyotes. A thoughtful letter to the editor in the Cape Cod Times. I often see letters like this and it is important to share them here and realize there are many people that appreciate living with predators among us.
June 27, 2012. “Run over by coywolves!” This morning the most amazing thing happened. I was radio tracking a collared adult male and was on foot. I came around a bend and suddenly heard loud galloping up ahead. I looked up and 2 coywolves were coming at me full speed. I thought they were deer at first despite being close to the animal I was tracking but quickly realized they were canids. The really light tan one crashed into the woods and the second one went the other direction. Judging by the signal the second one was the collared male. I am guessing that they were playing (possibly courtship) but they could’ve been after something or just traveling. Sadly, the male lost his mate (also was collared) in December when a hunter shot her for recreational purposes. He did not pair with another female before the mid to late January mating season despite having plenty of time (about a month). He could’ve simply had a broken heart and had no desire to pair again. Wildlife management plans do not even consider these types of situations when designing hunting seasons. While the sighting this morning of the two animals from 10 feet away was exhilarating, I couldn’t help but think that if this happened to a person that doesn’t appreciate carnivores like coywolves, there could’ve been a newscast discussing a near attack by “aggressive coyotes”.
June 27, 2012. Bear from Cape Cod was released around Worcester after the June 12 capture and just yesterday made its way to Brookline at the edge of Boston. It was captured again and apparently brought to western Massachusetts.
June 22, 2012. “Missing Foxes fuel Lyme Disease Spread”. The use of correlational science is sometimes dangerous and I strongly believe the use of numbers of foxes and coyotes killed by hunters to make predictions on Lyme Disease is dangerous science. For example, what if coyotes weren’t killed. Then they could live at ecologically robust numbers and keep rodent species low. However, because they kill foxes yet are killed in large numbers, fox numbers go down from coyote predation and coyote numbers go down because of humans killing them. There are many other correlations possibly influencing Lyme Disease including climate warming, increased habitat fragmentation (which mice generally love), and fox diseases (foxes are historically cyclical because of things like mange and parvovirus) in addition to deer and fox numbers. Also, leaving out the many literature articles documenting the important ecological role that coyotes play is a major error, as well as the fact that red foxes are historically non-native to many areas of the United States. Of course, there are groups using this article to spread the word about continuing to hunt and trap coyotes.
June 20, 2012. Article: “Hunting out, Nature photograph in”. Yet more evidence to put the priorities of non-consumptive users first. Of course, this is the exact opposite of what state fish and game agencies actually do.
June 12, 2012. I shouldn’t have given an update yesterday. Despite causing no problems and many other areas having humans (& suburbia) like Cape Cod does, the black bear was captured and transported off Cape Cod. I am angered that we have a national park (Cape Cod National Seashore) where animals are supposed to live unfettered from human disturbance and here we have probably thousands of dollars spent to capture this animal. I should add that the state has never given me a dime of research money despite all of my publications on this webpage about eastern coyote/coywolf biology and ecology and how to coexist with them. But I do predict that within 20 years we will have the beginning of a population of bears here on Cape Cod that are slowly expanding their range into this area.
June 8, 2012. Update June 11, 2012. Sad news. The state plans to trap and capture the black bear. They say that because it is now up in Provincetown that it is running out of room. That is just plain baloney. It hasn’t caused any problems, there is plenty of food on the Cape, and it keeps staying out of trouble and apparently living in mostly natural areas. Once again humans will over-react and not allow a bear population to establish on Cape Cod despite abundant habitat for them contrary to what the papers are indicating. Update June 11. The bear has been given a reprieve and is going to be allowed to live on the Cape and forage naturally. It will be interesting what happens but I guess it will settle down come July once when their mating season is over. Thank you Mass Wildlife and others for leaving the bear alone!
June 4, 2012. Crying wolf on deer predation. Great article by Daryl DeJoy on Maine’s ruthless stance against eastern coyotes/coywolves which have native wolf genes to the area.
May 29, 2012. Update May 30! Black bear confirmed in my hometown (Barnstable) on Cape Cod. Wow. I knew they would get here soon but thought it would be 10-20 years down the road. Unfortunately, this hardly confirms a population and is probably a young male that will go mate-less unless he leaves the Cape again. But exciting news nonetheless. Click here for another story on the bear. Here are two additional updates (one here) and the other including info that the bear has headed east into Yarmouth and Dennis. In my opinion, the state has said the right things about letting the bear be but you can tell how naive people are here on the Cape as each article repeatedly mentions that they could tranquilize it and move it off Cape. How about this: bringing in some females and establishing a population. There is plenty of habitat here on the Cape. Why can’t we use this bear as justification to returning another native species? I welcome the bear and others to follow it!
May 25, 2012. Back to the dark ages: Utah offers a $50 bounty for any hunter who kills a coyote. What a sad day in wildlife management. I don’t know how a person in charge of protecting wildlife at a state agency can look themselves in the mirror and approve of this. They don’t even have a scientific plan to see if this will work or not. How pathetic. I’m sure the big-wigs at Utah’s Dept. of Fish and Game had multiple meetings to come up with a palatable name: Utah’s “Predator Control Incentive Plan”.
May 21, 2012. Bambi must go. This is an article on the overabundance of deer on the east coast. I find it amazing that eastern coyotes/coywolves are not mentioned. They are effective predators on deer and are already probably doing their part to prey on at least some of the “overabundant” deer.
May 16, 2012. “Rise of the coyote: The new top dog. Shape-shifting coyotes have evolved to take advantage of a landscape transformed by people. Scientists are now discovering just how wily the creatures are.” Interesting article by Sharon Levy. My website is quoted on the bottom but I was not interviewed for this article.
May 16, 2012. “To Kill a Mockingbird”. George Wuerthner writing about wolf hunting in Montana… I have always said that coyote and wolf slaughters remind me so much of racism and hatred of others. Glad to see that George W. has eloquently described this here.
May 15, 2012. New publication available on my publications page!
May 14, 2012. California’s lone wolf seen mingling with coyotes. What the article doesn’t mention is that the eastern coyote or coywolf is the product of hybridization with coyotes and eastern wolves, not larger gray wolves. The wolf in CA is a gray wolf and there has never been a documented mating with grays and coyotes so the chance is unlikely anything will happen, but very interesting nonetheless.
May 6, 2012. Part 3 on Wildlife Services: “Suggestions in changing Wildlife Services range from new practices to outright bans,” by Tom Knudson, The Sacramento Bee.
April 30, 2012. Part 2 on Wildlife Services: deadly force opens up Pandora’s box of environmental problems. There is much discussion on the fact that we use tax dollars to slaughter 80,000 coyotes a year yet it makes no difference on their numbers, causes no positive effect, and often does not increase populations of wild animals (like deer). This is a criminal waste of our tax dollars and the agency should be abolished.
April 30, 2012. “Coyote” (coywolf) found roaming thru Boston’s North End. Not surprisingly the interviewees are very ignorant to actual canid ecology. I think this is awesome. How cool to have them in the most urban part of Boston. Free rat control.
April 29, 2012. Wildlife Services: the killing agency. This article will make any wildlife lover, including most hunters, angry. What a waste of money and what a bunch of hypocrites that supposed fiscally conservative western (mostly Republican) senators will continue to support this waste and abuse while advocate for the elimination of this type of government waste.
April 28, 2012. Trapping, the barbaric “sport”. By George Wuerthner. I must add that this “recreational” activity is supported by all state wildlife departments who get their funding from trapping and hunting despite wildlife watching contributing scores more to the general economy.
April 26, 2012. Ranchers shift from traps to dogs to fight predators. A great article describing the waste of money and effort to kill predators when one can proactively prevent interactions from happening. Kudos to Marin County, CA.
April 10, 2012. Loss of predators affects ecosystem health. Here is yet another study showing the importance of predators such as bears, coyotes, coywolves, and wolves. Yet state fish and game agencies still (in 2012) try to minimize populations of many of these important animals.
March 31, 2012. Wolf torture and execution continues in the Northern Rockies. In addition to the post, a quick update on gray wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains is necessary: The state of MT killed about 175 (give or take) wolves out of the 600 (give or take) that they have this past hunting season. Idaho has killed nearly 400 of their unknown (around 800 before the kill) wolf population.
March 31, 2012. Wisconsin man slughters 100 deer. How does this relate to coyotes and coywolves? Because, pathetically, most of this would be legal with coyotes or coywolves, maybe except hunting from the road. I bet the guy from Whitetails Unlimited, or a similar group, wouldn’t speak up in the slaughtered canids’ defense. This is why canid management needs to change, nationwide…
March 28, 2012. “Night hunting coyotes in North Carolina risky for red wolves” by DeLene Beeland. As I quote in the article “This is ultimately about putting hunters over every other user of wildlife. To allow people to do this, to take wildlife management into their own hands, I have a big problem with that. [Plus,] to allow hunting of one species that is so closely related to, and so similar looking to, a second species that is fully endangered is just bizarre.” Note: This is a long but well written article.
March 27, 2012. “Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation offers to finance more aggressive wolf killing”. Gee, yet another surprise: A so-called “sportsmen” organization determined to reduce carnivores (wolves, coyotes, mountain lions) to ecologically irrelevant numbers. They like to practice single species conservation where they protect ungulates (elk, deer) and to the hell with anything that gets in their way. Because state wildlife agencies get most of their funding from these type of hunters the RMEF is more of an ally to state game agencies then Defenders of Wildlife who has more nationwide members – and where my money would be more likely to go (and has) to in order to practice ecosystem management where all species, including carnivores, are valuable. David Allen of RMEF needs to go – he has too extreme views and makes RMEF look like another extreme group that cares for only some wildlife.
March 23, 2012. “Coyotes” in New York City: A Bonus… Good article and very cool thought of them living in some of the nation’s most urban areas. I have a bad feeling that rat poison kills many of them but radio-collaring them would be the only way to find out for sure.
March 21, 2012. I am just returning from 8 days in Yellowstone National Park. What an amazing trip with yet more wild wolf packs observed. One day I saw 24 wolves in one day from 3 different packs in total (10, 5, and 9). Amazing… Then I come home and see this article about an 81.4 lb (37 kg) coyote. Yeah right. Coywolves (eastern coyotes) rarely get above 50 lb. This animal is clearly a wolf and is being ignored as such in order to continue the slaughter on our resident canids. Pretty sad. I smell a cover up to avoid acknowledging wolves are returning to the northeast. In response to the article above, the following article very nicely describes the controversy with killing predators for fun like the wolf above.
March 5, 2012. “Coyote” hunting contests in PA and other Northeast states. For pro-coyote people (even some hunters) this article is probably very disturbing given the fact that they are killing animals for fun. A 50-pound “coyote” was mentioned in the article. Al l eastern coyotes are hybrids (aka “coywolves”) since there are no pure coyotes in the Northeast. As a wild stretch, it could be a small eastern wolf (Canis lycaon) that dispersed from eastern Ontario. Lone wolves can travel considerable distances. . . Meanwhile national conservation groups turn a blind eye to potential wolves being killed in these contests. I find it unbelievable that these are allowed. And it is equally bad that national conservation groups ignore this… The real litmus test will be if any groups start actively promoting wolf recovery in the NE and still ignore these contests…
February 28, 2012. Ice age coyotes were super-sized. Fascinating… Most interesting is the range of the coyotes (15-25 kg) versus current range (10-18 kg) of most coyotes is right within the range of northeastern coyotes/coywolves with 25 kg (55 lb) being the upper body size limit of these animals as well as modern day “coywolves”.
February 23, 2012. Description of me speaking at Wildlife Appreciation Day up in Maine on March 8.
February 12, 2012. Coyote plan (in Maine) pulls the wool over our eyes. By Heather Bolint. Great article about more short sighted groups (Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine) that have too much power over wildlife and the cruel and unnecessary need to slaughter coyotes.
February 10, 2012. Utah bill seeks to exterminate 20,000 coyotes. What a pathetic and short-sighted plan. What a pathetic excuse for wildlife management. This is why there needs to be a National Canid Conservation Act. I hate to be political here, but these type of anti-wildlife bills are often led by Republican politicians. They preach reducing the deficit and preventing waste yet they want to pay people to kill native carnivores. Talk about being hypocritical.
February 6, 2012. Wildlife policy without demonization. By Robert Goldman. This is directed at folks up in Maine. Great letter. One of the best I’ve seen in a while.
February 2, 2012. New link available on my website “Life Cycle” as well as an associated paper available there or on my Publications Page titled: “Eastern coyote/coywolf life cycle in southeastern Massachusetts and some commonly asked questions”.
January 31, 2012. Coyotes are not the enemy (in Brookline, MA). Great article rebuffing needless hysteria about coyotes in Boston suburbs!
January 26, 2012. “Baiting coyotes should be illegal”, by Rebecca Ayres Mullin. Great article about the disturbing trend of using bait to draw in and shoot coyotes.
January 25, 2012. Urban coyotes continue to populate Florida. A very good article and I love the title of the guy featured, a “wildlife enthusiast”! Very level headed how to coexist with them article. They even have a picture that I took at the beginning of the video-clip (which I didn’t give permission for).
January 23, 2012. New peer reviewed publication available on my Publications Page. This one is on box-trapping “coyotes” – my second publication on the topic.
January 23, 2012. Official call for coexistence with coyotes. Great article focusing on Belmont (MA) Animal Control Officer John Maguranis. In the article, a man (Herb Bergquist) states “Banging pots and pans, and keeping pets inside, he said, are simply not viable long-term solutions – but trapping is.” I think that he is dead wrong, as non-lethal coexistence is definitely possible and trapping is a method that has never had long-term success with coexisting with wildlife. But the focus on John and his fascination for “coyotes” is the great part of the article. Many people would oppose trapping and killing coyotes unless an individual shows particular aggression.
January 23, 2012. One group in Maine kills 83 coyotes. This is really disturbing and the fact that they gloat that truly shows the disconnect between hunters who hate predators and the general public who mostly appreciates all wildlife. It is really sad that there are people like this. Of course, they have no data to support the claim that the mass slaughter improved the deer herd, especially since they probably went out (along with others) and shot the same deer that they were supposedly protecting by killing coyotes.
January 20, 2012. “Coyote” in Methuen, MA shot and killed after attacking a dog and a girl. An unfortunate situation but these are the animals that should be targeted and killed, not the general population at large that rarely causes situations such as this.
January 17, 2012. More on House Hunting Coyotes…. I published the following article on the national website “The Wildlife News” – “You can shoot eastern coyotes/coywolves from inside your home in Massachusetts: Ethics, safety, and fair chase hunting demands people should not be able to bait coyotes and engage in recreational “hunting” from their easy chair next to their window.” Needless to say, hopefully this results in some real changes to wildlife management (i.e., hunting laws), at least here in Massachusetts.
January 16, 2012. Coexist with Coyotes, which are hapless victims of their own success. By Marc Bekoff. Great response to the 10 Jan. article below.
January 10, 2012. “Lets kill all of the coyotes”. This is yet another ignorant article using exaggeration and sensationalism instead of actual coyote behavior for the Boston Globe writer to make his claims. I think he supports getting rid of anything that inconveniences him. Nice way to live.
January 7, 2012. “House Hunting Coyotes”: I have learned that there are 2 general statute laws in MA that allow people to bait and shoot coyotes from their house as long as they are either over 500 feet from another house or if the nearby residences (within 500 feet) give their permission. This has to be the most unethical, non-sporting practice imaginable. While it is illegal to bait and hunt most species, this takes it to a whole new level. How can this even remotely be called hunting? Can any hunter call this fair chase? Sadly, I am now learning that many people kill coyotes like this and I would subjectively guess that over half of the “coyotes” in MA are killed this way every year – especially by someone who kills large numbers of them. I hope to have more on this soon.
January 4, 2012. MSPCA (Massachusetts): Learning how to live with “coyotes”. A good and accurate article on avoiding interactions with coyotes.
January 2, 2012. Hunter shoots a lady, thinking that her dog’s white tail was a deer. And the kicker: the shooter was a state trooper. This occurred during the final minutes of the 2011 MA deer hunting season. This furthers why I believe there should be more non-hunting wildlife preserves, similar to the many national parks out west. See my “Support ECR” for more on this.