Put the gun up on the rack, co-existing with coyotes is possible.
Way back on January 23, on a Saturday afternoon, I attended a community forum at the Dunbar Community Centre about co-existing with coyotes in urban environments. The community dialogue was hosted by the Vancouver Park Board and The Ecological Society of Stanley Park. Park Board Commissioner Loretta Woodcock organized the forum to educate community members in the area about coyote behavior and educated folks on some tools on how to co-exist with coyotes. There had been a lot of concern about coyotes around Pacific Spirit Park and even some talk about a cull to deal with the issue.
I had know idea how much of a problem this was for some folks. The meeting was well attended about 65 people on a sunny day. I sat next to two women who came from Port Moody to attend the talk. I chatted with these women and they told me about some of the problems they were having with coyotes around their homes where kids were being bitten by a coyote that had become habituate to human contact because someone was actually feeding the animal off their back porch and that was attracting the coyote to the area.
The Stanley Park Ecology Society did an excellent job of explaining some coyote behavior and offered some tools of what to do when one encounters a coyote. My main take away, when one happens to runs into a coyote you should shout: “Coyote go away ” and stand one’s ground and try to make your self look big. By doing this one threatens the Coyote, but also warns other folks in the area that there is a coyote around.
I did a little post on my blog about the upcoming meeting and attempted to make a joke of the demand for a cull up in Dunbar by trying to develop the image of folks up in Dunbar with hunting vest on creeping around the park and driving their 4 x 4 with gun racks to Stongs to buy ammo. Someone from the Ecology Society flagged my little story and was kind enough to send their report of the meeting and I will post it here. There is lots of good info in the report about how to co-exist with coyotes in an urban environment.
Co-existing with coyotes report