The coyote is a storied creature with a mystique around it that conjures up ideas of a wily trickster and an opportunistic scavenger, but there is far more to the wild animal than what that media-influenced picture paints.
Professor Shelley Alexander of the University of Calgary has spent the past decade involved in research that has in one way or another involved canis latrans.
“I think of coyotes as the accidental species of my life because I always set out to study something bigger, like wolves,” she said.
Early on, she worked with Mike Gibeau and Paul Paquette with wolves and eventually ended up at Dalhousie working with captive wolves, where she was responsible for raising three coyote pups and observing their behaviour.
It was observing pups develop through play that Alexander said helped her decide that canids are a better surrogate for understanding human behaviour than primates.
“Play forms neural pathways and is critical to social development and is critical to the survival of the species,” she said, adding play teaches coyote pups how to hunt and communicate.
“The key here is the social structure of play and the interaction happens in a pack; so if you disrupt that, you increase the chance they will not be well educated and increase chances they will get into trouble and die.”
Research has shown that without social play, coyotes are 50 per cent more likely to disperse, or leave the pack, and either get into conflict or die. Alexander said play involves behaviour that includes role reversal and inhibition – in other words, the normal rules of engagement fall apart during play and there are consequences for inappropriate behaviour.
“What they learn through play is they learn to understand the concepts of right or wrong and we know this because the game breaks down,” she said. “It is this capacity to understand right and wrong that is what we use in humans to give us the status of having consciousness, of being something that is a moral agent that gives us the right to be protected.”
Alexander said the advanced form of social life in the pack animal develops a sense of moral justice, or wild justice. That fact is even more important when considering human/coyote conflicts, because if young coyotes are not able to develop properly, it affects behaviour and can lead to conflict.
There are also certain times of the year coyotes are prone to conflict and Alexander said her research has shown from reported conflict data that, while the animals are rearing their pups or dispersing, there are higher levels of conflict. When pup rearing, she said, coyotes are in a highly defensive mode in trying to protect their pups and resources, whereas when dispersing, the conflict usually involves a solitary unsure animal.
As for Canmore, human wildlife conflict biologist Jay Honeyman with ESRD said the data is showing conflicts with coyotes in this area are going down.
Looking at a data set from 2001 to 2013, Honeyman said other than a weird spike that occurred around the same time several people were bit, the numbers are presently in decline.
“The main point here is there is a downward trend,” he said. “From 2006 on there has been a decrease in conflict and why that is could be anybody’s guess.
“I don’t really have a clear sense of why it is going down.”
However, Honeyman pointed out several possible scenarios that influence the trend. He said with the formation of Wildsmart there has been a lot more reporting of wildlife conflicts and sightings, which may be why the numbers went up. Several problem coyotes could have been removed from the area as well and then there are the bunnies.
The Town of Canmore has been implementing a feral rabbit management plan since 2012 and he said that could also be making a difference.
“It may have something to do with the bunnies being trapped and there are less around,” Honeyman said. “We don’t really know at the end of the day, but there is a downward trend.”
Better reporting through public awareness campaigns like Wildsmart also means there is better data, Honeyman said, and then the numbers can be analyzed.
The numbers only reflect reported incidents and range from low conflict to extreme. Looking at the numbers by month, Honeyman said there are more incidents in the winter months from November to February.
“In the winter months, they are for whatever reason able to come into town,” he said. “They do OK with rabbits and rodents and also domestic pets.”
While 53 per cent of incidents were low conflict, nine per cent were moderate, which includes feeding on non-natural foods; preying on domestic animals in non-developed areas. Thirty-two per cent were considered high conflict, which includes killing domestic animals in or near developed areas. Four per cent were very high, meaning the coyote approached a person and only two per cent were extreme were a person had contact, was injured or killed.
Almost half the conflicts reported involved dogs, followed by approximately 15 per cent of conflicts involving rabbits and 10 per cent humans.
In Alexander’s research of conflicts with coyotes in a pan-Canadian study that involved looking at media portrayals of conflicts, she found in 92.3 per cent incidents dogs were left off-leash.
“What this is, is very strong evidence that if you leash your dog it is unlikely to get attacked,” she said.
Furthermore, Alexander looked at the bite forensics when dogs were bitten and with respect to large dogs it was indicative of a territorial defence wound on the part of the coyote.
The different levels of conflict were then looked at by location and Honeyman said where they are typically very high in number are in areas that are on the periphery of a wildlife corridor, with the exception of Spring Creek and South Canmore areas, which also have very high conflicts.
“Of all the conflicts, 90 per cent of them are in the town of Canmore, so the vast majority of our issues are in town,” Honeyman said.
He said the key to continuing to reduce conflicts with coyotes is to manage food sources that are attracting them into town, including garbage, feeding other wildlife, pet food and rabbits, as well as keeping dogs on leash.
“They are not here because the views are nice, they are here for other reasons,” he said.
Managing the rabbit population is also a way to combat coyotes receiving a food reward and returning.
“It is a great example of the town trying to manage the food source in a way that caused a lot of pain for them,” Honeyman said. “But those rabbits are definitely bringing coyotes into town. There is no question coyotes are hunting in town.”
Alexander said as a result of media representations there is a fear of coyotes that is unnecessary.
“This fear is a major issue that we have to overcome,” she said.
Some jurisdictions have gone as far as killing coyotes or putting out a bounty on them, but Alexander said the species reproduces quickly under stress.
When management is based on removing coyotes, Alexander says it does not work, as they are incredibly resilient animals.
Go to www.wildsmart.ca for more information on coyotes and other wildlife and what to do when you encounter them. Call 403-591-7755 to report sightings of coyotes.
