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The Associated Press[/align]Coyotes range throughout North America, except for northeastern Canada.[/align]
Day in Photos[/align][/align]
Background[/align]New York state has at least 30,000 coyotes, and the population is growing, raising concerns among hunters and rural homeowners. However, the predators are not believed to be a major factor in the recent decline of deer herds, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.[/align][/align]
Coyote hunt sparks debate[/align]
Contest to kill common predator upsets some in Ontario County[/align]
Misty Edgecomb
Staff writer [/align]
(March 20, 2006) "” In the greater Rochester area, most residents' only knowledge of coyotes is the occasional sound of their yips and howls on clear nights.
But in Ontario County, where local hunters have fanned out through the woods to kill as many of the predators as possible for a $2,000 prize, coyotes are a hot topic.
So hot, in fact, that one vocal opponent of the Honeoye coyote derby awoke last week to find what he took to be a bloody message in his front yard.
Last Monday, John Street of Honeoye walked out to pick up his newspaper and found a freshly skinned coyote lying in his driveway. Photographs suggest that the coyote was not preyed upon by an animal; the job is too clean, with skin and fur gone but muscles untouched.
Street, a former newspaper reporter and editor, has published several opinion pieces criticizing the derby in local papers, including a letter in the Feb. 12
Democrat and Chronicle. He also recently posted "No Hunting" signs on his property to protest the contest.
The carcass was a threat, said Street, who reported the incident to police.
Frank Regan of the Rochester Sierra Club described the act as "ecoterrorism."
But Dick Kraft, a longtime member of the Honeoye Fish & Game Club and one of the organizers of the contest, said he isn't so sure that a hunter is responsible for the carcass.
"Maybe some dog pulled it in "” who knows?" he said.
Kraft argued that the derby is necessary for controlling a growing coyote population.
"You hear them howling at night," Kraft said. "There's quite a few of them, and they're getting very active."
New York allows hunting of coyotes from Oct. 1 to May 26. About 2,000 animals are killed each year. But Kraft said the statewide hunting season doesn't attract enough interest to put a dent in the population, estimated by the state Department of Environmental Conservation to be at least 30,000.
So last year Ontario County hunters founded the "Coyote Ugly Hunting Contest," a competition to kill as many coyotes as possible and win prizes. Last year, about 300 hunters took 57 coyotes near Honeoye during the event. This year's contest began Feb. 16 and runs through March 26. Through March 12, 398 participants had reported 69 kills, with two weeks remaining, Kraft said.
Last week, local business owners said that the town is divided over the hunt, with few people remaining ambivalent.
Mike Ligon, who runs the Greenwoods Bed and Breakfast in Honeoye, said he has seen just one coyote in seven years, and once it spotted him, it "ran the other way." The hunting derby isn't necessary, he said.
"I think it would be better to just let nature take its course," Ligon said.
Many of those who support the derby are deer hunters, who have watched the annual deer hunt decline 41 percent since 2002 to about 180,000 deer statewide last fall. That drop is directly related to a plummeting deer population, which has fallen from 1.1 million to 800,000 over the past four years.
Many hunters blame coyotes for the deer population decline, but state biologists blame several extreme winters.
"Coyote predation has a minuscule effect on deer numbers," said Sean Hanna, Region 8 DEC director.
Studies have proved that coyotes do eat deer, particularly when deep snow makes deer easier to catch. But they also eat mice, rabbits, berries and garbage.
"Coyotes will eat whatever is easiest. It's unusual that a live deer is the easiest that they can get," Hanna said.
Coyotes have also been known to eat house pets, but since the predators hunt at night, problems are relatively easy to avoid, he said. "If Fluffy is out running around at night, Fluffy is going to run into problems," Hanna said.
That doesn't satisfy Kraft and many other hunters who dispute the state's position, saying they've seen fawn skulls in coyote dens and have lost pets. They're also concerned about the fate of smaller game such as turkeys, pheasants and rabbits, he said. Farmers also have expressed concern for the safety of their animals.
Coyote populations are rising statewide, according to the DEC, and coyotes have notoriously large litters to quickly fill any available habitat niche.
Kraft worries that numbers could escalate to the point where coyotes become a nuisance in rural parts of western New York.
Such cities as Austin, Texas, Portland, Ore., and even New York City have reported recent issues with urban coyotes. Rochester is no different. A wildlife rehabilitator from Erie County said at a fall Sierra Club forum that she has treated coyotes struck by cars within Rochester city limits. She also said the animals are becoming common in the suburbs as developments take over agricultural lands.
As coyotes continue to colonize suburbia, Rochesterians will need to think about the role that predators play in the ecosystem, not just assume them to be a threat, Regan said.
"We need to have a change of attitude. ... We shouldn't be acting like we're in the 19th century," he said.
MEDGECOM@DemocratandChronicle.com
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Rochester D&C article-Coyote hunts
